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Lee Teng-hui
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Lee Teng-hui |
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| Political Biography: Lee Teng-hui |
(Li Denghui)
(b. Tamsui, 15 Jan. 1923) Chinese (Taiwanese); President of the Republic of China on Taiwan 1988 – 2000Lee was born and grew up in Taiwan while it was a Japanese colony. He studied agriculture at Kyoto Imperial University, and also studied at National Taiwan University and Iowa State University. He received a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University. For most of the 1950s and 1960s he was an academic and scholar at the National Taiwan University, becoming a full professor in 1958, and worked on the Joint Commission for Rural Reconstruction from 1957 to 1962.
Chiang Ching-kuo is reported to have been impressed with Lee's academic work and offered him the position of chief of the Rural Economic Division, where he served from 1970 to 1972. Lee rose quickly both in the hierarchy of the Nationalist Party (KMT) and the state. He was a Minister of State from 1972 to 1978, the mayor of Taipei (Taibei) 1978 – 81, and Governor of Taiwan Province 1981 – 4. He was elected Vice-President of the ROC in 1984, and took over as President following the death of Chiang Ching-kuo in 1988, becoming the first native Taiwanese ever to rule Taiwan.
Lee proceeded to consolidate his power and continue the process of democratization and opening to the PRC begun by his predecessor. Under Lee democratic elections have been held at all levels, culminating in his election as President in March 1996, the first democratically elected President in Chinese history. He has come under considerable criticism from the PRC for trying to increase Taiwan's international profile as a separate entity, which Beijing sees as tantamount to moving toward independence, and he has also received criticism from pro-independence groups in Taiwan for moving too slowly. He visited the USA in 1995, the first leader of Taiwan ever to do so, and is mounting a campaign for the island to be admitted to the UN.
| Biography: Lee Teng-hui |
Lee Teng-hui (born 1923) succeeded Chiang Chingkuo as president of the Republic of China and chairman of the ruling Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) in 1988. He was re-elected president by the National Assembly in 1990. Lee was the first Taiwanese to become head of state and chief executive of the country.
Lee Teng-hui was born in Sanchih, Taiwan. His grandfather was a well-educated village leader during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan (1895-1945). His father, a small landlord, was a manager at the local irrigation service of the Rural Cooperative Program. Upon graduation from grade school, Lee attended a Christian middle school and a high school enrolling mainly Japanese youth on Taiwan. As one of only four Taiwanese students in his high school, he had to work hard to prove that he was as good as, if not better than, his Japanese classmates.
Education and Early Career
In high school, Lee received a military-type education, graduating with honors. Subsequently, he passed the entrance examination to enroll in Kyoto Imperial University where he studied agricultural economics. In 1946, following World War II, he returned to Taipei to complete his college education at National Taiwan University. He received his B.S. degree in 1948.
In 1952 Lee went to lowa State University for advanced study after serving four years as an instructor at National Taiwan University. He received an M.A. degree in agricultural economics the following year and immediately returned to Taiwan to resume his teaching and research career. Twelve years later, he left Taiwan again for further graduate work at Cornell University, where he earned a Ph.D. in agricultural economics in 1968. His Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Intersectoral Capital Flows in the Economic Development of Taiwan, 1895-1960," received an award for the best dissertation in the United States in the field of agricultural economics.
Prior to pursuing a political career in 1972, Lee held teaching posts at National Taiwan University and National Chengchi University. He also served as an economic analyst at the provincial government's Department of Agriculture and Forestry and as a research fellow at the Taiwan Provincial Cooperative Bank from 1948 to 1957. In 1957 he began his career at the U.S.-Republic of China Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction (JCRR), first as a specialist and then in charge of the administration of its Rural Economy Division. During that period he distinguished himself as a man thoroughly knowledgeable about Taiwan's economic development in general and rural economic problems in particular. He advocated agricultural reform and later became the protagonist for dismantling the outmoded barter system of exchange between rich crops and chemical fertilizer. He was credited with major contributions to establishing farmer's associations, irrigation systems, warehousing of rice in harvest season, rural health programs, and mechanization. He was instrumental in guiding the passage of the Agricultural Development Act.
