115-616: Lee Teng-hui ( Chinese : 李登輝 ; 15 January 1923 – 30 July 2020) was a Taiwanese statesman and agriculturist who served as the 4th president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) under the 1947 Constitution and chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) from 1988 to 2000. He was the first president to be born in Taiwan, the last to be indirectly elected and the first to be directly elected . During his presidency, Lee oversaw
230-676: A Japanese equivalent to the United States' Taiwan Relations Act , which was discussed in the Japanese Diet in February, though the idea was first proposed by Chen Shui-bian in 2006. In 2014, Lee said in the Japanese magazine SAPIO published by Shogakukan , "China spreads lies such as Nanjing Massacre to the world ... Korea and China use invented history as their activity of propaganda for their country. Comfort women
345-562: 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 made a habit of giving sermons at churches around Taiwan, mostly on apolitical themes of service and humility. He
460-659: A center rather than an appendage. In 1997, he presided over the adoption of the Taiwan-centric history textbook Knowing Taiwan . Under Lee, it was stated that "legally, historically, geographically, or in reality", all of the South China Sea and Spratly islands were the territory of the Republic of China and under ROC sovereignty, and denounced actions undertaken there by Malaysia and the Philippines, in
575-509: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from
690-558: A cult figure after his death. The control by one single party began the period of "political tutelage", whereby the party was to lead the government while instructing the people on how to participate in a democratic system. The topic of reorganizing the army, brought up at a military conference in 1929, sparked the Central Plains War . The cliques, some of them former warlords, demanded to retain their army and political power within their own territories. Although Chiang finally won
805-477: A different history,” and that people should approach these differing experiences and interpretations with an attitude of understanding that will allow for learning from history, rather than allowing it to be used a tool for manipulating divisions. Lee published a book, Remaining Life: My Life Journey and the Road of Taiwan's Democracy , in February 2016. In it, he reasserted support for Japanese sovereignty claims over
920-668: 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 Chinese constituencies in 1948, were forced to resign and new elections were held to apportion more seats to
1035-613: A leaderless and decentralized way and that Sun was only later elected provisional president of the new Chinese republic. However, Sun did not have military power and ceded the provisional presidency of the republic to Yuan Shikai , who arranged for the abdication of Puyi , the last Emperor, on 12 February. On 25 August 1912, the Nationalist Party was established at the Huguang Guild Hall in Beijing , where
1150-438: A minor stroke. On 29 November 2018, he was rushed to Taipei Veterans General Hospital after falling and hitting his head. He was discharged from hospital on 31 January 2019, and President Tsai Ing-wen later visited him at his home. On 8 February 2020, Lee was hospitalised at Taipei Veterans General Hospital after choking while drinking milk and retained in the hospital under observation due to lung infection concerns. Later, he
1265-651: A poorly planned and ill-supported armed rising to overthrow Yuan, and failed. Yuan, claiming subversiveness and betrayal, expelled adherents of the KMT from the parliament . Yuan dissolved the Nationalists, whose members had largely fled into exile in Japan, in November and dismissed the parliament early in 1914. Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself emperor in December 1915. While exiled in Japan in 1914, Sun established
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#17327729904091380-542: 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. In May 1991, Lee spearheaded
1495-569: A statement on 13 July 1999 released by the foreign ministry of Taiwan. The claims made by both the PRC and the Republic of China "mirror" each other. During international talks involving the Spratly islands, the PRC and ROC have sometimes made efforts to coordinate their positions with each other since both have the same claims. Since resigning the chairmanship of the KMT, Lee stated a number of political positions and ideas which he did not mention while he
1610-476: A warm relationship with the people and culture of Japan . During the latter period of Japanese rule of Taiwan from 1895 to 1945, Lee attended a Japanese school where he was one of only four Taiwanese in a class of 23 pupils. At the time, due to the Kominka movement, Taiwanese Han culture and language was greatly discouraged. Lee's father was a middle-level Japanese police aide; his elder brother died serving in
