TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Taiwan's outspoken vice president, whom China has called "insane" and the "scum of the nation," said Tuesday she was campaigning to be the island's first female president.

"Many people have advised me that I should fight another election battle, so as to write up another chapter in history," Annette Lu said at a news conference in the capital, Taipei.

But Lu's chances of winning next year's elections are slim, and many doubt she has enough support to win her party's primary -- which already includes three other solid candidates. Lu -- an ardent feminist and former political prisoner -- has long been a maverick who pushed for her own causes instead of building up a strong power base.

She has repeatedly angered Beijing with her support for Taiwanese independence, and tensions with China would likely rise if she were elected.

On Tuesday, she again challenged Beijing's sacred view that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China. "Taiwan is a Pacific country, not an affiliate of China," she said.

Taiwan has been ruled separately from China since the Communists won a civil war and took over the mainland in 1949. Beijing insists Taiwan must unify eventually or face a devastating war.

Lu, 62, has been a favorite target for China's state-run media, which have labeled her an "insane" splittist and the "scum of the nation." She has shrugged off the criticism, calling it "silly" and saying it only helps draw more global attention and sympathy to her causes.

She said Tuesday that Taiwan was in danger of being marginalized in the world and her goal was to seek a bigger global role for the island.

"I need a higher position and we need more time to reach the ultimate goal of normalization of our country and the globalization of Taiwan," Lu said. "Let us work together to end Taiwan's pathetic past and create prestige and happiness for the people."

No flower vase

When Lu and President Chen Shui-bian were elected in 2000, she pledged that she would be an activist vice president -- not a silent political partner who stood in the corner like a flower vase.

The Harvard-educated Lu has organized international conferences and has floated her own ideas, such as how Asian nations should create their own version of NATO. She's also a big believer in "soft power" in diplomacy and believes Taiwan should use "democracy, peace, love and high technology" to deal with the world.

Lu has served as a lawmaker and a county leader. She was an early leader in Taiwan's feminist movement and she headed the campaign for Taiwan to get its own seat in the United Nations.

As a democracy and rights activist, Lu was jailed in 1979 and served five and a half years when Taiwan was under martial law. Lu offended the island's authoritarian rulers by giving a 20-minute speech at a human-rights rally that turned into a riot, leading to the jailing of most democracy movement leaders.

On the eve of the last presidential vote in 2004, Lu was shot in the knee and the president's stomach was grazed by a bullet that police said was fired by a disgruntled citizen. The man committed suicide before he could be arrested and questioned, police said.

The opposition alleged the shooting was staged to win sympathy votes.

Political analyst Chiang Min-chin of Taipei University said Lu would likely lose her ruling Democratic Progressive Party's primary. Most party members dislike her because she isn't a team player.

"Lu has good vision and a blueprint for ruling the country," Chiang said. "But many people have misunderstood her because of her uncompromising character. As a highly conceited person, she has never bothered to clarify her stance."

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