Lee Teng-hui

Lee Teng-hui, a political figure of Taiwan, was born on January 15, 1923, in Puming Village, Sanzy Township (now Sanzy Township, Taipei County), Tamsui District, Taiwan, at "Yuanxingju." He was the second son in his family; his father was Lee Jinlong (later renamed Iari Lee Longnan), who served as a police officer in Japan, and his mother was Jiang Jin. Lee Teng-hui's ancestral home is in Yongding, Fujian. In his family, his eldest brother Lee Deng-qin died fighting in the Philippines during Japan's invasion, and his younger brother Lee Bing-nan was engaged in trade.

In his early life, due to his father's transfers, Lee Teng-hui relocated multiple times and received education at several schools, including Xizhi Public School, Nangang Public School, Sanzy Public School, and Tamsui Public School. After graduation, he studied for one year at Taipei National Middle School (now Datong Middle School), then transferred to the second year of Tamsui High School, graduating in 1941. During school, he performed excellently academically, ranking at the top of nearly all subjects, and also participated in Kendo training.

In 1942, Lee Teng-hui entered Taiwan Normal University (studying liberal arts at Taipei High School) with only four Chinese students in his class. The following year, he went to Kyoto Imperial University in Japan to study agricultural economics but was unable to complete his studies due to Japan's wartime restrictions. He received training at Chiba's high artillery unit until Japan's defeat in 1945.

After the war, Lee returned to Taiwan in 1946 to study at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Taiwan University, graduating in 1949, and then stayed on as a faculty member. In 1951, he received a scholarship from the China-U.S. Foundation to study agricultural economics and pricing relations at the University of Iowa in the United States, earning a master's degree. Upon returning to Taiwan, he worked as a lecturer at Taiwan University, served as a researcher at Taiwan Cooperative Bank, and briefly held a position in the Taiwan Provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry.

In 1957, he was promoted to professor at Taiwan University and also served as a professor at the Agricultural Economics Research Institute of Zhongxing University. In 1960, he was detained for four and a half months by the Bureau of Investigation but was later released. In 1965, he received a joint fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation and Cornell University to pursue a Ph.D. at Cornell, where he earned a doctorate in agricultural economics in 1968. His thesis received an outstanding paper award nationwide.

After returning to China, Lee Teng-hui continued his academic activities, serving as leader and advisor of the Agricultural Economics Group of the Agricultural Reconstruction Association. In 1971, he joined the Kuomintang (KMT) through an introduction, marking the start of his political career. During the Chiang Ching-kuo era, he held key positions such as "Government Affairs Commissioner," Mayor of Taipei, and Chairman of Taiwan Province, gradually accumulating political capital. After Chiang Ching-kuo's death in 1988, Lee Teng-hui succeeded as the leader of Taiwan and embarked on a political career spanning several decades.

During his tenure, he promoted numerous political and economic reforms, emphasizing "localization" and "democratization," and successfully was re-elected in 1996. He adopted a stance of "special state-to-state relations" in cross-strait relations, supported Taiwan independence, and proposed concepts such as the "Seven Pieces of Taiwan" theory. After losing the 2000 presidential election to Democratic Progressive Party candidate Chen Shui-bian, he gradually withdrew from the political center but continued to engage in social commentary and academic exchanges, becoming an influential Taiwanese political figure.

Lee Teng-hui passed away on July 30, 2020, in Taipei at the age of 97. Most of his life was spent in Taiwan, experiencing key periods such as Japanese colonial rule, post-war reconstruction, and democratic transition, leaving a complex and profound historical legacy.