Ex-Taiwan president an old friend of Japan

Ex-Taiwan president an old friend of Japan

By Benjamin Kang Lim

TAIPEI (Reuters): The "scum of the nation" as Beijing calls
Lee Teng-hui, had a knack for goading Chinese leaders into fury
while he was Taiwan president.

They hated him for planting democracy on Taiwan, loathed him
for his dogged attempts to help the island break out of its
diplomatic isolation, and more than anything despised him for his
call for "special state-to-state" relations, which they saw as a
grab for independence.

He was a devout Christian while they were atheists, and a
native Taiwanese, which made them uncomfortable.

On top of all this, Lee liked Japan.

It was double treason as far as China's Communist Party rulers
were concerned.

His warm feelings were not just for the modern country but for
the militarist Japan which ruled Taiwan as a colony for 50 years
until 1945 -- the same Japan whose armies raped and pillaged
China.

"Beijing hates Lee Teng-hui because it is convinced he is for
Taiwan's independence and associates him with right-wing Japanese
politicians," said National Taiwan University political science
associate professor Philip Yang.

A fluent Japanese speaker, Lee confessed in a famous interview
with a Japanese historian in 1994 that in his early life -- under
a fairly benign Japanese administration in Taiwan -- he felt more
Japanese than Chinese.

He trained as an agricultural economist, first at Japan's
Kyoto Imperial University on a rare scholarship and then in the
United States at Iowa State University and Cornell, where he
earned a doctorate in agricultural economics.

To China, Lee's affinity for Japan only reinforces their
belief he has no sense of Taiwan's historic destiny as part of
China.

Now, 16 months into his retirement, Lee is provoking Beijing
yet again by going to Japan to seek medical treatment.

The Chinese Communist Party rose to power on the back of a
guerrilla struggle against Japanese invaders, and anti-Japanese
sentiment still runs deep in China.

As before, Beijing's anger at Lee is made worse by its
flailing attempts to get back at him. Lee goes to Japan knowing
that China's response is unlikely to go beyond loud diplomatic
complaints aimed at Tokyo.

Lee has rarely made public appearances and his influence has
waned rapidly since stepping down as president last May after his
Nationalist Party was swept from power almost half a century.

"He is yesterday's politician," said political scientist
Joseph Wu. "But ironically many in today's society and China
still think he is important."

Despite Lee's waning influence, many politicians are still
eager to cash in on his popularity.

Taiwan media have speculated pro-Lee Nationalist deputies
could form an alliance with President Chen Shui-bian's Democratic
Progressive Party after year-end parliamentary elections.

He now spends his time playing golf and is honorary chairman
of a think-tank.

At an impromptu news conference last week, Lee called the
Japanese "more timid than a mouse" for agonizing over his visa
application.

A week after his retirement, a 70-year-old retired military
prosecutor splashed red ink at Lee, who stood stiffly while the
ink dripped from his neck and stained his white jacket during an
athletic meeting.

The man blamed Lee for the Nationalists' loss in presidential
elections last year.

Lee's landmark visit to the United States in 1995, when he was
president, provoked an angry China to menace the island with war
games for months but saw him re-elected by a landslide the
following year.

Just as bilateral ties were back on track, Lee dropped a
bombshell by redefining Taipei-Beijing ties as "special state to
state" in July 1999, prompting an enraged China to suspend fence-
mending dialogue to this day.

Lee thrived on defying Beijing and its drive to reabsorb the
wealthy democratic island that it regards a breakaway province.

As Taiwan's first native-born president, Lee's loyalty to his
island home, rather than to the old Nationalist vision of a
united China, was at the root of trouble with Beijing.

Beijing has threatened to attack Taiwan if the island declared
independence or dragged its feet on unification talks.

Lee is nickname "Mr Democracy" for leading Taiwan out of
decades of authoritarian one-party rule -- including almost 40
years under martial law. He ended the authoritarian "Chiang
dynasty" after inheriting the presidency in 1988 from Chiang
Ching-kuo, son of the late generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.

Lee retired the Old Guard and introduced popular presidential,
mayoral and parliamentary elections. He eased curbs on free
speech and depoliticized the army, but is accused by critics of
allowing political corruption to spread unchecked.