Political Career
In 1972 Lee was appointed by Chiang Ching-kuo as a minister without portfolio in the Cabinet, with major responsibilities in overseeing the agricultural economy. The appointment not only led to a successful career in politics, but also began his close relationship with Chiang Ching-kuo as the latter's protégé. From 1978 to 1981 he was appointed mayor of Taipei, a key post for advancing to higher positions. In order to build Taipei into a modern city, he pioneered new programs and scientifically oriented the administration. He encouraged popular participation in city administration, in office automation, and in the strict implementation of scientific management. He helped allay Taipei's chronic water shortages, built miles of metropolitan freeways and modern sewage disposal facilities, and relocated factories to the countryside.
Gaining Chiang Ching-kuo's growing confidence, he was subsequently appointed governor of Taiwan in 1981, a position deemed second in administrative importance only to the president and the premier. He devoted himself to regional economic planning and a wide range of agricultural reforms such as village renewal, sewer construction, and the improvement of irrigation systems.
The Presidency
In 1984 he was elected vice-president by the National Assembly. In his four years as vice-president he became President Chiang Ching-kuo's close adviser. As Chiang's health deteriorated, Lee was increasingly regarded as Chiang's heir-apparent. Lee met early resistance from old-line Kuomintang leaders, including Madame Chiang Kaishek, who intervened unsuccessfully to block his ascension in 1988. Two years later, the old guard rallied again, vainly, to try to stop his nomination for the indirectly elected presidency. Then Lee set the electoral ball rolling to build a new democracy - and to clean house. In 1991 he retired all of the parliamentarians who were awarded their seats in 1948 in Nanjing. He held the first free elections for the Legislative Yuan, in which the once outlawed opposition, which coalesced into the Democratic Progressive Party, won 31 percent of the seats. When rampant vote buying was discovered among newly elected members of 23 county councils last year, Lee cracked down. A total of 365 people were convicted, including 302 councilmen (most of them KMT delegates). In December 1996, Chen Shui-bian of the D.P.P. clinched the Taipei mayoralty, putting one of the most powerful posts in the country in opposition hands.
After cleaning up Taiwan's political regime, Lee was eager to pursue new challenges on the international front. However, China's constant pressure on Taiwan's trading partners in neighboring countries made them wary of extending him an invitation. Lee therefore decided to take matters into his own hands. With no public warning, he took a low-key tour of Southeast Asia, ostensibly to indulge in his favorite sport, golf. He visited Indonesia and was invited to a private golf game with President Suharto. In the Philippines, Lee laid the groundwork for financing and construction of a 325-hectare Subic Bay industrial park, where Acer Computer announced that it would set up a factory. When he reached Thailand, the Chinese angrily demanded that he be denied a meeting, however "private," with the Prime Minister. The Thais acceded to the Chinese, but gave Lee an audience with King Bhumibol Adulyadej instead. Asian countries had good reason to accommodate Lee: Taiwan was the No. 1 foreign investor in Vietnam ($2.6 billion in approved investments); No. 2 in Malaysia ($7.3 billion); No. 3 in the Philippines ($737 million); No. 4 in Thailand ($5.1 billion); and No. 5 in Indonesia ($7.7 billion).
Relations with China
As the Republic of China entered a period of great political transition from authoritarian one-party dictatorship to a multiparty democracy, Lee faced the immense task of constitutional reform during his six-year term. He was also invested with responsibility to steer the country toward a competitive party system, requiring him to transform the KMT from its Leninist orientation into a democratic party. More importantly, he was charged with guiding a policy of reconciliation with the People's Republic of China (PRC) at a time when economic and social relations between Taiwan and the mainland were growing. The question of political unification or maintaining Taiwan's independent political identity loomed large in Lee's initiative toward rapprochement with the Beijing regime.
Some see the birth of a working relationship between Lee and Jiang Zemin, Deng Xiaoping's chosen successor in China. In January, Jiang announced an eight-point proposal for building ties that had a softer tone than anything Taipei had heard before. Jiang even held out the possibility of a meeting with Lee some day. Lee responded in April with his own six points, apparently dropping Taiwan's insistence that China recognize the island's sovereignty before talks could begin. "It means that Jiang and Lee have entered into informal dialogue," says Tien at Taipei's Institute of National Policy Research. A Western analyst agrees: "These guys who were shouting at each other constantly in the past are now working together quite well."
