Lee Teng-Hui
(b. 1923), President of Taiwan. Lee Teng-hui was the first Taiwanese native to lead the government and Nationalist Party of Taiwan. Under his presidency, democracy was fully established on Taiwan. Born in 1923 when Taiwan was a Japanese colony, Lee Teng-hui received a Japanese education until the end of World War II when Taiwan returned to Chinese control. In the 1950s, Lee was among the first generation of Taiwanese students to undertake graduate studies in the United States. He alternated between studying in the United States and working for the Joint Commission for Rural Reconstruction, a combined Chinese Nationalist–American effort at land reform on Taiwan. Taiwan's land reform stressed legal procedures along with agricultural improvement projects and contrasted sharply with the Communist Party's populist, confiscatory, and often violent land reform on the Chinese mainland.
In 1968, Lee earned a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Cornell University. Back in Taiwan he emerged as a rising Taiwanese figure in the Nationalist Party. His appointments included mayor of Taipei and governor of Taiwan and then, in 1984, vice president. Lee's elevation marked acceptance by the mainlander Nationalist Party that its future was tied to Taiwan and needed support from the Taiwanese majority. When President Chiang Ching-kuo, who did much to further Lee Teng-hui's career, died unexpectedly in January 1988, Lee succeeded him. He served as president until 2000 and earned the deep enmity of the leaders of the People's Republic of China on the mainland for his strong advocacy of Taiwan's continuing political separation from China.
Constitutionally barred from a third term as president, Lee was forced into retirement in 2000 but has remained a significant force in Taiwan's politics. His open support for Chen Shui-bian, the leader of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) who succeeded him as president, exacerbated his differences with the Nationalist Party's leadership. In the run-up to the 2001 parliamentary elections, the party expelled Lee from membership, and he responded by organizing a political party called the Taiwan Solidarity Union, which captured thirteen seats. So, Lee has become identified with a minority party in parliament that is sympathetic toward the DPP and its policies.
Further Reading
Clough, Ralph N. (1978) Island China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Garver, John W. (1997) Face Off: China, the U.S., and Taiwan's Democratization. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. Hung-mao Tien. (1989) The Great Transition: Political and Social Change in the Republic of China. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institute Press.
Lee Teng-hui. (1999) The Road to Democracy: Taiwan's Pursuit of Identity. Tokyo: PHP Institute.
Rigger, Shelly. (1999) Politics in Taiwan: Voting for Democracy. London: Routledge.
This is the complete article, containing 425 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
