The Wisdom of Asia №2

Part Ⅰ：How to Deal with China and America

Chapter One
Expanding Potentials in Asia by “Taiwan's Choice”

 President of Akita International University     Nakajima Mineo

１．Lee Teng-hui，the First Leader to Reject“lmperial-type Rule”

　　　The Japanese people's interest in Taiwan is experiencing a tremendous rise． Close to one million Japanese visit Taiwan each year, and buisiness between Japan and Taiwan is booming． In the afternoon of the great earthquake that shook Taiwan in September 1999，many Japanese showed profound sympathy for the victims(1)． ln fact，a tide of support for Taiwan (「加油台湾」）rose nationwide in Japan，resulting in the movement into Taiwan  of large sums of money(2)．The cause of that deepening understanding in Japan may well have been the phenomenal change． Taiwan underwent during the twelve years of Dr．Lee Teng-hui's presidency．
　　　In December l999，when the National Taiwan University held an international conference on Japanese studies （“A General Study on Japan in the New Century”），I was among those invited to lecture．The theme of the conference was “How to View the Changes in Taiwan．” The debate did not stop at the question that Taiwan was posingt to the international community，but went on to how the democratization process under “the Lee Teng-hui era”is an example of a “political development model．” This is no doubt a very important subject for research by scholars of political science．
　　　In my National Taiwan Universlty lecture，I stated that the three processes moving sequentially from ChiangKai-Shek's（蒋介石） political dictatorship to Chiang Ching-Kuo's（蒋経國）authoritarianism，then to Lee Teng-hui's democratic process，has experienced one hardship after another in due course．Indeed one might say he has been in along battle，a process through which President Lee has developed a set of values that can guide the 21st century world．
　　　It was “the politics which is based on the will of the people－what the people want is always in my heart，” which he elaborated in his speech at Cornell University in 1995．0ne　might say it is the value that could lead the new century．But “the politics which is based on the will of the people ” is not that easy．The realization of democracy in a society of Chinese political culture－the Chinese world－is extremely difficult because of the history and tradition of “the Imperial-type power structure，  which has always ignored  “ the wi1l of the people．”
　　　Taiwan has outgrown that “Chinese world，” evolving into a totally different system．It is not only fundamentally opposed to the prlnciples of the Chinese world，but poses a challenge to the Chinese political order．This in essence is the democratization achieved during the Lee Teng-hui era．

（1)　Faced with the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011，
Taiwan’s people gave Japan the most warm hearted support by rescue teams and donations of 20 billion yen very quickly．
 (2) The Asian Open Forum of Japan donated 10，000，000 yen to Taiwan’s representative Chairman Koo Chen-fu at the 11th Forum in Tainanin in Decernber，1999．

"The Wisdom of Asia" Translated by Alexander K. Young 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Akita International Univwrsity Press

日本語版『アジアの知略』は光文社カッパブックスにあります