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.