Lee Teng-hui (traditional Chinese: 李登輝; simplified Chinese: 李登辉;
pinyin: Lǐ Dēnghuī) born January 15, 1923) is a politician of
Taiwan. He was the President of the Republic
of China and Chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) from 1988 to 2000. He presided over
major advancements in democratic reforms (himself becoming the first directly elected president). Lee promoted the
Taiwan localization movement and led an aggressive foreign policy to
gain diplomatic allies. Critics accused him of betraying the party he headed, secret support of Taiwan independence, and involvement in 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
Taiwan independence though not necessarily a formal declaration, given Taiwan's
longstanding de facto independence.
Early life and education
Lee was born to a Hakka family in the rural farming community of Sanchih, near Taipei, Taiwan (under
Japanese rule at that time). As a child, he often dreamed of traveling abroad, and became an avid stamp collector. Growing up
under Japanese colonial rule, he developed a strong affinity for Japan. His father was a low-level
Japanese police aide and his brother served and died in the Japanese Imperial
Navy. Lee—one of only four Taiwanese students in his high school class—graduated with honors and was given a scholarship
to Japan's Kyoto Imperial University.
After World War II, after the Republic of
China assumed sovereignty over Taiwan, Lee enrolled in the National Taiwan
University, where in 1948 he earned a bachelor's degree in agricultural science. A devout Marxist in his teens, Lee joined
the Communist Party of China (CPC) in September 1946 but quit two years later.
He participated in the 228 Incident during this time. [1] 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. Lee himself
admitted that he was a communist in a 2002 interview. Ironically, Lee stated that he joined out of hatred of the KMT. [2]
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.
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 or native Taiwanese (the term does not include Taiwan's aboriginal peoples) instead of continuing to promote
waisheng ren (Chinese mainlanders who immigrated during or after the Chinese Civil War) 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 native Taiwanese: for the first time, the native Taiwanese 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 mainlanders with younger native Taiwanese, 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. Only a year after the tragically fated student demonstrations in China's
Tienanmen Square, thousands of Taiwan 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 March 21 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 March 21.
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 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 native Taiwanese 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.
In March 23, 1996, Lee became the first popularly elected ROC
president with 54% of the vote. Over 95% over Taiwan's citizens participated in the the election. Many people who worked or
resided in other countries made special trips back to the island to vote.
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 and with Lien had garnered 60% of the vote
(but individually still finishing 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 March 24 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.
Taiwan localization movement
Lee Teng-hui, during his term as president, supported the the localization movement. The Taiwanese localization 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 localization.
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 Communist regime 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 has quietly distanced himself from Lee, by explicitly stating that Chen's constitutional reforms
will not include renaming Taiwan's official name and by stating a desire 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. [1] 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." [2]
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 independence. Taiwan was a colony of Japan's 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 WWII and is listed in Yasukuni shrine. During his youth Lee, like all residents of Taiwan, had a Japanese name. (Lee's was
Iwasato Masao, or 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 positive associations with Japanese culture are not shared by elder members of the KMT who, as China mainlanders, fought
Japanese invasion under Chiang Kai-shek. They and their descendants in the Pan-Blue
side of Taiwan's political spectrum characterized Lee as a traitor to the Chinese race when he
described himself once a Japanese (Imperial) "citizen" during his youth. Most supporters of the Pan-Green Coalition disagree, since most of them do not consider themselves to be Chinese anyway. A
reassessment of Japanese rule in Taiwan has been under way, along with a reassessment of most other things, since Taiwan became
an open democracy in the 1990s. This debate carries an undertone of conflict between those Taiwanese who lived under Japanese
Imperial rule before the Nationalist takeover and those Taiwanese from the mainland who focus on actions of the Imperial Japanese
Army in China during WWII. The experiences were clearly different.
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) (Shonen
Jump). The ; this was used as an advertisement on his personal website and "school" (輝！李塾) 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 controversial Yasukuni Shrine, where
World War II Class A criminals are enshrined among the other soldiers, to pay tribute to his older brother. He is also expected
to receive the first Shimpei Goto award, named after the former Japanese colonial governor
of Taiwan, and to give a speech on 7 June regarding the global situation after 2007. [3]
Trivia
See also
References
- ^ "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
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