Favorites include Chang Yung-fa, Nita Ing and Stan Shih, who respectively head the Evergreen shipping group, the Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corporation and Acer Corp.

CNN: Deal-Making Time

Among them: Lee Yuan-tseh, the president of the Academia Sinica and a Nobel prize laureate in chemistry, Chang Yung-fa, the chairman of Taiwan's powerful Evergreen Shipping Group, Nita Ing, the chairman of the Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp.

CNN: ASIANOW - Asiaweek | From Our Correspondent | Lee Teng-hui

Michael Boyd of the Boyd Group, an Evergreen, Colo. aviation consulting firm, isn't convinced.

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