This article explores how the Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian1 uses political language rhetoric as a powerful tool to defuse dangerously tense relations with China, repair relations with the US government and gain public support in the country. I focus on Chen’s inaugural speeches delivered on 20 May 20002 and 20043, which present the rationale for his new administration and his socio-political ideologies, and I review his political spectacle for Taiwan.
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