Lee teng hui biography of donald
Taiwan’s former President Lee Teng-hui dies aged 97
Former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui has died at the age of 97, the official Central News Agency said.
Lee was diagnosed with pneumonia in February and had been intubated since then. Taipei Veterans General Hospital confirmed his death at 7:24pm local time (11:24 GMT) on Thursday.
Lee served as Taiwan’s first democratically elected president in 1996, after a landslide victory that followed eight months of intimidating war games and missile tests by China in waters around the self-governed island.
The physically imposing and charismatic leader thrived on defying China’s drive to absorb the island it regards as a wayward province and hoped for Taiwan to be “a country of democracy, freedom, human rights and dignity”.
“A leader must be tough and strong enough so he can put an end to disputes and chaotic situations,” he wrote in his autobiography.
The government of Taiwan, formally the Republic of China, was established in 1949 by Chiang Kai-shek, after his Nationalist forces lost control of the mainland to Mao Zedong’s Communists and fled to the island, which lies some 180km (112 miles) across the Taiwan Strait off China’s southeast coast.
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Lee became the Nationalist party chairman and Taiwan‘s president upon the 1988 death of Chiang’s son, Chiang Ching-kuo. Eight years after assuming the role, Lee’s push for full democracy culminated with the island’s first direct presidential vote.
Lee’s tough language towards mainland China resonated with many of Taiwan‘s 23 million people. A native to the island, he once described Taiwan-China ties as a “special state-to-state relationship”, infuriating Beijing. He also sought to snap cultural links in favour of a distinct Taiwanese identity.
In 1996, Lee offered to make a “journey of peace” to mainland China. But Beijing branded him a “splittist” bent on turning Taiwan’s self-governance into fully-fledged independence, and said he should be tossed int Former Taiwan regional leader Lee Teng-hui File photo: VCG The former president of Taiwan, Lee Teng-hui, who earned the nickname "Mr. Democracy" for his role in shifting the island away from authoritarian rule, died on Thursday. The 97-year-old had been hospitalized in February after choking while drinking a glass of milk, and he was being treated for pneumonia. He was despised by the Chinese Communist Party, whose leaders said he should be tossed into "the dustbin of history." Lee became the first democratically elected president of Taiwan in 1996 after winning a landslide victory. This followed months of intimidating military exercises by China near the Taiwanese coastline, widely viewed as part of an effort to scare voters. He was president from 1988 to 2000, having been given the role after the death of former leader Chiang Ching-kuo — son of wartime Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek who ruled the island for almost five decades. Lee was able to capitalize politically on his opposition to China's efforts to absorb Taiwan, saying he hoped the island could be "a country of democracy, freedom, human rights and dignity." Read more: China: Reunification 'inevitable' as Taiwan’s Tsai starts second term in office Born in northern Taiwan to a rice and tea-farming family, Lee was educated under Japanese colonial rule and he was a fluent Japanese speaker. He served for a short time in the imperial Japanese army and studied at university in Kyoto. He also studied in the United States, at the universities of Iowa State and Cornell. As the first president to be born in Taiwan, to a family of rice farmers, he took a tough line with Beijing. Lee insisted on a "special," but most crucially equal, "state-to-state" relationship with China. He also sought to sever cultural links to pursue a more distinct Taiwanese identity for the fledgling democracy. This angered some within his Nationali Written by John F. Copper. Image credit: CIMG1102by akanie/Flickr, license CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Being sponsored by the University of Hawaii’s East West Centre, in 1963, I journeyed to Taiwan to further my study of Chinese. It was here that I first heard of Lee Teng-hui, who was one of the experts that designed and operationalised Taiwan’s well-known and eminently successful land reform program. Little did I know that Lee would become one of modern Taiwan’s foremost leaders and someone I would meet and learn much more about in coming years. Lee Teng-hui was born in rural, northern Taiwan in January 1923. Taiwan was a colony of Japan at the time. Lee graduated from high school with honours and received a scholarship to attend Kyoto University, one of Japan’s finest. When the war ended, he stayed in Japan to finish his college degree. He then returned to Taiwan to attend National Taiwan University. At the time, Lee joined an organisation called the New Democracy Association, which was affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party. When asked about this later, Lee admitted that he had been a Communist briefly, but learned it was not for him or for Taiwan. This might have been a career breaker had not President Chiang Ching-kuo had a similar experience. In the early 1950s, Lee travelled to the United States to study. He received his master’s degree from Iowa State University. Whereupon he returned to Taiwan to take a job with the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction. After a few years, he once again went to the U.S., this time for a doctorate in agricultural economics from Cornell University, one of America’s fine Ivy League institutions. His PhD. thesis was entitled “Intersectoral Capital Flows in the Economic Development of Taiwan, 1895 to 1960.” It was named the best doctoral thesis that year by the American Association of Agricultural Economics. It was subsequently published as a book with that same title. After Lee returned to Taiwan from the U.S. the sec
People flocked to the internet to discuss Lee Teng-hui, former leader of the island of Taiwan, shortly after he died of illness on Thursday evening. Many have criticized him, while others have offered their support, praising his "contributions" to Taiwan democracy. These voices argue that Lee initiated one person, one vote "presidential" elections in Taiwan and was the first popularly elected "president." Western media have also spoken highly of his advocacy of "Taiwan sovereignty" and his encouragement for people in the island saying they are "Taiwanese" rather than Chinese.
But Lee promoted Taiwan democracy and "Taiwan independence" together. Taiwan held its first direct "presidential election" in 1996, the same year that the two sides of the Taiwan Straits saw their first serious crisis since relations were eased in the 1980s. Lee became the first elected "president" by stirring waves in the calm Straits.
Lee sowed the seeds of secessionism in Taiwan democracy. Following his footsteps, the Democratic Progressive Party has sought to gain an advantageous position in election by intensifying cross-Straits confrontation. Taiwan has gone astray in the development of its democracy, setting out on the wrong road and going against the common interests of the Chinese nation. The island has become an important leverage for its separatist forces and anti-China forces in the US and the West.
Lee once advocated cross-Straits reunification and opposed "Taiwan independence." But he was later called the "godfather of Taiwan independence." The process of democratization in Taiwan that he initiated served this drastic change. In order to deter Kuomintang's insistence on unification, he incited populism to achieve his goal under the pretext of democracy.
The Taiwan democracy Lee promoted was hijacked by "Taiwan independence" from the very beginning. Thus Taiwan's 'Mr. Democracy' Lee Teng-hui dies
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Stance on independence alienated his old party