In June 1995, however, Lee spoke at Cornell University's commencement on a visitor's visa to the U.S., which enraged China. He did not receive an official head-of-state welcome or reception, but he met perfunctorily with three U.S. Senators - Jesse Helms, Al D'Amato and Frank Mirkowsk - delivered the Olin lecture and attended some of the class-reunion festivities. Then, without a press conference or even a single intervew, he packed up for home.
Nonetheless, Lee's visit was perhaps the most important Taiwanese diplomatic coup since the U.S. broke off formal relations in 1979 in deference to mainland China. He may have been denied the pomp and circumstance of an official welcome, but he did gain a tacit U.S. admission that Taiwan, its sixth largest trade partner, would have to be dealt with more seriously. The countries President Lee can officially visit - which include Tonga, the Grenadines, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica and Saint Vincent - number only 29.
"This is the first breakthrough we have made," Lee told his staff when he learned that the U.S. would allow a President of the Republic of China to set foot on U.S. soil for the first time. "As long as we have one, there will be a second and a third." Still determined to recover Taiwan someday, Beijing responded that the very basis of its relationship with the U.S. - Washington's 1979 acceptance of a one-China policy - had been hurt by the granting of Lee's visa.
First Free Elections
On March 23, 1996, Taiwan's first free elections were held, and Lee won a landslide election victory after he faced down a menacing China, which suspected him of privately favoring independence. But since then, his popularity has slipped, as he has failed to exert strong leadership on issues from constitutional reform to the flagging economy. Taiwan has recently been getting bad press in the U.S. in the wake of accusations that a KMT official offered an illegal $15 million donation to the Democratic National Committee. Meanwhile, Washington remains under pressure from Beijing to lessen its support for Taiwan and decrease arms sales to the island. Lee says he is in favor of reunification but stresses that China must first fulfill the conditions of becoming democratic, free, and having a similar level of wealth as Taiwan. For its part, Beijing has refused to endorse Taiwan's Western-style democracy. In fact, China held military exercises near Taiwan to warn Taipei against trying to become independent.
The challenges of both political democratization at home and proper relations with the PRC will likely determine Taiwan's future political stability and continuing economic growth.
President Lee's wife, Tseng Wen-hui, was also a native Taiwanese. The couple was fond of music and mastered impressive skills in golf. They had one son and two daughters. Le Hsien-wen, their son, died at an early age from an illness. Anna and Annie, their daughters, both married and lived with their parents.
Further Reading
There is little biographical information on Lee Teng-hui published in English. His Agriculture and Economic Development in Taiwan, Volume I and II (Taichung, Taiwan: 1983) contains President Lee's English publications.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Lee Teng-hui |
Lee Teng-hui (lē' dŭng'-hwē'), 1923-, Taiwanese agricultural economist and politician, president of Taiwan (1988-2000). Born in Taiwan when it was ruled by Japan, he was educated at Kyoto Imperial, Iowa State, and Cornell universities. A member of the Kuomintang, he served on the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction (1957-61) and as a minister without portfolio (1972-78), mayor of Taipei (1978-81), governor of Taiwan province (1981-84), and vice president of Taiwan (1984-88). In Jan., 1988, he succeeded to the presidency at Chiang Ching-kuo's death. Although originally considered an interim figure, he continued the democratization of Taiwan and in 1996 became its first popularly elected president. Continuing to foster Taiwan's industrial expansion, Lee used the island's economic success to diminish its international isolation. His suggestion in 1999 that Taiwan might consider itself to be a independent nation and not part of China strained relations with the mainland. In Mar., 2000, Lee was forced to resign as head of the Kuomintang after its candidate placed third in the Taiwanese presidential election. After Lee publicly split (2001) with the new leaders of the party, charging them with betraying Taiwan, he was expelled from the Kuomintang.
