By Linda Grace-Kobas
"Today, the Chinese people enter a new frontier full of hope....We now stand on the apex of democratic reform and will remain there resolutely....We have effectively expanded the influence of the international democratic camp and made significant contributions to the cause of freedom and democracy."
With these words in his inaugural address on May 20, Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui, Ph.D. '68, embarked on his new role as the first popularly elected president in 5,000 years of Chinese history.
Lee's triumph came almost a year after his historic Olin Lecture delivered June 9 at Cornell's 1995 Reunion. That visit, which caused a diplomatic uproar when the government of the People's Republic of China furiously protested the Clinton administration's granting of a visa to Lee to attend his alma mater's alumni gathering, brought him into the world spotlight. The Cornell visit drew 400 international journalists to campus for coverage, and it has since been cited in hundreds of news articles as the beginning of a new phase of Lee's leadership. Network television news programs, in covering Taiwan-China relations since, often run the footage of a smiling Frank H.T. Rhodes introducing Lee to a cheering crowd of Cornellians in Newman Arena.
President Emeritus Rhodes, with his wife Rosa, represented Cornell at Lee's inauguration, also meeting with alumni from Taiwan and the Philippines and presenting an address at a symposium at Cheng Kung University in Tainan.
"It was quite astonishing," Rhodes said of his visit. "I would walk down a street or in the hotel lobby in Taipei and complete strangers would come up to me and thank me for Lee's visit to Cornell; they recognized me from TV. It's amazing how much emphasis the people in Taiwan place on the visit."
Rhodes met personally with Lee in the formal receiving line at the inaugural reception and he and Rosa were able to speak with President and Mrs. Lee at the state dinner afterward. Representing the U.S. was a delegation, headed by Vernon Jordan, which included a dozen members of Congress and UC-Berkeley Chancellor Tien Chang-lin, a Taiwan native. Syracuse Mayor Roy Bernardi, who welcomed Lee on his arrival for his Cornell visit, led a small group, also.
Rhodes said attending Lee's inauguration was "terrific." need human rights. Some talk of Asian values. I say Asian people have rights just like in the United States."
Rhodes explained, "One view has been that Confucianism isn't consistent with democracy. President Lee has emphasized the absolute consistency of Chinese character with democracy. What he's doing now is setting the pace for the mainland, setting the road for all Chinese."
Western education has had a tremendous influence on Taiwan's development, Rhodes said, noting that in addition to Lee's Cornell degree, his vice president is a graduate of the University of Chicago and 18 of 32 cabinet members have Western doctorates, which may be a world record. The presence of Cornell in Taiwan is "really quite dramatic," Rhodes said, adding, "The younger people are really picking up and running with the ball. They will play a real role in the future of Taiwan."
Among the Taiwan alumni Rhodes met with were Bao-ji Chen, president of the Cornell Club of Taiwan, Hsiang-tang Ko, executive director of the Taipei City Planning Commission, Jennifer Huang, vice chair of Golden Securities, and Yih-chi Tan, professor at National Taiwan University, which has 45 Cornellians on its faculty.
To illustrate the enthusiasm of the Cornellians in Asia, Rhodes described a scene at a very formal reception during the inaugural celebrations when Renato Labadan Ph.D. '67, president of the Cornell Club of the Philippines, opened the jacket of his suit and pulled out a Cornell banner.
A delegation of 14 from the Philippine alumni club attended the inauguration ceremonies. That club, founded in 1912, has close ties with the Taiwan club. The delegation included, besides Labadan, Crispiniano G. Acosta, M.S. '87, Florentino Z. Vicente, M.S. '62, Felix H. Limcaoco Jr., M.S. '53, Charlie Yu Galan, M.S. '80, Margarita M. dela Paz Ph.D., '90, Eloisa D. Miranda, MBA '61, Ramon B. Cardenas, M.A. '67 and Lourdes M. Labrador, M.S. '56.
Lee has no immediate plans to revisit the United States. In his inaugural address, he offered to make a "journey of peace" to mainland China to open up a new era of cooperation, an offer the PRC has so far rebuffed.
Rhodes said he is "very proud of the fact that Cornell has had a role to play in preparing Lee" to take on the Taiwan presidency at age 73, and described his high regard for the man: "I have unlimited admiration for him. He is a marvelous statesman, an international leader of remarkable stature and importance, a person of remarkable depth and intelligence. I am grateful for the privilege of knowing him."
