TAIWAN: KMT pulls out Hitler ad attacking Chen

Taiwan's opposition yesterday accused President Chen Shui-bian of acting like Hitler as the island's election campaign descended to a new level of bitter personal attacks

The Straits Times
Saturday, March 13, 2004

TAIPEI - Taiwan's opposition yesterday accused President Chen Shui-bian of acting like Hitler as the island's election campaign descended to a new level of bitter personal attacks.

But the Kuomintang (KMT) was quick to apologise to the island's small Jewish community over the comparison, saying that 'we are sorry if the ad touches the wounds and sorrows of the Jewish people'.

'It will be withdrawn immediately,' said KMT spokesman Justin Chou.

Hitler's photograph featured prominently in five full-page newspaper advertisements that called on voters to end Mr Chen's 'dictatorship' on polling day on March 20.

Mr Chen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Jewish leaders criticised the ad as a personal attack that was the most bitter so far in the run-up to the polls.

The ad refers to Mr Chen by his nickname A-Bian. The KMT said it would not apologise to the president, although it would drop the Hitler photograph and modify the wording if it ran the ad again.

'We were only trying to emphasise a certain aspect in A-Bian's personality. In the ad, we did not mention the Jewish people nor the Holocaust, but still, we apologise,' said Mr Chou.

The KMT attack follows a newspaper ad placed by the Chen camp which pictures him alongside four world leaders, including Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy, under the headline: 'Only the real leaders know what peace means.'

Date Posted: 3/13/2004