Exile Wu'er Kaixi runs in Taiwan poll

Former student co-leader Wu'er Kaixi, who fled China after its 1989 crackdown and later settled in Taiwan, launched his candidacy on Friday aimed at winning a legislative seat in Taichung, a major city on the island's west coast.

Taiwan votes for a new parliament and a new president next January, with the ruling pro-China Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT) on the back foot since its heavy losses in local elections last November.

Wu'er Kaixi, now 47, with links to western China's Uighur peoples (pictured above), said he would take on the KMT, describing it as an "enormous monster," as part of his bid to "deepen democracy."

Earlier this month, the Nationalists sought to end months of division by picking Hung Hsiu-chu as their presidential candidate. She is an advocate of closer ties with mainland China and is the current parliament's deputy speaker.

Her main challenger will be Tsai Ing-wen, who is chairwoman of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which leans toward Taiwanese independence.

Taiwan split from China in 1949 after a civil war and became self-ruling, but Beijing still sees the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification -- by force if necessary.

Trade deals triggered protest

Relations have improved under current president Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT, leading to a number of trade deals but triggering growing public unease.

Last November, thousands of young Taiwanese occupied the island's parliament in an unprecedented protest against a planned China-Taiwan trade pact.

That sentiment was fueled by clashes between police and pro-democracy protestors in China-ruled Hong Kong.

At his press conference, Wu'er Kaixi said China was the "home of my parents."

"Taiwan is the home of my children," he added.

Wu'er Kaixi fled China in 1989 after China's military crushed student protests on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds.

Wu're berated Li Peng

He became the second most wanted student leader in China after he famously berated then-premier Li Peng during a televised meeting.

Wu'er Kaixi married a Taiwanese woman and settled on the island in 1996.

Also standing for the same seat in Taichung is the opposition DDP contender Chang Liao Wan-chien, a longtime city councilor in the island's third largest city.

Both men agreed to run their campaigns of policy issues with no mud-slinging.

ipj/kms (AP, Reuters)