1725-817: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;
1840-855: Is a centre-right to right-wing party and the largest in the Pan-Blue Coalition , one of the two main political groups in Taiwan. Its primary rival is the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the largest party in the Pan-Green Coalition . As of 2024, the KMT is the largest single party in the Legislative Yuan . The current chairman is Eric Chu . The party originated as the Revive China Society founded by Sun Yat-sen in 1894 in Honolulu . The party underwent reorganization before and after
1955-474: Is the most remarkable example." In 2015, Lee said "The issue of Taiwanese comfort women is already solved" in the Japanese magazine Voice (published by PHP Institute). He was strongly criticized by Chen I-hsin , spokesman of the Presidential Office as "not ignorant but cold-blooded". Chen added, "If Lee Teng-hui really thinks the issue of comfort women is solved, go to a theater and see Song of
2070-493: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to
2185-604: The 1911 Xinhai Revolution , which resulted in the collapse of the Qing dynasty and establishment of the Republic of China (ROC), with Sun as the first president. In 1919, Sun re-established the party under the name "Kuomintang" in the Shanghai French Concession . From 1926 to 1928, the KMT under Chiang Kai-shek successfully led the Northern Expedition against regional warlords and unified
2300-669: The 2016 election , but regained a legislative plurality in the 2024 election . The KMT is a member of the International Democracy Union . The party's guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People , advocated by Sun Yat-sen and organized on a basis of democratic centralism . As the KMT strongly supports the ROC as the only representative of China, it strongly opposes both Chinese unification under
2415-711: The Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II and is listed in the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. During his youth, Lee had a Japanese name, Iwasato Masao ( 岩里政男 ) . This name was suggested by Lee Teng-chin, combining Longyan ( 龍岩 ), where their family originated, and their surname Lee ( 李 ), which shares the same pronunciation with the character " 里 " in both Japanese on'yomi and Chinese. Lee spoke fondly of his upbringing and his teachers and
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#17327729904092530-1309: The Kensiu language . Kuomintang Lai Ching-te ( DPP ) Hsiao Bi-khim ( DPP ) Cho Jung-tai ( DPP ) 11th Legislative Yuan Han Kuo-yu ( KMT ) Shieh Ming-yan acting Vacant Vacant Vacant Control Yuan Chen Chu Lee Hung-chun Local government Central Election Commission Kuomintang Democratic Progressive Party Taiwan People's Party Others New Power Party Taiwan Statebuilding Party People First Party Taiwan Solidarity Union New Party Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Newspapers United Daily News Liberty Times China Times Taipei Times Propaganda Censorship Film censorship Lin Chia-lung Cross-Strait relations Special state-to-state relations One Country on Each Side 1992 Consensus Taiwan consensus Chinese Taipei Australia–Taiwan relations Canada–Taiwan relations France–Taiwan relations Russia–Taiwan relations Taiwan–United Kingdom relations Taiwan–United States relations Republic of China (1912–1949) Chinese Civil War One-China policy China and
2645-639: The Meiji Restoration , Chiang knew relatively little about the West. He also studied in Japan, but he was firmly rooted in his ancient Han Chinese identity and was steeped in Chinese culture . As his life progressed, he became increasingly attached to ancient Chinese culture and traditions. His few trips to the West confirmed his pro-ancient Chinese outlook and he studied the ancient Chinese classics and ancient Chinese history assiduously. In 1923, after
2760-682: The Nanjing incident in March 1927, the NRA stormed the consulates of the United States, the United Kingdom and Imperial Japan , looted foreign properties and almost assassinated the Japanese consul. An American, two British, one French, an Italian and a Japanese were killed. These looters also stormed and seized millions of dollars' worth of British concessions in Hankou , refusing to hand them back to
2875-618: The Northern Expedition to suppress the warlords began. Chiang had to defeat three separate warlords and two independent armies. Chiang, with Soviet supplies, conquered the southern half of China in nine months. A split erupted between the Chinese Communist Party and the KMT, which threatened the Northern Expedition. Wang Jing Wei, who led the KMT leftist allies, took the city of Wuhan in January 1927. With
2990-695: 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 Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for two stints, in September 1946 and October or November 1947, both times briefly. Lee began the New Democracy Association [ zh ] with four others. This group was absorbed by
