Lee Teng-hui

Lee Teng- hui (Chinese李登辉, Pinyin lǐ Denghui; born January 15, 1923 in Sanzhi in Taipei County, Japanese Empire, today Republic of China) is a Taiwanese politician. He was 1988-2000 President of the Republic of China on Taiwan and Chairman of the Kuomintang. Lee was the first Taiwan-born politician, who held these offices.

Political career

After studies in the U.S., Japan and Taiwan Lee received his PhD in 1968 in the United States in the field of agricultural sciences. Then he returned to Taiwan and joined the Kuomintang in 1971. Between 1972 and 1978 he was a member of the government as Minister without Portfolio from 1978 to 1981 he was mayor of the capital Taipei. Lee was then provincial governor of Taiwan, before he was elected by the National Assembly in 1984 as Vice President of the Republic of China.

After the death of President Chiang Ching- kuo in 1988, he took over its successor. When he visited his old university in the United States in 1995, it came to a crisis in conflict with the People's Republic of China. As President Lee continued the democratization begun by his predecessor. After an electoral reform, he was on 23 March 1996, 54 percent of the vote, the first directly and democratically elected President of the Republic of China on Taiwan.

In the 2000 presidential election, he no longer went to. Unrest within the Kuomintang, was blamed for its occurrence Lee, led to his resignation as party chairman in March 2000 and finally in December 2000 to exclude Lee from the party. Since 2001 he has been founded by him and his followers Taiwanese Solidarity Union ( TSU ,台湾 团结 联盟Chinese, Pinyin Táiwān tuanjie Lianmeng, English Taiwan Solidarity Union ) that aggressively works to meet the line of Koumintang for a formal declaration of independence of Taiwan. Prior to the 2008 presidential election in Taiwan, he declared his support for the candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party Hsieh Chang- ting. Even before the presidential election in 2012, he openly declared his support for the candidate of the pan- green coalition Tsai Ing -wen.

2011 brought the prosecution indictment against him for embezzlement of public funds during his reign.

Swell

• Chiang, Su- Hui: Political Elites and Their Images: Politics representations on the example of the five presidents in Taiwan by 1950 to 2002.
• Weyrauch, Thomas: China unheeded Republic. 100 years in the shadow of world history. Volume 2 (1950 - 2011). 450 pages, Longtai 2011, ISBN 978-3-938946-15-2