A few days ago, former president Lee Teng-hui (
I watched the receptions he received in New York and Los Angeles. The banquets put on for him in those cities demonstrated the affection and respect the Taiwanese still have for their former leader.
The New York dinner was held in a plush hotel in Manhatten, and commanded US$250 per head. The event ran up a bill of US$250,000, all paid for by local Taiwanese.
A declaration of affection for Lee, it was a very touching occasion.
In Los Angeles he was treated to a dinner called the "Banquet of the Century," attended by more than 300 people.
The reception given to Lee as he entered the room was something akin to the fervor one would expect at a political rally prior to a presidential election.
Not even Kim Dae-jung or Kim Young-sam in South Korea, Corazon Aquino in the Philippines or the four former living US presidents could expect a welcome like this.
This enthusiasm was not limited to Taiwanese people. It also came from the the US media, with reports appearing in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, with the Post publishing a special interview.
The Wall Street Journal called on Americans to give Taiwan's Mr Democracy a hero's welcome. Lee was also called a hero by the Los Angeles Times, which quoted a US senator as saying that Taiwan should take down all the statues of former president Chiang Kai-shek (
The US is visited by political figures week in and week out, sometimes presidents and prime ministers, but these visits, let alone those by former leaders, do not necessarily reach the papers, as was the case with a recent visit by the prime minister of Bulgaria.
This time, it was the former leader of a country that doesn't even have a UN seat.
Lee's speech at the National Press Club (NPC) in Washington was also an unprecedented occasion, with over 200 journalists in attendance. According to the NPC chairman, there had never been so many reporters there.
In the US Congress, more than 20 senators took to the podium with speeches of welcome for Lee, all praising the former president for his promotion of democracy.
A Cuban-born woman senator wished that her country would one day become like Taiwan.
A chairman of the US Congressional Taiwan Caucus welcomed the fact that Lee has been termed a "troublemaker," saying that name was also leveled at former presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
Lee was presented with a US flag that had flown on Capitol Hill in recognition of his promotion of democracy in Taiwan, and the praise Lee had had for US democracy during the course of his trip.
For Taiwan, Lee is a hero struggling to protect Taiwan from China.
For US senators, he is a hero who is fighting for the cause of democracy.
One could say that he is a hero for anyone who believes in democracy and freedom.
His trip across the US has been a victorious call for democracy, a hero's voyage in which Taiwan has been allowed to shine.
Cao Changqing is a writer based in New York.
TRANSLATED BY PAUL COOPER
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS