Quoting a dialogue between Takashi Tsutsumi and Hiroyuki Kubo published in Hanada, this article records Lee Teng-hui’s emphasis on the National Security Council, his leadership in Taiwan’s democratization, his response to Chinese military intimidation, and the dialogue’s assertions concerning Democratic administrations in the United States and Chinese money.

September 4, 2020
The following is taken from the serialized dialogue feature between Takashi Tsutsumi and Hiroyuki Kubo in this month’s issue of the monthly magazine Hanada.
Until August six years ago, when I was still a subscriber to the Asahi Shimbun, I did not know either of their names at all.
People around the world would probably also find that appalling.
Takashi Tsutsumi struck me as though he might be a senior alumnus of my alma mater in Sendai, so I searched for information about him and found that this was indeed the case.
I am a person who will eternally love my alma mater and Sendai, and readers already know that he is an exceptionally talented man who embodies the very character of our alma mater.
The other day, while sorting through discs I had recorded, I discovered Shine a Light, the film directed by Martin Scorsese featuring a live performance by the Rolling Stones.
It was also a party concert celebrating Bill Clinton’s birthday.
After watching the scene in which Clinton appeared accompanied by a Ukrainian dignitary, I wrote that the amount of money the Clintons were receiving from China was probably by no means insignificant.
This collection of dialogues also demonstrated that my supposition had been entirely correct.
【The NSC Is the Most Important Thing】
Tsutsumi:
Lee Teng-hui died on July 30.
He was 97 years old.
In February, he developed pneumonia after accidentally aspirating milk and had remained hospitalized ever since.
He lived out the full span of his natural life, but his passing is still terribly sad.
I think it was in 2007 that Masayuki Takayama, Masahiro Miyazaki, Akihiko Nakamura, Editor-in-Chief Hanada, and I—the five of us—visited Lee Teng-hui at his residence in Taiwan.
No sooner had our initial greetings ended than he suddenly asked us, “What has happened to Japan’s NSC, its National Security Council?”
I was at a loss for words.
Prime Minister Abe, during his first administration, had only just established the Advisory Panel on Reconstruction of the Legal Basis for Security, commonly known as the Security Advisory Panel, and had begun reviewing the Constitution.
Moreover, the Abe administration itself was being overwhelmed by a succession of scandals involving cabinet ministers and was in no condition to concentrate on the panel.
“Listen carefully. The NSC is the most important institution for a nation. Japan has had a three-digit number of its citizens abducted. The foremost duty of a state is to protect the lives and property of its people. What on earth are Japan’s politicians thinking?”
He pressed the question upon me so forcefully that I was unable to answer.
Incidentally, after Abe resigned because of illness, the Security Advisory Panel was carried over to the Yasuo Fukuda administration.
According to what the panel’s chairman, Shunji Yanai, told me, however, Fukuda never attended even once, and the panel effectively ceased operating.
Until the second Abe administration established the NSC, Japan continued in a state in which an NSC was virtually nonexistent.
There was something I had especially wanted to ask Lee Teng-hui if I ever met him.
“Taiwan once secretly embarked upon a development program with the intention of acquiring nuclear weapons, did it not? I heard that technology was introduced from India. What happened after that?”
After hesitating briefly, Lee Teng-hui replied:
“Soon after I became president, I had the facility sealed over with concrete. Taiwan is small. Possessing nuclear weapons would not solve anything.”
I could not accept that answer entirely at face value.
I thought that he had probably used the termination of the program as a bargaining card and obtained something in return.
The conversation then moved to Taiwan’s first popularly elected presidential election, which he had carried out.
China, opposing that election, intimidated Taiwan by launching more than forty missiles in its direction.
“What concerned me most at that time was maintaining public confidence. Therefore, I announced that I would establish a fund of 200 billion yuan to restrain fluctuations in stock prices. That calmed the public’s anxiety.”
Lee Teng-hui had taken two steps in advance to prepare for China’s response.
Through former classmates at Cornell University, where he had studied, he helped bring about the Clinton administration’s dispatch of two aircraft carriers to the Taiwan Strait.
Cornell University is known as a base for Taiwan’s efforts to cultivate influence in the United States.
In other words, he made use of the American connections he had established during his student years.
His other measure was to dispatch two secret envoys to the Beijing government.
One of them was his protégé Tsai Ing-wen, who was then serving as president.
He had her conduct discreet negotiations with Zeng Qinghong, a close associate of Jiang Zemin.
These two operations proved effective, and China’s missiles did not strike Taiwan itself.
They amounted only to warning shots.
Postwar Asia produced two philosopher-statesmen.
One was Lee Teng-hui.
The other was Malaysia’s Mahathir.
“Taiwan is able to enjoy freedom and democracy as it does today because of former President Lee Teng-hui.”
President Tsai Ing-wen said this in her memorial statement.
It was exactly right.
Lee Teng-hui dealt with remarkable skill with the Chinese Communist Party regime, which sought to impose “one country, two systems” upon Taiwan.
Another matter over which he took great pains was how to deal with Chiang Kai-shek’s followers—the so-called mainlanders—who had fled to Taiwan after losing the civil war against Mao Zedong.
During the February 28 Incident, Chiang Kai-shek massacred 30,000 Taiwanese people, principally intellectuals.
Lee Teng-hui nevertheless deliberately joined the Kuomintang established by Chiang’s faction.
He gained the recognition of Chiang’s son, Chiang Ching-kuo, and became vice president.
Before long, he pushed ahead with Taiwan’s first popularly elected presidential election despite China’s opposition and thereby established democratic presidential elections as a permanent institution.
Throughout this process, slowly and cautiously, he “made Taiwan a Taiwan for the Taiwanese,” in Tsai Ing-wen’s words.
Had he attempted to do everything at once, he would have been crushed.
Instead, he proceeded with extraordinary patience, gradually and skillfully.
His capacity and political ability can only be described as extraordinary.
Kubo:
There is a Japanese expression meaning “to escape from the jaws of a tiger.”
Taiwan may be said to exist within the jaws of the tiger that is China.
Yet Taiwan refuses to be swallowed.
That owes much to Lee Teng-hui’s tenacious and skillful diplomacy.
【Suspicions That Biden Has Dementia】
Tsutsumi:
Since Trump and Pompeo became a team, America’s policy toward China has changed completely, as has its treatment of Taiwan.
The Trump administration’s hard-line policy toward China is not necessarily merely an electoral card.
It should be regarded as quite serious.
If Trump were to lose the presidential election in November and Biden were to become president, America would probably become pro-China all over again.
Kubo:
Taiwan had feared that Biden might select Susan Rice, who had served as a national security adviser in the Obama administration and had been regarded as pro-China, as his running mate.
Now that Kamala Harris has been selected as the vice-presidential candidate, Taiwan may be feeling relieved.
Tsutsumi:
I wonder.
Biden visited China with his son, and not long after they returned home, 1.5 billion dollars was transferred from a Chinese investment company into his son’s investment fund.
He has been incorporated into the network of Chinese money.
Several million dollars in Chinese money had also been transferred to the Clintons’ foundation, while Obama’s brother operates a chain of stores in China.
Historically, the Democratic Party has been pro-China.
The Democrats are now aligning themselves with the Republicans in taking an anti-China position, but it appears that they are merely pretending, saying, “We are anti-China too,” in order to prevent Trump from making full use of the anti-China card.
To be continued.