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Lee Teng-hui to make
symbolic trip to Green Island
POIGNANT VISIT: The ex-president is scheduled to
attend a forum today with four former political prisoners at the Green Island
Memorial Park
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter, in Taitung County
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) is returning to Taitung County’s Green
Island (綠島) for the first time in 14 years where he is scheduled to make a
symbolic visit to a human rights memorial park today.
As president, Lee helped raise funds to erect a monument in the Green Island
Memorial Park to commemorate the thousands of political prisoners who passed
through the prison on the remote island during the White Terror era under the
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.
Lee personally unveiled the monument, which was built using the NT$20 million
(US$670,000) in revenue from the sales of his book, Taiwan’s Views, on Dec. 10,
1999, World Human Rights Day. At the unveiling he issued an official apology on
behalf of the government for the first time to all the political prisoners and
those who were oppressed during the White Terror era.
The visit to the island was meaningful for Lee because of his instrumental role
in lifting the 38-year Martial Law era and initiating the “silent revolution,”
which earned him credit for facilitating the peaceful transformation of Taiwan
from an authoritarian regime to a democracy.
Lee is also scheduled to attend a forum with four former political prisoners
today in the park, according to his office.
The 90-year-old embarked on a three-day visit to Taitung yesterday as part of a
series of nationwide tours that began in April last year.
Lee visited the National Museum of Prehistory and held a meeting with members of
the Taiwan East Society yesterday.
Responding to media inquiries about the recent meeting between former KMT
chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), during
which Wu reaffirmed the “one China” framework and said both sides of the Taiwan
Strait share the same ancestry, Lee said Wu’s remarks were inappropriate and
incorrect.
“Like the US, Taiwan has always been a country of immigrants and a society with
diverse cultures. I wonder why [cross-strait relations] are still based on minzu
(民族) in their eyes,” Lee said.
With regards to the “one China” framework, Lee said the ideology has been “a lie
to the international community” since former US secretary of state Henry
Kissinger and former Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (周恩來) coined the phrase in the
1970s.
“There are true issues and there are pseudo issues. The ‘one China’ policy is a
pseudo issue,” Lee said.
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