3105-507: The Republic of Taiwan . He generally opposed unlimited economic ties with the PRC, placing restrictions on Taiwanese wishing to invest in China. After Chen Shui-bian succeeded Lee in the 2000 election , the two enjoyed a close relationship despite being from different political parties. Chen regularly asked Lee for advice during his first term in office. In Chen's 2001 book, he called Lee the "Father of Taiwanese Democracy" and also named himself
3220-559: The Scout Association of Japan , the Golden Pheasant Award . In August 2001, Lee said of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi 's controversial visit to Yasukuni Shrine , "It is natural for a premier of a country to commemorate the souls of people who lost their lives for their country." In a May 2007 trip to Japan, Lee visited the shrine himself to pay tribute to his elder brother. Controversy rose because
3335-640: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝ 'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for
3450-662: The Taipei Guest House where people paid respects to Lee was opened to the public from 1 to 16 August 2020, after which Lee's body was cremated and his remains interred at Wuzhi Mountain Military Cemetery . All national flags at government institutions were placed at half-mast for three days. Lee had the nickname "Mr. Democracy" and Taiwan's "Father of Democracy" for his actions to democratize Taiwanese government and his opposition to ruling Communists in China. Kuomintang members still blame Lee for losing
3565-511: The Tongmenghui and five smaller pro-revolution parties merged to contest the first national elections. Sun was chosen as the party chairman with Huang Xing as his deputy. The most influential member of the party was the third ranking Song Jiaoren , who mobilized mass support from gentry and merchants for the Nationalists to advocate a constitutional parliamentary democracy. The party opposed constitutional monarchists and sought to check
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3680-522: The Tongmenghui days, was sent to Moscow for several months' military and political study. At the first party congress in 1924 in Guangzhou , Guangdong, which included non-KMT delegates such as members of the CCP, they adopted Sun's political theory, which included the Three Principles of the People : nationalism, democracy and people's livelihood. When Sun Yat-sen died in 1925, the political leadership of
3795-667: The Tongmenghui , a group committed to the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and to establish a republic in China. The group supported the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and the founding of the Republic of China on 1 January 1912. Although Sun and the Tongmenghui are often depicted as the principal organizers of the Xinhai Revolution, this view is disputed by scholars who argue that the Revolution broke out in
3910-490: 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. 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 United States had not prepared
4025-554: The national government relocated to Taiwan . Following the death of Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek emerged as the KMT leader and launched the Northern Expedition to defeat the northern warlords and unite China under the party. With its power confirmed in the southeast, the Nationalist Government appointed Chiang Kai-shek commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA), and
4140-802: The "Son of Taiwan" with respect to Lee. However, the two's relationship began to worsen when Lee questioned Chen's reform of the fisheries branch of the Council of Agriculture . Though Lee was present in the 228 Hand-in-Hand rally orchestrated by the Pan-Green Coalition before the 2004 election , the two's relationship broke apart after Chen asked James Soong to be the President of the Executive Yuan in 2005, which Lee disagreed with. Lee also publicly criticized Chen in 2006 by calling him incapable and corrupt. In February 2007, Lee shocked
4255-578: The 1990s. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was under Comintern instructions to cooperate with the KMT, and its members were encouraged to join while maintaining their separate party identities, forming the First United Front between the two parties. Mao Zedong and early members of the CCP also joined the KMT in 1923. Soviet advisers also helped the KMT to set up a political institute to train propagandists in mass mobilization techniques, and in 1923 Chiang Kai-shek, one of Sun's lieutenants from
4370-641: The Act Governing Preferential Treatment for Retired Presidents and Vice Presidents, aimed at denying Lee privileges as a former president. Lee also stated, in 2015, that Taiwanese people were "subjects of Japan" and that Taiwan and Japan were "one country", sparking much criticism from both China and the Pan-Blue Coalition. In response to media requests for comment, then presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen said that “each generation and ethnic group in Taiwan has lived
