Taiwan lays to rest its former president, ‘Mr Democracy’ Lee Teng-hui

President Tsai Ing-wen attended Lee’s state funeral at a military cemetery in the mountains outside Taipei

Mainland war games were held before his election as Taiwan’s first democratically elected leader in 1996

1-MIN READ1-MIN

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen attends the funeral of former leader Lee Teng-hui on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:32pm, 7 Oct 2020Updated: 9:02pm, 7 Oct 2020

Taiwan laid to rest on Wednesday former president Lee Teng-hui, dubbed “Mr Democracy” for burying autocratic rule in favour of freewheeling pluralism and defying Beijing’s drive to absorb an island it regards part of its sovereign territory.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen attended the state funeral held at a military cemetery in the mountains outside the capital, Taipei. Lee, who died in July aged 97, was president from 1988 to 2000.

Lee Teng-hui was president of Taiwan from 1988 to 2000. Photo: Reuters

A memorial service for Lee was held last month in the shadow of renewed war games by the People’s Liberation Army, as was his election as Taiwan’s first democratic leader.

The election in March 1996 was Lee’s greatest act of defiance, achieved in a landslide following eight months of intimidating drills and missile tests by China in waters around the island.

Those events brought the mainland and Taiwan to the verge of conflict, prompting the United States to send an aircraft carrier task force to the area in a warning to the Beijing government.