Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) yesterday appeared unmoved by KMT plans to wipe him from the party's past, saying his role in Taiwan's history won't be changed no matter what the KMT does.
"It wouldn't matter if I was excluded from KMT history [because] Taiwan's history will be always there, and so will be Lee Teng-hui," Lee told his supporters in Nantou while attending the establishment of the region's Association of the Friends of Lee Teng-hui.
Despite the attacks on him, the 79-year-old Lee vowed to devote his life to Taiwan and boost Taiwanese welfare.
He added that it does not matter who the next president will be as long as that person recognizes Taiwan as his or her homeland.
He also reiterated his claim that the relationship between Taiwan and China is "state-to-state" in nature while rejecting the existence of the so-called 1992 consensus.
The 1992 consensus states that "Taiwan and China agree that there is one China, with each side having its own interpretation."
Both the KMT and Beijing have urged the government to use the consensus to resume cross-strait dialogue on technical matters while temporarily shelving political issues, whereas the DPP has questioned the existence of such a consensus.
The KMT announced this week that it will have put together its historical records by the end of June. It will take the opportunity to re-examine Lee's merits and faults during his 12-year reign and it is through this move that the party wishes to sever ties with Lee. The chairman of the KMT from 1988 to 2000, Lee was expelled from the party in September 2000 for openly endorsing the TSU, an independence-minded political group.
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