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.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and