Party Boots Ex-President of Taiwan

The Nationalist Party, which ruled Taiwan for more than 50 years, kicked out former President Lee Teng-hui on Friday after he all but defected by campaigning for a splinter group.

The man who helped shepherd Taiwan’s transformation from a police state into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies was formally expelled from the party at a special meeting of its disciplinary committee.

“We have decided to revoke former Chairman Lee’s party membership,” committee chief Chen Kang-chin told reporters after the session, adding: “We did not want to see this happen. But we were unable to turn the situation around.”

In recent months, the 78-year-old former president had grown openly critical of his party for what he considered its perilous policy of cozying up to mainland China, which sees Taiwan as a renegade province.

Last month, Lee seemed to break ranks with the Nationalists by throwing his support behind a splinter party, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, in legislative elections scheduled for December.

His stumping for rival candidates has further undermined the fortunes of the Nationalists, who ruled Taiwan from 1945 until last year, when opposition candidate Chen Shui-bian was elected to succeed Lee as the island’s leader.

Many in Taiwan believe Lee secretly helped get Chen elected because the two men have similar views on establishing Taiwan as a separate state from China. After Chen won the contest--defeating then-Vice President Lien Chan, the Nationalist candidate, who came in a humiliating third--angry protests by party loyalists helped force Lee to step down as chairman after 12 years on the job.

Since then, Lien has taken over as party chief and overseen a series of overtures by the Nationalists to their old enemies on the mainland, the Communists. Both the Communists and Nationalists support the concept of eventual reunification between Taiwan and the mainland.

A number of Nationalist politicians have visited mainland leaders during the past year, and earlier this month the Nationalists announced that they would open an office in Beijing.

Lee, nicknamed “Mr. Democracy” for his role in Taiwan’s democratic evolution, views the mainland as the near-antithesis of everything he worked to promote as Taiwan’s first directly elected leader. He has chastised fellow Nationalists for courting Beijing’s favor. China, in turn, has reserved some of its strongest vituperation for Lee, whom it labels a separatist bent on splitting up “the motherland.”

The new Taiwan Solidarity Union is the second splinter party to draw away members from the Nationalist fold in the last 18 months. Former Nationalist official James Soong formed the People First Party after taking second place in last year’s presidential election as an independent. The expulsion of Lee, who remains popular with many Taiwanese, is likely to make it even tougher for the Nationalists to hang on to their majority in the legislature after the December elections.