Governor Resigns to Protest Streamlining

Taiwan’s first elected provincial governor resigned in a widening constitutional row over plans by the island’s exiled Republic of China government to dismantle his administration in the name of efficiency. James Soong, 54, angrily told provincial legislators he had informed longtime ally President Lee Teng-hui of his decision to give up the governorship and his seat in the ruling Nationalist Party’s guiding central standing committee. Soong’s resignation came just three days after the Nationalists and main opposition Democratic Progressive Party agreed that all provincial elections should be frozen. The pact boosted a central government drive to radically pare or eliminate the provincial government. Soong was not consulted in the deal but was given the task of dismantling the democratic electoral system that brought him to power.