..Chen's Stage 2 Strategies

While Shih's has exhibited many Connective Leadership traits, Chen has followed a number of Stage 2 leadership strategies based mainly on fear and Machiavellian intrigue. We will illustrate only the five major discernable strategies.

Raise the "Red terror" specter - "'RED terror' on the streets of Taipei is how Taiwan's ruling party has, with predictable hyperbole, described days of protests ... (insinuating) meddling by the mainland's Communist government. ... China, despite its contempt for Mr Chen and for democracy, would rather see the opposition Kuomintang (KMT ) regain power through the ballot box._[10]" In addition to hyperbole, whenever Chen has been in political trouble he has pushed a bit further toward declaring Taiwan independence in order to goad China into making threats._[16]

President/country singularity – Basically, Chen has been using the symbols of the presidency as a personal shield to drive home the point that anyone who attacks him and his actions would be attacking Taiwan. A most transparent and more recent ploy of this type was his trip to Palau in early September immediately before demonstration masses were gathering. He used Taiwan’s version of Air Force One, which had never been used for such trips before, for the first leg of the trip just so that he could give a press conference on foreign soil, while the demonstrations took place in his absence, to proclaim that “It is a small step for me, but one giant leap for the head of state diplomacy._[12]”

Revere the "father" – Another strategy one may notice is the stress on the Confucian ethic that treats the leader of a country as the father to all people. Chen visited schools more frequently than usual where he would hold students in his arms and would otherwise act the fatherly figure. These televised visits remind the audience that in the Confucian ethic fathers are to be revered and not questioned.

Divide and conquer – Throughout the past few months, Chen would speak to the press using only the Taiwanese dialect, the preferred dialect used by the pro-independence segment of the population. He would also make appearances only in the overwhelmingly pro-independence city of Tainan. His apparent goal has been to remind the pro-independence but anti-corruption demonstrators that they, like him, were different from the Pan-Blue demonstrators.

Attack the person – Chen has thrown every attack possible against Shih at the personal level. His forces have brought out Shih’s ex-wife to accuse Shih on TV of having sold out to the KMT. She brought out a shirt that Shih used to write her while he was in prison. They published from the archives his “confessions.” Unfortunately, this particular ploy backfired because Vice President Lu, a Chen deputy, was also jailed at that time and has had her “confession” published and disavowed in the previous year. She distanced herself from the attack and called Shih’s “confession” as nothing but the product of torture.

Thus whatever strategies chosen by Shih must be able to counter the five strategies used by Chen.