Violent protest in Taipei as Chiang monument renamed

TAIPEI -- Taiwan's president [Chen Shui-bian]renamed a landmark Taipei memorial honoring the late dictator Chiang Kai-shek on Saturday, less than an hour after pro-and anti-government demonstrators fought running battles in an adjacent boulevard...

Earlier, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin of the main opposition Nationalists said Chen lacked authority to change the name of the Chiang memorial to the National Democracy Memorial Hall and vowed to try to stop him...

Surrounded by political allies and a heavy police presence, Chiang said the removal of Chiang's name from the memorial marked a symbolic break with the past...

For months Chen and his ruling Democratic Progressive Party have chipped away at Chiang's memory, removing his name from Taiwan's main international airport and ordering hundreds of Chiang statues to be dismantled from military bases around the island.