LettersLife of Taiwan’s Lee Teng-hui offers lessons for Hong Kong on people power

Name: Obituary: Lee Teng-hui, Taiwan’s first democratically elected president, dies at age 97
Uploaded: 2020-08-08T22:10:05.000Z
Duration: 1 min 39 s
Description: Obituary: Lee Teng-hui, Taiwan’s first democratically elected president, dies at age 97

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Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen pays her respects at a memorial for Lee Teng-hui in Taipei on August 1. Lee, who brought direct elections and other democratic changes to the island, died on July 30 at age 97. Photo: AP

Letters

Published: 6:10am, 9 Aug 2020Updated: 6:10am, 9 Aug 2020

I share the grief of the Taiwanese people on the passing of former president Lee Teng-hui. Lee was the chief architect of Taiwan’s transition from one-party dictatorship into a promising democracy, which makes him one of my political heroes. In his 12-year presidency, Taiwan became the beacon of democracy in the Chinese-speaking world while also managing to eradicate poverty and sustain a high-income status.

Taiwan’s experience with Covid-19 is a strong case for democratic government when confronting abrupt situations. The pandemic has been kept under control with less than 500 confirmed cases and limited interference in people’s lives, thanks to the single-payer National Health Insurance, which was enacted by Lee’s administration in 1995.

Lee emerged as the protégé of Chiang Ching-kuo and climbed the ranks of the Kuomintang (KMT) hierarchy, which mainly consisted of mainland technocrats who fled to Taiwan following the Nationalist defeat in the Chinese civil war. Both Chiang and Lee understood the KMT party-state governed as a non-local regime and envisaged localisation for Taiwan’s best interests. After he succeeded Chiang, Lee ended the four decade-long state of emergency.

Lee showed truly admirable courage and foresight in returning power to the people. Democratisation reached its tipping point in 1990 after the outbreak of the Wild Lily student movement, and eventually the Taiwanese people got to decide their future, as well as their president and representatives through universal suffrage. Around the same time but on the other end of the Taiwan Strait, the democratic movement ended in bloodshed as the People’s Liberation Army brutally suppressed peaceful student protesters.

Sadly, recent developments in Hong Kong augur an authoritarian style of governance. Notwithstanding mass disqualifications of opposition candidates, the chief executive sparked a constitutional crisis in announcing the postponement of the Legislative Council election, even though the Basic Law clearly defines its term of office and it is feasible to hold the vote with more health precautions. As the government continues to double down on this approach, I see no hope for reconciliation.

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Obituary: Lee Teng-hui, Taiwan’s first democratically elected president, dies at age 97

One famous quote of Lee reads, “Whatever I have done as president of my nation, I have done so with the people in my heart.” I sincerely hope Beijing and Hong Kong will understand this and return power to the Hong Kong people one day. Democracy and development are both equally important for the long-term benefit of Hong Kong.