| Wikipedia: Lee Teng-hui |
| Lee Teng-hui | |||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 李登輝 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 李登辉 | ||||||
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| Lee Teng-hui 李登輝 |
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7th-9th-term President of the Republic of China
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| In office 13 January 1988 – 20 May 2000 |
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| Vice President | Li Yuan-zu Lien Chan |
| Preceded by | Chiang Ching-kuo |
| Succeeded by | Chen Shui-bian |
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| In office 20 May 1984 – 13 January 1988 |
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| Preceded by | Hsieh Tung-ming |
| Succeeded by | Li Yuan-tsu |
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| In office 1988 – 2000 |
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| Preceded by | Chiang Ching-kuo |
| Succeeded by | Lien Chan |
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| Born | 15 January 1923 |
| Nationality | Republic of China |
| Political party | Kuomintang (1971 – 2000) |
| Spouse(s) | Tseng Wen-hui |
| Alma mater | National Taiwan University Iowa State University Cornell University (Ph.D.) |
| Religion | Christian (Presbyterian)[1] |
- This is a Chinese name; the family name is Li.
Lee Teng-hui (simplified Chinese: 李登辉; traditional Chinese: 李登輝; pinyin: Lǐ Dēnghuī; born 15 January 1923) is a politician of Republic of China (commonly known as "Taiwan"). He was President of the Republic of China and Chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) from 1988 to 2000. He presided over major advancements in democratic reforms including his own re-election which marked the first direct presidential election for the Republic of China. The first native Taiwanese to become ROC president and KMT chairman, Lee promoted the Taiwanese localization movement and led an aggressive foreign policy to gain diplomatic allies. Critics accused him of betraying the party he headed, secret support of Taiwanese independence, and involvement in corruption (black gold politics).
After leaving office Lee was expelled from the KMT for his role in founding the pro-independence Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), which forms part of the Pan-Green Coalition alongside Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party. (Lee is considered the "spiritual leader" of the TSU.) Lee has been outspoken in support for Taiwanese independence though not necessarily a formal declaration.
Contents |
Early life and education
Lee was born to a Hakka family in the rural farming community of
After World War II, after the Republic of China took over Taiwan, Lee enrolled in the National Taiwan University, where in 1948 he earned a bachelor's degree in agricultural science. Lee joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in September 1946, apparently briefly. He participated in the 228 Incident during this time.[2] According to Wu Ketai, who inducted Lee into the Communist Party, the KMT was aware that Lee had been a Communist, but deliberately destroyed the records when Lee was promoted to the vice-presidency to protect his image. In a 2002 interview Lee himself admitted that he had been a communist. In that same interview Lee said that he has strongly opposed communism for a long time because he understands the theory well and knows that it is doomed to fail. Lee stated that he joined the Communist out of hatred for the KMT.[3]
In 1953, Lee received a master's degree in agricultural economics from the Iowa State University in the United States. Lee returned to Taiwan in 1957 as an economist with the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction (JCRR), an institution sponsored by the U.S. and aimed at modernizing Taiwan's agricultural system and at land reform. During this period, he also worked as an adjunct professor in the Department of Economics at National Taiwan University and taught at the Graduate School of East Asian Studies at National Chengchi University.
In the mid-1960s Lee returned to the United States, and earned a PhD in agricultural economics from Cornell University in 1968. Lee's doctoral dissertation, Intersectoral Capital Flows in the Economic Development of Taiwan, 1895-1960 (published as a book under the same name) was honored as the year's best doctoral thesis by the American Association of Agricultural Economics and remains an influential work on Taiwan's economy during the Japanese and early KMT periods.
Lee encountered Christianity as a young man and in 1961 was baptised. For most of the rest of his political career, despite holding high office, Lee has made a habit of giving sermons at churches around Taiwan, mostly on apolitical themes of service and humility.
Lee speaks Taiwanese, Japanese, Standard Mandarin, and American English.
Rise to power
Shortly after returning to Taiwan, Lee joined the KMT in 1971 and was made a cabinet minister without portfolio responsible for agriculture.
In 1978 Lee was appointed Mayor of Taipei, where he solved water shortages and improved the city's irrigation problems. In 1981, he became governor of Taiwan Province and made further irrigation improvements.
