Wu Shu-chen (吳淑珍) will be the ROC's second first lady to visit the US, but she stressed that comparisons between her and Madame Chiang (蔣夫人), Chiang Kai-shek's (蔣介石) wife, only touch the surface.
The previous first lady to visit Washington was Soong Mayling (
Later, while Chiang's KMT government battled communists in a civil war, the US-educated Madame Chiang -- fluent in English -- frequently went to Washington seeking support.
Wu said that she and Madame Chiang, who is now 105 and lives in New York, are completely different people.
"I heard that her English was better than her Chinese," Wu, who speaks little English, said yesterday in the palm-tree-shaded presidential residence in southwest Taipei.
Another big difference, Wu said, was that Madame Chiang's husband was a dictator, while her husband is a democratically elected president.
She also recalled how Madame Chiang was often called a "first lady for life." Wu said she would never accept such a title.
"When my term as first lady is over, that's it," she said. "I'm going to be an ordinary person again."
Wu said yesterday that she has no plans to bring up the nation's sovereignty dispute with China during her upcoming historic trip to Washington -- unless someone asks her about it.
Wu will argue that Taiwan is definitely a sovereign nation if reporters in the US bring it up, she said in an exclusive interview.
"If we're not an independent nation, how could I be a first lady?" Wu said.
Wu, who leaves for the US on Thursday, will be the first president's wife to visit Washington in about half a century. The US capital has long been off-limits to Taiwanese leaders and other symbolic figures from Taiwan because of intense pressure from China.
But US President George W. Bush has adopted a friendlier policy toward Taiwan and Wu's visit is the latest example of Washington's new flexibility. Her nine-day trip includes stops in New York and Los Angeles.
Wu acknowledged that her visit might cause tensions between the US and China. But she said the American public would support her and her husband, President Chen Shui-bian (
"World leaders should have the freedom to visit other countries, and I think Americans will be able to agree with this," she said.
The first lady plans to give a speech at the National Arts Club in New York on Sept. 20. She will also speak at the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington on Sept. 24, and attend a cocktail reception in her honor at the US Congress on Sept. 25.
Wu said her speeches would focus on Taiwan's success in evolving from authoritarian rule to democracy.
She said that she saw no need to bring up Taiwan's claims that it isn't a part of the PRC. "I don't need to keep repeating this. It's just like I don't have to keep emphasizing that I'm a woman," she said.
Traveling abroad is difficult for the wheelchair-bound Wu, paralyzed from the waist down since a truck hit her in 1985 during Taiwan's repressive martial law era.
The driver, a farmer, said the incident was an accident and was never charged with a crime. But yesterday, Wu repeated her assertion that it was a politically motivated murder attempt, noting that the truck ran over her three times.
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