TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Former President Lee Teng-hui was highly likely to attend the May 20 inauguration of President-elect Tsai Ing-wen, a top aide to the former head of state said Wednesday.
Lee, who governed Taiwan from 1988 to 2000 as he became the island’s first-ever directly elected president in 1996, is already 93 and has been struggling with occasional bouts of bad health, though he has also visited Japan several times.
Lee’s office manager, Wang Yen-chun, said Wednesday that the former president would wait until he received the official invitation before making a decision, but at the moment he was “leaning toward going.”
Even though Lee chaired the Kuomintang in the 1990s, Tsai at the time was credited with helping him draft the “special state-to-state relations” doctrine about relations between Taiwan and China.
Lee left the KMT after its defeat in 2000, while Tsai later joined the Democratic Progressive Party government as minister of the Mainland Affairs Council.
According to Wang, representatives of Tsai and the DPP already invited Lee twice to the May 20 ceremonies, possibly also to let him know he could be present and could free up his schedule on time.
The official written invitations would not be sent out until next week, so at that time Lee would see how his schedule could be arranged, but in any event, he was seriously considering attending the event, Wang said.
In a separate development, former Vice President Annette Lu might not be present at Tsai’s swearing-in, reports said. Lu was reportedly planning a trip to Europe while she also leaned toward staying away because ex-President Chen Shui-bian would not attend. Chen is on medical parole following a 20-year prison sentence for corruption.
Ex-President Lee likely to attend Tsai swearing-in
