The Father of Taiwanese Identity

There are no paparazzi visible on the hillside above Lee Teng-huis home in the Shihlin suburb of Taipei, but his aide points out where they stake out the house with their long lenses. While the former president is officially retired"two golf bags stand ready by the carport"he remains a political force to be reckoned with. Expelled from the Kuomintang party he once led, Mr. Lee is now the "spiritual leader" of a small party, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, and he is still jockeying to expand its influence.

Dressed casually in a windbreaker, Mr. Lee is waiting in his living room, still looking younger than his 84 years. Japanese-style green tea and cakes are served, and Mr. Lee reveals that the cakes are from the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. He traveled to Japan for 11 days in May to accept a prize named after Shinpei Goto, a colonial administrator in Taiwan in the early 20th century, and while there he paid his respects at Yasukuni, where Japanese honor their war dead and the names of the militarist leaders who were executed for war crimes are also enshrined.

That visit stirred outrage in China, since anti-Japanese sentiment runs high and a key point of contention with former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Koizumi was his custom of visiting Yasukuni. As Mr. Lee returned home, a Chinese man threw a bottle at him in Tokyo airport. Discussing the shrine is the only time he becomes visibly agitated. "Why should they oppose it," he complains. "My brother was killed during World War II in the Philippines [while serving in the Japanese navy]. I dont even know where he is buried. My father wouldnt believe that he was dead. So why is it bad if I go to Tokyo?"

Mr. Lee also defends the right of Japanese politicians to pay their respects at the shrine. "Chinese people need to change their thinking. In any country, you should honor those who sacrificed their lives for the nation. Japanese are the same."

That puts Mr. Lee at the far end of the spectrum of opinion even among Japanese; the emperor has refused to visit since the names of the war criminals were added. Moreover, many Chinese will never understand why Mr. Lee sees Yasukuni as the proper place to remember his fallen brother.

That requires delving into the complex history of the island that gives it an identity unique from mainland China. Not only was Japanese rule relatively benevolent there, in contrast to China, Korea and elsewhere, but after the war a new occupying force, the KMT under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, brutalized Taiwan. Hence many native Taiwanese share Mr. Lees strong affinity for Japan and Japanese culture.

Indeed the process of talking with Mr. Lee peels back the many components of Taiwans identity like an onion. We start out in English, then switch to mandarin Chinese with bits of Taiwanese dialect thrown in, then to Japanese, and back to Mandarin. Mr. Lee gets into full flow in Japanese, while in Mandarin and English, his third and fourth languages, the thoughts flow more haltingly. Occasionally an aide steps in to translate a concept from Japanese into Mandarin.

Discussing the trip to Japan sends Mr. Lee off on a long meditation on Gotos role in developing Taiwans economic institutions, while he faced a comparable challenge in building democratic institutions. An extraordinary leader who later became mayor of Tokyo among many other roles, Goto clearly was much more of an inspiration to the president than his KMT predecessors.

Mr. Lee is best known for being the first Taiwanese-born KMT leader of Taiwan and the first democratically elected president. But another aspect of his legacy is coming to the fore today"his efforts to forge a new Taiwanese identity. By starting the process of revamping Taiwanese education to do away the mainlander mythology of a unified China, he set the stage for a cultural change that is irreversible. Even though economic, cultural and personal ties with China continue to grow, the citizens of the Republic of China increasingly identify themselves as Taiwanese, not Chinese.

There were two aspects to Mr. Lees effort: emphasizing Taiwans differences from mainland China, and healing the rift between native Taiwanese and the "mainlanders" who came to the island with Generalissimo Chiang in 1949. While in office, Mr. Lee pushed the idea of "new Taiwanese," which included both groups.

But under the current administration, inclusiveness has given way to renewed tensions, as President Chen Shui-bian has sought to drive a wedge between the two groups in order to gain electoral advantage over the KMT. He has also stirred up tension with China in order to drive up support for his Democratic Progressive Party. Neither of these sit well with the former president.

