President Chen Shui-bian (
"Mr Lee's actions and ideology enlightened Taiwan's democracy movement. ? helping Taiwan progress from an autocratic government to a democratic and free government," Chen said.
Lee published the Public Opinion Press (公論報) from 1947 to 1961 and spread democratic ideology after the KMT government cracked down on most other private media organizations and arrested those organizations' executive editors and presidents. The Public Opinion Press and the monthly magazine Free China (
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Lee was born in Taiwan's Yunlin County in 1901, and studied in Shanghai and Paris. He was one of the KMT government's official representatives who came back to Taiwan following the jurisdiction's return to Chinese rule after World War II. Lee served as the president of the Taiwan Shin-Sheng Daily News (
Lee was one of few councilors who questioned the value of retaking mainland China, and he further proposed the idea of establishing an opposition party in 1960.
Lee's power as president of the Taiwan Shin-Sheng Daily News, however, was taken away by the KMT government after the 228 incident. Many of his colleagues were arrested or disappeared as well.
Lee started to publish the Public Opinion Press in 1947, after he left the Taiwan Shin-Sheng Daily. The press was one of few independent publications at that time. It spread the spirit of democracy and freedom.
DPP Legislator Shen Fu-Hsiung (
"My father subscribed to the Public Opinion Press when I was a kid. The printing quality was not good, but it established democratic ideology in our minds," Shen said.
The critical publication was many times the subject of KMT oppression, and was finally shut down by government in 1961. Just a year earlier, Free China was shut down after its president, Lei-chen (
The principal reason for the shutdown of the two critical publications was because Lei and Lee had established an opposition party -- the China Democratic Party (
After the morning gathering, scholars and many of Lee's relatives hosted an academic conference on Taiwan's democracy and press freedom to commemorate Lee's contributions to Taiwan.
Yang Wei-che (
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