250,000 -750,000 people protest Taiwan president on fridayTAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Hundreds of thousands of chanting protesters marched through downtown Taipei on Friday, breathing new life into a campaign to pressure Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian to resign over a series of high-profile corruption scandals.
A police estimate put the crowd at 250,000, but organizers said three-quarters of a million people took part.
The march came at the end of a weeklong series of demonstrations led by a former ally of the president who said he was fed up with the culture of corruption that has flourished in Taiwan under Chen's leadership.
Since last weekend, protesters have maintained a vigil outside the ornate Presidential Office building, chanting slogans and giving their trademark "thumbs down" sign over allegations that people close to Chen -- including his wife and son-in-law -- used their proximity to him for personal financial gain.
But the crowds fell off sharply after 90,000 people attended a kickoff rally Saturday. Friday's march, however, appeared to show that the anti-Chen campaign had gained new momentum.
Highlighting the renewed determination, the march took place in the driving rain as Typhoon Shanshan skirted the eastern Taiwanese coast.
The bad weather didn't appear to affect the mood of the marchers, many of whom were dressed in red to symbolize their anger with Chen's leadership.
A group of boisterous high school students led the procession along a broad thoroughfare, calling for the president's resignation and flashing the thumbs down sign amid cheers from onlookers.
Some of the demonstrators held black-rimmed portraits of Chen, characteristic of Taiwanese funeral processions.
Others clutched red signs, bearing the Chinese characters for "Taiwan's shame," and "end corruption now," as drums beat rhythmically in the background.
Suburban Taipei real estate broker Walter Hu said the march would achieve its aim of bringing Chen down.
"This is the beginning of the end for (Chen)," he said.
Police said some 4,000 officers were deployed along the march route to maintain order.
For the past six months Chen has been on the defensive over a series of high profile corruption scandals.
Earlier this month the Presidential Office acknowledged that prosecutors questioned Chen himself about the use of false invoices to account for part of a secret fund used to sustain Taiwanese diplomatic activities abroad.
Chen denied any wrongdoing in the affair, and insisted he will stay on until the end of his term, which ends in May 2008.
Shih Ming-teh, the former chairman of Chen's ruling Democratic Progressive Party, has been leading the anti-Chen effort, leveraging his moral authority as a veteran campaigner against Taiwan's now deposed martial law regime to press for a new era of corruption-free politics on this island of 23 million people.
"Our leader has made grave errors," Shih said at the start of the procession. "That's why we have to be here in this terrible weather."
Shih has vowed to continue his efforts until Chen resigns, though it may be difficult to sustain the momentum of the past week, especially with the Legislature resuming work on Sept. 19 after its summer recess.
On Saturday pro-Chen demonstrators are scheduled to hold a rally of their own outside the Presidential Office building. Organizers say that at least 80,000 people will attend.
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