The legacy of Taiwan's Lee

摘要

The main significance of Taiwan's presidential election on March 18th is that the winner will not be Lee Teng-hui. The 77-year-old incumbent became president after the death of Chiang Ching-kuo, the son of Chiang Kai-shek, who had led the Chinese nationalist forces to the island of Taiwan in 1949 after their defeat by Mao Zedong's Communists. Mr Lee won two presidential elections, one under a rigged system inherited from the Chiangs and one under a democratic system he himself introduced. By giving the Taiwanese the right to determine their own destiny, Mr Lee created a new sort of Taiwan and a whole lot of trouble with the mainland.