4485-420: The CCP, and Lee officially left the party in September 1948. In a 2002 interview, Lee admitted that he had been a Communist; Lee remains the only Taiwanese president known to have once been a member of the Chinese Communist Party. In that same interview, Lee said that he had strongly opposed Communism for a long time because he understood the theory well and knew that it was doomed to fail. Lee stated that he joined
4600-536: The Chiang era, 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
4715-560: The Chinese Revolutionary Party on 8 July 1914, but many of his old revolutionary comrades, including Huang Xing, Wang Jingwei , Hu Hanmin and Chen Jiongming , refused to join him or support his efforts in inciting armed uprising against Yuan. To join the Revolutionary Party, members had to take an oath of personal loyalty to Sun, which many old revolutionaries regarded as undemocratic and contrary to
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4830-690: The Communists out of hatred for the KMT . In 1953, Lee received a master's degree in agricultural economics from Iowa State University (ISU) in the United States . Lee returned to Taiwan in 1957 as an economist with the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction (JCRR), an organization sponsored by the U.S. which aimed at modernizing Taiwan's agricultural system and at land reform. During this period, he also worked as an adjunct professor in
4945-448: 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. His advisor was John Williams Mellor . His doctoral dissertation, Intersectoral Capital Flows in the Economic Development of Taiwan, 1895–1960 (published as
5060-485: The Japanese factories and their supplies. Full-scale civil war between the Communists and the Nationalists erupted in 1946. The Communist Chinese armies, the People's Liberation Army (PLA), previously a minor faction, grew rapidly in influence and power due to several errors on the KMT's part. First, the KMT reduced troop levels precipitously after the Japanese surrender, leaving large numbers of able-bodied, trained fighting men who became unemployed and disgruntled with
5175-529: The KMT Central Committee, replacing several elderly waishengren with younger benshengren , mostly of technical backgrounds. Fourteen of these new appointees, like Lee, had been educated 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
5290-423: The KMT and its Canton government accepted aid from the Soviet Union after being denied recognition by the western powers. Soviet advisers—the most prominent of whom was Mikhail Borodin , an agent of the Comintern —arrived in China in 1923 to aid in the reorganization and consolidation of the KMT along the lines of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) , establishing a Leninist party structure that lasted into
5405-468: The KMT as prime recruits for the PLA. Second, the KMT government proved thoroughly unable to manage the economy, allowing hyperinflation to result. Among the most despised and ineffective efforts it undertook to contain inflation was the conversion to the gold standard for the national treasury and the Chinese gold yuan in August 1948, outlawing private ownership of gold, silver and foreign exchange, collecting all such precious metals and foreign exchange from
5520-432: 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 13th National Congress of Kuomintang in July 1988, Lee named 31 members of the Central Committee, 16 of whom were bensheng ren : for
5635-404: The KMT fell to Wang Jingwei (" Reorganization Group ") and Hu Hanmin (" Western Hills Group "), respectively the left-wing and right-wing leaders of the party. However, the real power was in the hands of Chiang Kai-shek, who was in near complete control of the military as the superintendent of the Whampoa Military Academy . With their military superiority, the KMT confirmed their rule on Canton,
5750-410: The KMT government and military. Chiang was alarmed by the expansion of communist influence; he wanted to suppress internal conflicts before confronting foreign aggression. The KMT were aided by German military advisors. The CSR was destroyed in 1934 after a series of KMT offensives. The communists abandoned bases in southeast China for Shaanxi in a military retreat called the Long March ; less than 10% of
5865-441: The PRC and formal Taiwan independence . As the KMT opposes non-peaceful means to resolve the cross-strait disputes while still strongly adhering to the ROC constitution , the party favors a closer relationship with the PRC and accepts the 1992 Consensus , which defines both sides of the Taiwan Strait as " one China " but maintains its ambiguity to different interpretations. It seeks to maintain Taiwan's status quo rather than
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#17327729904095980-429: The PRC for Lee receiving a United States visa. The PRC 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
6095-451: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China