When pressed on why Taiwans chaotic democracy hasnt matured faster, he points to the lack of leadership to create a democratic culture. Getting the mechanics of voting in place is relatively easy. But there is no democracy without a change of mentality.

For instance, take Malaysia and Singapore. "They cannot give up Asian values. They vote for a prime minister, but he is thinking, I am an emperor. I can control everything. All the national power, money, assets, belong to him." That condemns them to the endless cycle of dynastic politics.

Taiwan seemed to be progressing out of this cycle, but since 2000, it has stopped, and is even regressing. "Now on every matter, the president will express a view. This is not the way of democracy, the president cannot run everything. It is very similar to the Chiang Kai-shek era."

Mr. Lee expresses disgust with President Chens high-profile campaign to mobilize public support for joining the United Nations. The current administration may have managed to get the whole body politic dancing to the same tune. But it has no positive effect on the citizens of Taiwan. "After everybody votes for it, what then? What is the next step? What is Taiwans hope?" The summary rejection of Taiwans application by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was actually a blessing in disguise, because it spared Taiwan yet another humiliation in the General Assembly.

The president does have a responsibility to expand Taiwans international space, but this requires diplomatic skill, not just posturing. Taiwans economic prowess is a key tool, and the process of globalization naturally increases the opportunities for Taiwan to have its voice heard. Empty posturing, though, will only backfire and hurt Taiwans interests.

So does Taiwan need to declare independence? Mr. Lee leaves open the door. "Taiwans legal status is still very ambiguous," he says, and this is something the mainland has acknowledged in the past. "But how to solve the problem? It seems to me this is the more important mission of the president, working step by step to solve this problem."

Hu Jintaos relatively conciliatory words at the Chinese Communist Party Congress in Beijing a few days earlier do not impress him, because Chinas offers of talks are still predicated on the "one China" principle.

But in all the discussion of the "1992 consensus," what is overlooked is that it was his 1991 decision to end the state of civil war, recognize the jurisdiction of the Peoples Republic over the mainland, and establish principles to govern any process of unification that made the cross-Strait talks possible. If the mainland is not prepared to do the same and recognize the R.O.C.s jurisdiction over Taiwan and deal with it on a basis of equality, there is no way to recreate the basis for the 1992 talks.

As president, Mr. Lee tried to slow the flow of Taiwanese investment into the mainland, so that the island would not become too dependent, and also prevent the migration of the islands best technology across the Strait. So he has been dismayed by the Chen administrations failure to continue this policy, and promote the development of strategic industries.

The future of the Taiwan Solidarity Union is unclear. After the 2000 election, Mr. Lee became a staunch supporter of newly elected President Chen Shui-bian and the cause of national independence. But in the past year, he has begun to tack back toward a more moderate position. In part that may reflect Mr. Chens unpopularity. But observers also note that with his NGO work particularly in the field of education Mr. Lee has his finger on the pulse of public opinion. Given Mr. Lees acumen, its safe to assume he has gauged that the public mood has turned against needless confrontation with the mainland.

That doesnt mean Mr. Lee is ready to go back into the KMT fold. He refuses to be drawn on his opinion of the partys candidate for the presidency in 2008, Ma Ying-jeou, but some of his recent remarks suggest that he thinks Mr. Ma is too compliant toward China and might sell out the island. In other words, Mr. Ma is too closely tied to the old mainlander wing of the party.

This distancing from both the major parties may signal a new direction for the TSU, which recently purged two members regarded as leaning toward President Chens DPP. So far the main cleavage in Taiwanese politics has been between the "green" DPP, which is left-leaning, pro-independence and represents the interests of native Taiwanese, and the "blue" KMT, which is more conservative, conciliatory toward China and represents the interests of mainlanders and the more cosmopolitan urban Taiwanese. Some have suggested that if the KMT could shed its mainlander historical baggage and hidebound leadership, it could easily come out on top. That is, there is a large niche for a conservative green party that is not being filled. If the KMT cant move into this space, perhaps Mr. Lees TSU will.