As a skilled technocrat, Lee soon caught the eye of President Chiang Ching-kuo as a strong candidate to serve as Vice President. Chiang sought to move more authority to the bensheng ren (residents on Taiwan before 1949 and their descendants) instead of continuing to promote waisheng ren (mainland Chinese immigrants who arrived in Taiwan after 1949 and their descendants) as his father had. President Chiang nominated Lee to become his Vice President. Lee was formally elected by the National Assembly in 1984.
Presidency
Chiang Ching-kuo died in January 1988 and Lee succeeded him as President. The "Palace Faction" of the KMT, a group of conservative mainlanders headed by General Hau Pei-tsun, Premier Yu Guo-hwa, and Education Minister Lee Huan, was deeply distrustful of Lee Teng-hui and sought to block his accession to the KMT chairmanship and sideline him as a figurehead. With the help of James Soong—himself a member of the Palace Faction—who quieted the hardliners with the famous plea "Each day of delay is a day of disrespect to Ching-kuo," Lee was allowed to ascend to the chairmanship unobstructed. At the KMT party congress of July 1988, Lee named 31 members of the Central Committee, 16 of whom were --bensheng ren: for the first time, bensheng ren held a majority in what was then a powerful policy-making body.
As he consolidated power during the early years of his presidency, Lee allowed his rivals within the KMT to occupy positions of influence: when Yu Guo-hwa retired as premier in 1989, he was replaced by Lee Huan, who was succeeded by Hau Pei-tsun in 1990. At the same time, Lee made a major reshuffle of the Executive Yuan, as he had done with the KMT Central Committee, replacing several elderly waisheng ren with younger bensheng ren, mostly of technical backgrounds. Fourteen of these new appointees, like Lee, received Ph.D.s in the United States. Prominent among the appointments were Lien Chan as foreign minister, and Shirley Kuo as finance minister.
1990 saw the arrival of the Wild Lily student movement on behalf of full democracy for Taiwan. Thousands of Taiwanese students demonstrated for democratic reforms. The demonstrations culminated in a sit-in demonstration by over 300,000 students at Memorial Square in Taipei. Students called for direct elections of the national president and vice president and for a new election for all legislative seats. On 21 March Lee welcomed some of the students to the Presidential Building. He expressed his support of their goals and pledged his commitment to full democracy in Taiwan. The moment is regarded by supporters of democracy in Taiwan as perhaps his finest moment in office. Gatherings recalling the student movement are regularly held around Taiwan every 21 March.
In May 1991 Lee spearheaded a drive to eliminate the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion, laws put in place following the KMT arrival in 1949 that suspended the democratic functions of the government. In December 1991 the original members of the Legislative Yuan, elected to represent mainland China constituencies in 1948, were forced to resign and new elections were held to apportion more seats to the bensheng ren. The elections forced Hau Pei-tsun from the premiership, a position he was given in exchange for his tacit support of Lee. He was replaced by Lien Chan, then an ally of Lee and the first bensheng ren to hold the premiership.
The prospect of the first island-wide democratic election the next year, together with Lee's June 1995 visit to Cornell University, sparked the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis. The previous eight presidents and vice-presidents of Taiwan had been elected by the members of the National Assembly. For the first time Taiwan's leader would be elected by majority vote of Taiwan's population. The People's Republic of China conducted a series of missile tests in the waters surrounding Taiwan and other military maneuvers off the coast of Fujian in response to what Communist Party leaders described as moves by Lee to "split the motherland." The PRC government launched another set of tests just days before the election, sending missiles over the island to express its dissatisfaction should the Taiwanese people vote for Lee. The military actions disrupted trade and shipping lines and caused a temporary dip in the Asian stock market. The 1996 missile launches boosted support for Lee.
On 23 March 1996, Lee became the first popularly elected ROC president with 54% of the vote. Many people who worked or resided in other countries made special trips back to the island to vote. In addition to the president, the governor of Taiwan Province and the mayors of Taipei and Kaohsiung (as leaders of provincial level divisions they were formerly appointed by the president) became popularly elected.
Lee, in an interview that same year, expressed his view that a special state-to-state relationship existed between Taiwan and mainland China that all negotiations between the two sides of the Strait needed to observe.