6210-427: The ROC losing its United Nations seat and most countries, including its ally the US, switching diplomatic recognition to the CCP-led People's Republic of China (PRC) in the 1970s. In the late 1980s, Chiang Ching-kuo , Chiang Kai-shek's son, lifted martial law and the ban on opposition parties. His successor Lee Teng-hui continued democratic reforms and was re-elected in 1996 through a direct presidential election ,
6325-431: The ROC had been elected by the members of the National Assembly . For the first time, the President of the ROC would be elected by majority vote of Taiwan's population. 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
6440-415: The Reed ." In July 2015, Lee visited Japan, and again stated that Japan has full sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands . This was the first time Lee made remarks of this nature while in Japan. Members of the pan-Blue New Party and Kuomintang accused him of treason. New Party leader Yok Mu-ming filed charges of treason against Lee, while the KMT's Lai Shyh-bao called a caucus meeting to seek revisions to
6555-408: The Senkaku Islands, drawing complaints from the ROC Presidential Office, President-elect Tsai Ing-wen , and Yilan County fishermen. On 22 June 2018, he visited Japan for the final time in his life. On 30 June 2011, Lee, along with former KMT financier Liu Tai-ying were indicted on graft and money-laundering charges and accused of embezzling US$ 7.79 million in public funds. He was acquitted by
6670-412: The Soviet Model. Chiang was also particularly committed to Sun's idea of "political tutelage". Sun believed that the only hope for a unified and better China lay in a military conquest, followed by a period of political tutelage that would culminate in the transition to democracy. Using this ideology, Chiang built himself into the dictator of the Republic of China, both in the Chinese mainland and after
6785-462: The Taipei District Court on 15 November 2013. Prosecutors appealed the ruling, but on 20 August 2014, Lee was cleared of the charges again. Lee and his wife were Presbyterian Christians. Lee married Tseng Wen-hui on 9 February 1949, with whom he had three children. Their firstborn son Lee Hsien-wen (c. 1950 – 21 March 1982) died of sinus cancer. Daughters Anna and Annie, were born c. 1952 and c. 1954, respectively. Shortly after stepping down from
6900-429: The Taiwanese people vote for Lee. In 1996, the United States sent two aircraft carrier groups to Taiwan's vicinity and the PRC then de-escalated. The military actions disrupted trade and shipping lines and caused a temporary dip in the Asian stock market. Lee's overall stance on Taiwanese independence during the election cycle was characterized as "deliberately vague". The previous eight presidents and vice presidents of
7015-420: The UK government. Both Nationalists and Communist soldiers within the army participated in the rioting and looting of foreign residents in Nanjing. NRA took Beijing in 1928. The city was the internationally recognized capital, even when it was previously controlled by warlords. This event allowed the KMT to receive widespread diplomatic recognition in the same year. The capital was moved from Beijing to Nanjing,
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#17327729904097130-422: The United Nations Chinese unification Taiwan independence movement Taiwanese nationalism Tangwai movement The Kuomintang ( KMT ), also referred to as the Guomindang ( GMD ), the Nationalist Party of China ( NPC ) or the Chinese Nationalist Party ( CNP ), is a political party in the Republic of China , initially based on the Chinese mainland and then in Taiwan since 1949. The KMT
7245-419: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,
7360-493: The colony's police academy and soon volunteered for the Imperial Japanese Navy and died in Manila . Lee—one of only four Taiwanese students in his class at Taihoku Higher School [ zh ] , the only higher school (preparatory schools for the Imperial Universities ) in Japanese Taiwan—graduated with honors and was given a scholarship to Japan's Kyoto Imperial University . During his school days, he learned kendo and bushido . A lifelong collector of books, Lee
7475-402: The communist army survived. A new base, the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region , was created with Soviet aid. KMT secret police persecuted suspected communists and political opponents with terror . In The Birth of Communist China , C.P. Fitzgerald describes China under the rule of the KMT thus: "the Chinese people groaned under a regime Fascist in every quality except efficiency." In 1936, Chiang
7590-417: The communists in the civil war. From 1949 to 1987, the KMT ruled Taiwan as an authoritarian one-party state after the February 28 incident . During this period, martial law was in effect and civil liberties were curtailed as part of its anti-communism efforts, with the period known as the White Terror . The party oversaw Taiwan's economic development , but experienced diplomatic setbacks , including
