Lee Teng-hui << lee duhng HWEE >> (1923-2020) served as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and chairman of the country’s Nationalist Party from 1988 to 2000. In 1988, Lee, then vice president, succeeded Chiang Ching-kuo, who had died. In 1990, Taiwan’s National Assembly elected Lee president. In 1996, Lee was elected by the Taiwanese people in the country’s first democratic presidential election. As president, Lee furthered democratic reform and increased Taiwan’s contacts with other countries. He did not run for reelection in 2000. The Nationalist Party’s presidential candidate lost the election, and Lee resigned as head of the party.
Lee was born on Jan. 15, 1923, in Sanzhi, near the city of Taipei. He received a doctoral degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University in the United States in 1968. He taught at National Taiwan University before becoming an agricultural specialist for the Taiwanese government. In 1972, he became a minister of state. He was appointed mayor of Taipei in 1978, and provincial governor in Taiwan in 1981. In 1984, President Chiang Ching-kuo chose him as his vice president. Lee died on July 30, 2020.
