Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) acknowledged yesterday that he had joined the Chinese Communist Party in the 1940s -- but said he did so in order to realize his ideas for Taiwan.
In an interview with a local cable-TV station yesterday, Lee said he has long been a strong opponent of communism because he understands it so well that he knows the political theory is doomed to fail.
Lee's interview came after a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday that the former president had joined the Communists in 1946 through the introduction of Wu Ke-tai (
The newspaper story was based on an interview with Wu, a retired Chinese party official, who said he had meet Lee during a visit to Taipei in March.
Lee's admission triggered an immediate furor in the Legislative Yuan, with TSU and DPP lawmakers defending him and the pan-blue camp attacking him.
Pan-green lawmakers said Lee's Communist Party association was due to his love for Taiwan while PFP and KMT lawmakers accused him of adopting a double standard.
KMT Legislator Cheng Feng-shih (鄭逢時) said it was contradictory for Lee, as a former Communist Party member, to blame the pan-blue camp for attempting to sell out Taiwan by colluding with China.
In his books, Lee has said that he is from the era when the theories of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin were fashionable and Marx's Das Kapital was popular among college students.
According to Lee, young Taiwan-ese embraced communism in the late 1940s because they detested the KMT's alien rule.
The loathing of the KMT intensified, Lee said, after the 228 Incident.
He said he joined the KMT in 1971 because "the safest place is the most dangerous place."
Lee acknowledged yesterday that he had met with Wu earlier this year, but denied most of Wu's comments about the meeting.
The Taiwan-born Wu moved to China in 1949 when he was 24-years old. He was already a Communist Party member.
He had not seen Lee in 55 years, until the two men met this year, reportedly at the former president's home in Taipei.
Wu said that Lee's manners and the way he talked were still the same, but his way of thinking had changed tremendously.
Wu said that he was surprised by Lee's fondness for Japan and the US, given Lee's Communist Party membership.
"As his old friend, I had to tell him he would lead himself into a risky direction," Wu said.
In his interview, Lee was dismissive of his old friend. He said Wu was simply trying to promote himself by talking about Lee.
He also hinted that that Wu's political leanings might not be so strong, saying "the ideals held by communists no longer exist."
Lee said the main reason Wu returned to Taiwan was to claim compensation for his father, who was a victim of the KMT's White Terror era.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
ENHANCING EFFICIENCY: The apron can accommodate 16 airplanes overnight at Taoyuan airport while work on the third runway continues, the transport minister said A new temporary overnight parking apron at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to start operating on Friday next week to boost operational efficiency while the third runway is being constructed, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The apron — one of the crucial projects in the construction of the third runway — can accommodate 16 aircraft overnight at the nation’s largest international airport, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told reporters while inspecting the new facility yesterday morning. Aside from providing the airport operator with greater flexibility in aircraft parking during the third runway construction,
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
RSS