7705-414: The end of martial law and the full democratization of the ROC , advocated the Taiwanese localization movement , and led an ambitious foreign policy agenda to gain allies around the world. Nicknamed " Mr. Democracy ", Lee was credited as the president who completed Taiwan's democratic transition. After leaving office, he remained active in Taiwanese politics . Lee was considered the "spiritual leader" of
7820-423: The first time in the ROC history. The 2000 presidential election ended 72 years of KMT's dominance in the ROC. The KMT reclaimed power from 2008 to 2016, with the landslide victory of Ma Ying-jeou in the 2008 presidential election , whose presidency significantly loosened restrictions on economic and cultural exchanges with the People's Republic of China. The KMT lost the presidency and its legislative majority in
7935-436: The first time, bensheng ren held a majority in what was then a powerful policy-making body. On 20 March, he ordered to release the political prisoner , Gen. Sun Li-jen from 33 years of house arrest . In August, he listened to the aboriginal legislator Tsai Chung-han 's advocacy in the General Assembly of Legislative Yuan and the journalism reportage of Independence Evening Post on the human rights ' concern to release
8050-446: The foreign powers and the Qing dynasty. The KMT government demanded that the foreign powers renegotiate the treaties on equal terms. Before the Northern Expedition, the KMT began as a heterogeneous group advocating American-inspired federalism and provincial autonomy. However, the KMT under Chiang's leadership aimed at establishing a centralized one-party state with one ideology. This was even more evident following Sun's elevation into
8165-412: The formal independence or the unification. The KMT traces its ideological and organizational roots to the work of Sun Yat-sen , a proponent of Chinese nationalism and democracy who founded the Revive China Society at the capital of the Republic of Hawaii , Honolulu , on 24 November 1894. On 20 August 1905, Sun joined forces with other anti-monarchist societies in Tokyo, Empire of Japan , to form
8280-732: The formation of the First United Front , Sun Yat-sen sent Chiang to spend three months in Moscow studying the political and military system of the Soviet Union. Although Chiang did not follow the Soviet Communist doctrine, he, like the Communist Party, sought to destroy warlordism and foreign imperialism in China , and upon his return established the Whampoa Military Academy near Guangzhou, following
8395-463: The fragmented nation , leading to the fall of the Beiyang government . KMT was the sole ruling party of the ROC in China from 1928 to 1949, however the party had no actual control over a lot of territory during this period due to the civil war with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the war against Japanese aggression. The party retreated to Taiwan in December 1949, following its defeat by
8510-407: The government. Controversially, he attempted to remove the provincial level of government and proposed that lower level government officials be appointed, not elected. 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
8625-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from
8740-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as
8855-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In
8970-549: 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 the People's Republic of China (PRC) that all negotiations between the two sides of the Strait needed to observe. As president, he attempted to further reform
9085-540: The media when he revealed that he did not support Taiwanese independence , when he was widely seen as the spiritual leader of the pro-independence movement. 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." Lee enjoyed
9200-983: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often
9315-677: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as
9430-523: The original capital of the Ming dynasty , and thus a symbolic purge of the final Qing elements. This period of KMT rule in China between 1927 and 1937 was relatively stable and prosperous and is still known as the Nanjing decade . After the Northern Expedition in 1928, the Nationalist government under the KMT declared that China had been exploited for decades under the unequal treaties signed between
9545-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as
9660-474: The people and issuing the Gold Standard Scrip in exchange. As most farmland in the north were under CCP's control, the cities governed by the KMT lacked food supply and this added to the hyperinflation. The new scrip became worthless in only ten months and greatly reinforced the nationwide perception of the KMT as a corrupt or at best inept entity. Third, Chiang Kai-shek ordered his forces to defend
