Lee extols Taiwan democracy, sovereignty

By Harvey Stockwin

HONG KONG (JP): As President Lee Teng-hui was sworn in Monday in Taipei as the first popularly-elected leader in Chinese history, he cleverly made a concession to Western and Asian opinion, while refusing to appease China.

Lee's offer to make a "journey of peace" to Beijing "for a direct exchange of views" with its communist rulers was a headline-catching response to pressure from the United States, Japan and other countries for Taiwan to be more flexible in relation to China.

But his whole speech was couched in terms which, given China's recent intransigence over the reunification issue, mean that such a "journey of peace" is most unlikely to be taken any time soon. Even before the speech was delivered, the leading China-owned pro-communist daily in Hong Kong, the Wen Wei Bao, had denounced both Lee and the leaked version of the speech. Since then, various unofficial spokesmen for China have also derided it.

The negative communist reaction is predictable. In his inaugural speech, Lee, who won 54 percent of the vote in the March presidential election, repeatedly stressed the virtues of democracy, the sovereign powers of the Taiwan government, China's recent bellicose acts towards Taiwan, and the fact of Taiwan's separation from mainland communist rule for the last 47 years.

All these positions are anathema to China's communist rulers, for whom peaceful reunification means that Taiwan, the renegade province, surrenders its sovereign powers to the communist government in Beijing, and then receives back whatever "autonomy" Beijing is willing to concede.

Reports from Taiwan Monday said that Taiwan police had arrested a man carrying both Chinese and Taiwan travel papers plus a revolver, six bullets and an infra-red aiming device, at the stadium before Lee delivered his inaugural speech. Whether this was the result of communist perfidy, Kuomintang theatrics or a more harmless cause remains to be seen.

There were a couple of Kennedyesque touches as Lee began his inaugural speech by stressing that "Today the Chinese people enter a new frontier full of hope. We now stand on the apex of democratic reform and will remain there resolutely. We have proved eloquently that the Chinese are capable of practicing democracy .... We will never negotiate under threat of attack, but we do not fear to negotiate."

The first item on Lee's agenda for the next four years was "to broaden and deepen the democratic exercise ... economic growth and political democracy are equally important". He announced that the government would "soon invite opinion leaders and other representatives from various quarters to exchange views on major topics of future national development".

None of this will go down well in Beijing. China rejects all democratic reform and arrests anyone in China talking like Lee does. The refusal of the communist authorities to consult with the leaders of the nationwide demonstrations in the spring of 1989 led inexorably to the Beijing Massacre on June 4.

China's policy is to pursue economic growth without any political reform. It was President Lee's stress in his speech at Cornell University, stressing political reform, which so angered the Chinese rulers with his visit last year to the United States. To this day, it remains arguable whether it was the visit or the speech which really provoked China's fury with Lee's U.S. visit.

Lee has realized that political reform and economic development and modernization go hand-in-hand. China's communist hardliners refuse to acknowledge this basic truth. So the May 20th speech inevitably illustrated the political chasm which still separates China and Taiwan.

President Lee rejected any policy of independence -- but chided China for failing to recognize "that the Republic of China does exist ... the Republic of China has always been a sovereign state".

He suggested that since Taiwan was "equipped with a much higher level of education and development than other parts of China, Taiwan is set to gradually exercise its leadership role in cultural development and take upon itself the responsibility for nurturing a new Chinese culture".

One of the consequences of political democracy was that "Taiwan's society has become robustly pluralistic".

Lee even suggested that Taiwan would be "willing to lend a helping hand to help maintain democracy, freedom and prosperity" in Hong Kong and Macau, and what was happening in the two colonies "has always been of great concern to us".

All told the speech brilliantly ensured that while Lee said he was "ready to meet with the top leadership of the Chinese communists for a direct exchange of views in order to open up a new era of communication," there is very little chance that any such meeting will take place.

Rather, the speech poses a political problem for China -- how to reply without making its hardline intransigence even more obvious.

President Lee used his inaugural speech to portray Taiwan as the Middle Kingdom that matters. In a way he has right to do so. Unlike all other Chinese leaders, Lee got himself elected.