(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan held a memorial service for former President Lee Teng-hui on Saturday that was attended by hundreds of Taiwanese as well as dignitaries from the U.S. and Japan.
President Tsai Ing-wen said Lee’s lifetime of contributions shaped modern Taiwan, and his 12-year tenure as president laid the foundation for democratization. She spoke at the chapel of Aletheia University in the northern seaside town of Tamsui, and hundreds of mourners crammed into a school nearby to bid farewell to Lee.
“Lee was credited as Mr. Democracy as Taiwan became synonymous with democracy and was catapulted onto the world stage under his leadership,” Tsai said. “He served as president with the people in his heart. This is his legacy, and this is how Taiwan will always remember him.”
Vice President William Lai and five senior government officials draped the national flag over Lee’s casket after Tsai’s speech. Foreign envoys, representatives from political parties, and Lee’s family and friends were also among the about 800 guests at the event.
U.S. Undersecretary of State Keith Krach traveled to Taiwan to attend the memorial, triggering protests from China. Former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori was present as well, and the Dalai Lama paid his respects to Lee through a recorded video. China launched a series of military maneuvers Friday, including sending almost 20 fighter planes across the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait.
China views Taiwan as part of its territory despite never having governed the island. Tsai’s government rejects Beijing’s claim, asserting that Taiwan is already a de-facto independent nation.
Lee, who died at the age of 97 in July, was a pivotal figure in the recent history of Taiwan, ushering in democracy after the death of the island’s last autocratic leader Chiang Ching-kuo in 1988. As the first native-born president of Taiwan, he also set the island on a course to solidify its separate status from China by granting direct elections after decades of one-party rule by Chinese mainlanders who fled the civil war in 1949.
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