9775-471: The political party's long-term rule of the country and believe that Lee's moves led to the fragmentation of the KMT. On the other hand, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) views Lee positively as a beacon of hope. The DPP had grown in strength under Lee's rule and he set a precedent by presiding over the first ever peaceful transition of power to an opposition party in 2000. A November 2020 phone survey of 1,076 Taiwan citizens aged 18 and above which asked
9890-578: The power of Yuan. The Nationalists won an overwhelming majority in the first National Assembly election in December 1912. However, Yuan soon began to ignore the parliament in making presidential decisions. Song Jiaoren was assassinated in Shanghai in 1913. Members of the Nationalists, led by Sun Yat-sen, suspected that Yuan was behind the plot and thus staged the Second Revolution in July 1913,
10005-781: The predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is a retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to
10120-409: The presidency in 2000, Lee had coronary artery bypass surgery . In late 2011, he underwent surgery to remove stage II colon adenocarcinoma, the most common form of colon cancer. Two years later, he had a stent implanted in his vertebral artery following an occlusion. Lee was sent to Taipei Veterans General Hospital in November 2015 after experiencing numbness in his right hand, and later diagnosed with
10235-447: The pro-independence Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), and recruited for the party in the past. After Lee campaigned for TSU candidates in the 2001 Taiwanese legislative election , he was expelled by the KMT. Other activities that Lee engaged in included maintaining relations with former Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian and Japan. Lee was born in the rural farming community of Sanshi Village , Taihoku Prefecture , Japanese Taiwan . He
10350-516: The provincial capital of Guangdong . The Guangxi warlords pledged loyalty to the KMT. The KMT now became a rival government in opposition to the warlord Beiyang government based in Beijing . Chiang assumed leadership of the KMT on 6 July 1926. Unlike Sun Yat-sen, whom he admired greatly and who forged all his political, economic, and revolutionary ideas primarily from what he had learned in Hawaii and indirectly through Hong Kong and Japan under
10465-473: The question: "Which president, after Taiwan's democratisation, do you think has the best leadership? Lee Teng-hui, Chen Shui-bian, Ma Ying-jeou, or Tsai Ing-wen?" revealed Lee topped the survey with 43 percent, with incumbent president Tsai on 32 percent, Ma on 18 percent and 6.6 percent for Chen. Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan ,
10580-501: The remaining survivors of the civilian Tanker Tuapse free after 34 years in captivity . 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
10695-521: The set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until the middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of
10810-415: The shrine also enshrines World War II Class A criminals among the other soldiers. During the 2012 China anti-Japanese demonstrations , on 13 September 2012, Lee remarked, "The Senkaku Islands , no matter whether in the past, for now or in the future, certainly belong to Japan." Ten years previously, he had stated, "The Senkaku Islands are the territory of Japan." In September 2014, Lee expressed support for
10925-582: The spirit of the revolution. As a result, he became largely sidelined within the Republican movement during this period. Sun returned to China in 1917 to establish a military junta at Canton to oppose the Beiyang government but was soon forced out of office and exiled to Shanghai . There, with renewed support, he resurrected the KMT on 10 October 1919, under the name Kuomintang of China ( 中國國民黨 ) and established its headquarters in Canton in 1920. In 1923,
11040-794: The support of the Soviet agent Mikhail Borodin , Wang declared the National Government as having moved to Wuhan. Having taken Nanjing in March, Chiang halted his campaign and prepared a violent break with Wang and his communist allies. Chiang's expulsion of the CCP and their Soviet advisers, marked by the Shanghai massacre on 12 April, led to the beginning of the Chinese Civil War . Wang finally surrendered his power to Chiang. Once this split had been healed, Chiang resumed his Northern Expedition and managed to take Shanghai. During
11155-583: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with
11270-1040: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write
11385-518: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being
11500-460: The urbanized cities. This decision gave CCP a chance to move freely through the countryside. At first, the KMT had the edge with the aid of weapons and ammunition from the United States (US). However, with the country suffering from hyperinflation , widespread corruption and other economic ills, the KMT continued to lose popular support. Some leading officials and military leaders of the KMT hoarded material, armament and military-aid funding provided by
11615-420: 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 run as an independent and