"There was a sense of joy, celebration and achievement," he recounted. "When you think of what went into that election the belligerent behavior of the People's Republic of China (PRC) government and the noisy opposition it was a hard-fought contest. Once the result was announced, however, the people were very pleased that there was not a single act of violence or challenge to the outcome. It was quite remarkable."
Rhodes said he will remember most "the very real sense of unity and purpose and confidence that the people of Taiwan feel. This nation of 22 million really pulled itself up by the bootstraps to become one of the great economic powers of the world."
Lee's visit to Cornell in 1995 "gave him stature as a world leader and played an important role in his election," Rhodes said.
"President Lee just captured every group with whom he came into contact here," he added, saying Lee has spoken appreciatively of the warmth of his welcome at Cornell. "You could sense it in the crowds who greeted him on his arrival in Syracuse, on the campus when he arrived here, in the smaller gatherings. He charmed, delighted and won over people. There was genuine warmth of personal affection for a remarkable man who took a position of totalitarianism and turned it into a position of democracy with skill, courage and foresight.
"He is a remarkable man, a notable scholar," Rhodes added. "He single-handedly moved Taiwan from being a benevolent dictatorship to a democracy."
Lee has often spoken of the influence his years studying for his doctorate in agricultural economics at Cornell played in the development of his political philosophy and his efforts to bring democratic rule to the Chinese people. In his Olin Lecture, he said:
"My years at Cornell from 1965 to 1968 made an indelible impression on me. This was a time of social turbulence in the United States, with the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War protest. Yet, despite that turbulence, the American democratic system prevailed. It was also the time I first recognized that full democracy could engender ultimately peaceful change....I returned to my homeland determined to make my contribution toward achieving full democracy for our society."
Lee reiterated the importance of his Cornell years in an exclusive interview in the May 20 edition of Newsweek, when he was asked if America's social turmoil in the sixties shook his faith in democracy: "There was chaos but still democracy," he said. "I realized you must use democracy to improve society....The majority used the democratic system to improve the social order. American people, Asian people, African people all need human rights. Some talk of Asian values. I say Asian people have rights just like in the United States."
Rhodes explained, "One view has been that Confucianism isn't consistent with democracy. President Lee has emphasized the absolute consistency of Chinese character with democracy. What he's doing now is setting the pace for the mainland, setting the road for all Chinese."
Western education has had a tremendous influence on Taiwan's development, Rhodes said, noting that in addition to Lee's Cornell degree, his vice president is a graduate of the University of Chicago and 18 of 32 cabinet members have Western doctorates, which may be a world record. The presence of Cornell in Taiwan is "really quite dramatic," Rhodes said, adding, "The younger people are really picking up and running with the ball. They will play a real role in the future of Taiwan."
Among the Taiwan alumni Rhodes met with were Bao-ji Chen, president of the Cornell Club of Taiwan, Hsiang-tang Ko, executive director of the Taipei City Planning Commission, Jennifer Huang, vice chair of Golden Securities, and Yih-chi Tan, professor at National Taiwan University, which has 45 Cornellians on its faculty.
To illustrate the enthusiasm of the Cornellians in Asia, Rhodes described a scene at a very formal reception during the inaugural celebrations when Renato Labadan Ph.D. '67, president of the Cornell Club of the Philippines, opened the jacket of his suit and pulled out a Cornell banner.
A delegation of 14 from the Philippine alumni club attended the inauguration ceremonies. That club, founded in 1912, has close ties with the Taiwan club. The delegation included, besides Labadan, Crispiniano G. Acosta, M.S. '87, Florentino Z. Vicente, M.S. '62, Felix H. Limcaoco Jr., M.S. '53, Charlie Yu Galan, M.S. '80, Margarita M. dela Paz Ph.D., '90, Eloisa D. Miranda, MBA '61, Ramon B. Cardenas, M.A. '67 and Lourdes M. Labrador, M.S. '56.
Lee has no immediate plans to revisit the United States. In his inaugural address, he offered to make a "journey of peace" to mainland China to open up a new era of cooperation, an offer the PRC has so far rebuffed.
Rhodes said he is "very proud of the fact that Cornell has had a role to play in preparing Lee" to take on the Taiwan presidency at age 73, and described his high regard for the man: "I have unlimited admiration for him. He is a marvelous statesman, an international leader of remarkable stature and importance, a person of remarkable depth and intelligence. I am grateful for the privilege of knowing him."