Lee, observing constitutional term limits he had helped enact, stepped down from the presidency at the end of his term in 2000. That year Democratic Progressive Party candidate Chen Shui-bian won the national election with 39% of the vote in a three-way race. Chen's victory marked an end to KMT rule and the first peaceful transfer of power in Taiwan's new democratic system.
Supporters of rival candidates Lien Chan and James Soong accused Lee of setting up the split in the KMT that had enabled Chen to win. Lee had promoted the uncharismatic Lien over the popular Soong as the KMT candidate. Soong had subsequently ran as an independent and was expelled from the KMT. The number of votes garnered by both Soong and Lien would have accounted for approximately 60% of the vote while individually the candidates placed behind Chen. Protests were staged in front of the KMT party headquarters in Taipei. Fuelling this anger were the persistent suspicions following Lee throughout his presidency that he secretly supported Taiwan independence and that he was intentionally sabotaging the Kuomintang from above. Lee resigned his chairmanship on 24 March and was expelled as a party member in December of the same year. KMT officials expressed dissatisfaction with efforts to "localize" the KMT and his tacit support of the new Chen administration.
Since leaving office Lee and the new party he went on to found, the TSU, have generally supported "green" causes in Taiwan. Lee continues to travel, make speeches, campaign for TSU candidates, and offer independent-minded commentary on Taiwan politics. Lee Teng-Hui University in Taiwan is named after him.
Taiwanization
Lee Teng-hui, during his term as president, supported Taiwanization. The Taiwanization movement has its roots in the home rule and independence groups founded during the Japanese era and sought to put emphasis on Taiwan as the center of people's lives as opposed to China or Japan. During the Chiang regime, China was promoted as the center of an ideology that would build a Chinese national outlook in a people who had once considered themselves Japanese subjects. Taiwan was often relegated to a backwater province of China in the KMT-supported history books. People were discouraged from studying local Taiwanese customs, which were to be replaced by mainstream Chinese customs. Lee sought to turn Taiwan into a center rather than an appendage. This shift was widely supported in Taiwan and found expression in Taiwanese literature movement. He further stated that he believed a Chinese identity and a Taiwanese identity were ultimately incompatible, a notion controversial in the KMT, even among those members who generally supported Taiwanization.
Positions
Since resigning the chairmanship of the KMT, Lee has campaigned actively on behalf of pan-green coalition candidates and opposed candidates of his former party who took pro-unification positions during the 2004 presidential elections. He has stated a number of political positions and ideas which he did not mention while he was President, but which he appeared to have privately maintained.
Lee has publicly supported the Name Rectification Campaigns in Taiwan and proposed changing the name of the country from the Republic of China to the Republic of Taiwan. He generally opposes unlimited economic ties with mainland China, though he supports trade.
Lee has also stated that he believes that Taiwan cannot avoid being assimilated into the People's Republic of China unless it completely rejects its historical Chinese identity and that he believes that it is essential that Taiwanese unite and develop a unified and separate identity other than the Chinese one. Furthermore, in reference to Mainlanders, he believes that to be truly Taiwanese, one must assume a "New Taiwanese" identity.
He dismisses both the notion that the strategy will trigger an invasion by the Chinese government and the notion that Taiwan benefits economically by developing economic ties with China. He argues the People's Republic of China is a paper tiger and both its military strength and economic strength have been far overestimated. Lee asserts that when presented with a united and assertive Taiwan, Taiwan will receive support from the international community and also from the United States and that the PRC will be obliged to back down. He also believes that the PRC economy is doomed to collapse and that unlimited integration with the PRC economy, on the part of Taiwan or any country, is unwise.
During the 2004 Presidential campaign, President Chen Shui-bian publicly campaigned with Lee Teng-hui and developed a campaign platform, including a call for a new constitution adopted by referendum, which could be interpreted as an opportunity to make the symbolic changes which Lee supports. There was concern in the United States and in the People's Republic of China that Chen would be supportive of Lee's positions, a belief which was reinforced by Lee's own actions while President and by Lee's public statements that Chen Shui-bian agreed with him.
