True Colour of Self-appointed 'Taiwan's Moses'

A young nation like the United States may find it hard to fully understand the strong and long-held desire embedded in the 5,000-year-old Chinese civilization to cherish and safeguard its unity.

But it is maybe not so difficult for US citizens to distinguish the self-appointed "Taiwan's Moses" Lee Teng-hui from the ancient hero in the Bible.

The former Taiwan "president" Lee Teng-hui started a "private" trip as an alumna of Cornell University to the United States this week.

Fresh is the memory when he visited his US alma mater as incumbent Taiwan "president" in 1995 to create cross-Straits tension and undermine Sino-US relations.

To alter his trouble-maker image, this time he took on the kindly face of an old man who has to visit his granddaughter.

However, just like the "Taiwan patient" excuse he exploited early this year to seek a Japanese trip, the new trick can neither hide his separatist motives nor justify the host government's irresponsible visa-granting.

The capricious politician he is, Lee has increasingly exposed his true colours as a die-hard separatist since the 1990s.

In 1988, after he became the leader of the Taiwan authorities, he publicly stated time and again that "there is only one China, not two."

However, since the early 1990s, Lee Teng-hui has gradually deviated from the one-China principle. He went back on his word, saying that "I have never said that there is only one China."

In 1999, Lee Teng-hui cooked up his "two states" theory to step further towards division.

Lee resigned as head of the Kuomintang to take responsibility for the party's defeat in the "presidential race" last March.

Nevertheless, capitalizing on his April visit to Japan which helped throw him back into the limelight again, Lee is now vigorously mounting a political comeback from retirement.

He is orchestrating a campaign to organize a new political group and forge "an indigenous political alliance" with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party to dominate Taiwan politics.

It is no surprise that, in face of such defection, many Kuomintang members have demanded his expulsion.

Shocking is the fact that such a politician once claimed himself to be the leader of "Taiwan's Exodus."

Unlike the Hebrew prophet who led the Israelis to the promised land where their ancestors once resided, the so-called "Taiwan's Moses" was determined to sever the roots of the Taiwan people, more than 97 per cent of whom are of the Han ethnic group, from the Chinese mainland where their predecessors lived for thousands of years.

More ironically, instead of leading the Taiwan people out of the nightmare caused by its former colonial status, Lee was more eager than anyone to display his Japan complex.

What purpose? The political ambition the "Taiwan patient" manifested by his latest flying with an "ailing body" across the widest ocean in the world to the United States might be part of the answer.

Sadly, Lee's separatist policy sells well among some politicians, especially those with ulterior motives in the United States. Not that he is the best salesman or he sells the best product -- it is because of some politicians' need of a "Taiwan card" to play with China.

Lee's rhetoric that the US arms sales to Taiwan will bring about no war but peace in the region would certainly win the ear of some US politicians.

The US public may still not have a clear picture of the complicated cross-Straits relations, but it is a common feeling among the Chinese and Americans what if a foreign country ships mighty missiles to their door.

Lee Teng-hui is a saboteur of the stability of the Taiwan Straits and a stumbling block preventing the development of relations between China and the United States.

Can and will the United States afford to stand with the wrong guy and the wrong idea at the wrong side of the trend of times?

That is a question for the US Government and politicians in whose hands the US people's future is held.






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