11730-776: The war, the conflicts among the cliques would have a devastating effect on the survival of the KMT. Muslim Generals in Gansu waged war against the Guominjun in favor of the KMT during the conflict in Gansu in 1927–1930 . In 1931, Japanese aggression resumed with the Mukden Incident and occupation of Manchuria, and the CCP founded the Chinese Soviet Republic (CSR) in Jiangxi while secretly recruiting within
11845-587: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c. 200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c. the 5th century . Although
11960-496: Was a member of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan . Lee's native language was Taiwanese Hokkien . He was proficient in both Mandarin and Japanese and was able to speak English well. It has been claimed that he was more proficient in Japanese than Mandarin. 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
12075-664: 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 of Taiwan before 1949 and their descendants) instead of continuing to promote waisheng ren (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
12190-403: Was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia caused by pulmonary infiltration , and was subsequently intubated. Lee died of multiple organ failure and septic shock at Taipei Veterans General Hospital on 7:24 pm, 30 July 2020, at the age of 97. He had suffered from infections and cardiac problems since he was admitted to hospital in February. A state funeral was announced, while a memorial venue at
12305-408: 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
12420-483: Was formally elected by the National Assembly in 1984. Chiang Ching-kuo died in January 1988 and Lee succeeded him as president. The " Palace Faction " of the KMT, a group of conservative Chinese headed by General Hau Pei-tsun , Premier Yu Kuo-hwa , and Education Minister Lee Huan , as well as Chiang Kai-shek 's widow, Soong Mei-ling , were deeply distrustful of Lee and sought to block his accession to
12535-691: Was heavily influenced by Japanese thinkers like Nitobe Inazō and Kitaro Nishida in Kyoto. In 1944, he too volunteered for service in the Imperial Japanese Army and became a second lieutenant , in command of an anti-aircraft gun in Taiwan. He was ordered back to Japan in 1945 and participated in the clean-up after the Great Tokyo Air Raid of March 1945. Lee stayed in Japan after the surrender and graduated from Kyoto Imperial University in 1946. After World War II ended, and
12650-522: Was intentionally sabotaging the Kuomintang from above. Lee resigned his chairmanship on 24 March. During his presidency, Lee supported the Taiwanese localization movement . The Taiwanization movement has its roots in Japanese rule founded during the Japanese era and sought to put emphasis on vernacular Taiwanese culture in Taiwan as the center of people's lives as opposed to Nationalist China. During
12765-595: Was kidnapped by Zhang Xueliang in the Xi'an Incident and forced into the Second United Front , an anti-Japanese alliance with the CCP; the Second Sino-Japanese War started the following year. The alliance brought little coordination and was treated as a temporary cease fire in the civil war. The New Fourth Army Incident in 1941 ended the alliance. Japan surrendered in 1945, and Taiwan
12880-455: Was of Yongding, Tingzhou Hakka descent. 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 interest in Japan. He was given his Japanese name, Iwasato Masao (岩里政男) by his father. Lee's father was a middle-level Japanese police aide, and his elder brother, Lee Teng-chin (李登欽), who was also known as Iwasato Takenori ( 岩里武則 ) in Japanese, joined
12995-489: Was president, but which he appeared to have privately maintained. After Lee endorsed the candidates of the newly formed Pan-Green Taiwan Solidarity Union , a party established by a number of his KMT allies, Lee was expelled from the KMT on 21 September 2001. Lee publicly supported the Name Rectification Campaigns in Taiwan and proposed changing the name of the country from the Republic of China to
13110-406: Was returned to the Republic of China on 25 October of that year. The brief period of celebration was soon shadowed by the possibility of a civil war between the KMT and CCP. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan just before it surrendered and occupied Manchuria , the north eastern part of China. The Soviet Union denied the KMT army the right to enter the region but allowed the CCP to take control of
13225-425: Was welcomed in visits to Japan since leaving office. Lee admired and enjoyed all things Japanese such as traditional Japanese values. This was the target of criticism from the Pan-Blue Coalition in Taiwan, as well as from China, due to the anti-Japanese sentiment formed during and after World War II. However, this animosity fell in later years, especially in Taiwan. In 1989, he received the highest distinction of
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