The concern shared between the United States and the People's Republic of China was the possible unilateral change of the cross-strait status quo by President Chen, leading to a public rebuke of Chen from the United States President George W. Bush in December 2003. It is believed that this rebuke in part was intended to challenge the notion, which Lee had advanced, that American support of Taiwan was unconditional. After his close election in March 2004, Chen moved to distance himself from Lee, by stating explicitly that his regime's constitutional reforms would not rename "The Republic of China" to Taiwan. The difference in the two leader's positions was further highlighted by Chen's stated intent to establish greater economic links with China.
In February 2007 Lee shocked the media when he announced that he has never backed Taiwanese independence, when he was widely seen as the spiritual leader of the movement.[4] Lee also said that he supported opening up trade and tourism with China, a position he had opposed before. Lee later explained that Taiwan already enjoys de facto independence and that political maneuvering over details of expressing it is counterproductive. He maintains that "Taiwan should seek 'normalization' by changing its name and amending its constitution."[5]
Japanese support
Lee enjoys a warm relationship with the people and culture of Japan. Lee often assures Taiwanese audiences that Japan will support Taiwan if it formally announces its Taiwan independence. Taiwan was colonized by Japan from 1895 to 1945 and natives of the island who grew up in that period, such as Lee, attended schools where Japanese language, songs, and stories were taught. Lee's father was a low-level Japanese police aide; his older brother died serving in the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II and is listed in Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. During his youth Lee had a Japanese name, Iwasato Masao (岩里政男). Lee speaks fondly of his upbringing and his teachers and has been welcomed in visits to Japan since leaving office. Lee's admiration and enjoyment of all things Japanese has been the target of criticism from both the Pan-Green Coalition and Pan-Blue Coalition in Taiwan, as well as from mainland China, due to the anti-Japanese sentiment formed during and after World War II.
In his retirement Lee became the first former president of a country known to participate in cosplay. The cosplay was centered on Heihachi Edajima (江田島平八 Edajima Heihachi), a hawkish principal of a boarding school in the Japanese manga Sakigake!! Otokojuku (魁!!男塾) (Weekly Shōnen Jump). His cosplay interest and eponymous "school" called "輝！李塾" was mentioned on his personal website, beginning in late 2004. This manga comic was a comedy centered on a fictitious reform school for contemporary boys, modelled under the Imperial Japanese Army.
In a May 2007 trip to Japan, Lee visited the Yasukuni Shrine to pay tribute to his older brother. Controversy rose because the Shrine also enshrines World War II Class A criminals among the other soldiers. He is also expected to receive the first Shimpei Goto award,[citation needed] named after the former Japanese colonial governor of Taiwan, and to give a speech on 7 June regarding the global situation after 2007.[6]
See also
- President of the Republic of China
- History of the Republic of China
- Politics of the Republic of China
- Special state-to-state relations
- Kuomintang
References
- ^ 曹長青：李登輝的基督信仰
- ^ China Warehouse- More Than Crockery Message Board
- ^ Taipei Times - archives
- ^ "Lu 'astonished' by Lee's about-face on Taiwan independence", China Post
- ^ Chen shouldn't fear dealing with China: Lee The China Post 31 May 2007.
- ^ Lee to visit Japan's Yasukuni war shrine The China Post 31 May 2007.
External links
- Biography from Office of the President, ROC
- Friends of Lee Teng-Hui Association
- Lee Teng-Hui Academy
- America and Taiwan, 1943-2004
- Cornell University Magazine Profile
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Lin Yang-kang |
Mayor of Taipei 1978 – 1981 |
Succeeded by Shao En-hsin |
| Governor of Taiwan Province 1981 – 1984 |
Succeeded by Chiu Chuang-huan |
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| Preceded by Hsieh Tung-ming |
Vice President of the Republic of China 1984 – 1988 |
Succeeded by Lee Yuan-tsu |
| Preceded by Chiang Ching-kuo |
President of the Republic of China 1988 – 2000 |
Succeeded by Chen Shui-bian |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Chiang Ching-kuo |
Chairman of the Kuomintang 1988 – 2000 |
Succeeded by Lien Chan |
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Mentioned in
- Kuomintang (organization, China/Taiwan – in politics)
- Chen Shui-bian (Chinese politician)
- Li (family name)
- Chiang Ching-kuo (Chinese politician)
