There was a surprise guest at Taiwan's National Day parade: former President Chen Shui-bian, who was convicted on corruption charges after his time in office. President Lai Ching-te drew attention to his attendance, causing some to ask: Why was he there?
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00:00Let's get more now from Louise Wat, who is in our Taipei newsroom.
00:04Louise, much of the National Day focus has been of course on President Lai and his statements,
00:09but let's talk a bit about who wasn't there.
00:11Were there any notable absences?
00:17There was one, Eric, former President Ma Ying-jeou.
00:20He's from the opposition KMT.
00:23He's of the view that Taiwan and China are part of the same nation
00:29and he said that he wasn't attending in opposition to Lai advocating
00:35that Taiwan and China are actually two nations.
00:40He says that's something that's simply unconstitutional.
00:43But this isn't the first time that Ma Ying-jeou has not attended the National Day event for political reasons.
00:50What's more interesting and surprising is a former president who did show up today,
00:57convicted felon Chen Shui-bian.
01:01Now he is from Lai's party and he was president for eight years up until 2008.
01:09After that he was convicted of bribery and money laundering
01:13and he's serving a 20-year prison sentence,
01:16although he's been out on medical parole for about nine years now.
01:22Now he had pride of place on the stage with other dignitaries.
01:27President Lai even referred to him being there in his speech.
01:32So everyone knew he was there.
01:34The question is why?
01:36Well we have to remember that Lai toned down his speech when it came to China.
01:42He was much more mild, much more conciliatory towards China than he has been in the past.
01:48And one of the analysts who I've been talking to today said that Lai is keen to keep on board
01:55the more hardline pro-Taiwanese independence supporters.
02:01They were part of the people who voted him into power.
02:06And part of the way he can keep them happy is by inviting someone like Chen Shui-bian to attend an event like this
02:14because he's known as being a staunch supporter of Taiwanese independence.
02:20Now what's also interesting is that Chen's parole does not allow him to attend political events.
02:27So we don't know if he was given special permission to attend from the Ministry of Justice.
02:34Lai's predecessor in her eight years, she did not pardon him.
02:39Might Lai pardon Chen?
02:42Speculation will grow given his unexpected appearance today.