Lee Teng-hui, known as Taiwan’s “father of democracy” and its first popularly elected president, died, according to a statement from his family.
Lee, who oversaw Taiwan’s transition from martial law to one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies, died Thursday night of septic shock and multiple organ failure at Taipei Veterans General Hospital. He had been in the hospital for more than five months after suffocating while drinking milk and then contracting pneumonia. He was 97 years old.
Lee served as president from 1988 to 2000, overseeing the end of the authoritarian rule of his party, the nationalist party, which had seized Taiwan after fleeing mainland China in 1949 after the Chinese Communist Party’s defeat in the civil war.
A statement from the office of current President Tsai Ing-wen said: “President Lee’s contribution to Taiwan’s democratic journey is irreplaceable and his death is a great loss to the country.”
The foreign affairs ministry said in a statement: “The world will remember him as Mr. Democracy, the architect of Taiwan’s modern liberal democratic system, which allows the country to remain firm on the global stage.”
Born in Sanzhi, a rural outpost near Taipei, when Taiwan was under Japanese control, Lee became the country’s first native president, taking office after Chiang Ching-kuo’s death in 1988. Chiang had elected to Lee as his vice president at a time when top positions were normally reserved for those born in mainland China.
In 1996, he became the first president to be elected by popular vote after months of missile tests and war games launched by Beijing in an effort to intimidate voters.
Lee called for Taiwan to be treated as a sovereign state and pushed for self-determination. Trying to bridge the gap between those born in mainland China who fled to the island in 1949 with the nationalists and the natives of Taiwan, he promoted a common “New Taiwanese” identity.
While reviewing relations with the Chinese Communist Party, opening talks in the 1990s that would allow for trade and economic ties, Beijing called Lee “secessionist” and the state media described him as “the scum of the nation.”
China believes that Taiwan is an inalienable part of the country and has vowed to bring the island into the fold by force if necessary. Lee wrote in 2005: “It is an indisputable fact that Taiwan does not belong to China.”
In a Facebook post, Tsai Ing-wen wrote: “Lee was not afraid to talk about life and death. Since he was aware of death, he could think about the meaning of life … Although today he has left the world, he left democracy and freedom in Taiwan. “
