Remembering Lee Teng-hui: Ex-aide praises Lee Teng-hui’s love for TaiwanBy Chen Yu-fu and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writerFormer president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) made great contributuons to Taiwan, including democratization, strengthening national sovereignty and enhancing people’s identity as Taiwanese, former Presidential Office secretary-general Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said on Thursday after Lee died in Taipei aged 97. When Chiang died the following year, then-vice president Lee succeeded him, becoming the first Taiwan-born president of the nation, as opposed to his predecessors who were born in China. “I, Lee Teng-hui, promise that I will not hold grudges against anybody while I am on this Earth. I will respond to public opinion and never stop working for my beloved Taiwan,” Huang quoted Lee as saying after he was elected. Lee’s efforts to deepen Taiwan’s democracy did not stop when he stepped down as president in 2000, as he went on to found the Lee Teng-hui Foundation and the Lee Teng-hui Academy, which aimed to cultivate more young people who identified with and loved Taiwan, Huang said.

Source: Taipei Times July 31, 2020 15:56 UTC