Political Role
Lee played an important role during the 2000 Presidential Election and since then has been a supporter of the Pan-green coalition which advocates Taiwan independence. On the last week of the election he announced his support for the candidacy of Chen Shui-bian who subsequently won a narrow victory over James Soong. Chen intended to nominate Lee to become Premier, but Lee declined after a few days of deliberation. Lee has been the President of the Academia Sinica since 1994 and renounced his U.S. citizenship to take the post.
At the request of President Chen, Lee was the Republic of China's representative in the 2002 APEC leaders' summit in Mexico. (Presidents of the Republic of China have been barred from joining the APEC summits because of objections from the People's Republic of China.) Lee represented President Chen again in the 2003 and 2004 APEC summits in Thailand and Chile, respectively.
In January 2004, he and industrial tycoon Wang Yung-ching and theatre director Lin Hwai-min issued a joint statement asking both Chen Shui-bian and Lien Chan to "drop hatred and extreme behavior and resort to honesty." This, and other critical statements of the President, led to speculation that he would not back Chen again in the 2004 elections until he issued a statement of support for the DPP on March 17, 3 days before polls opened. He was elected President of the International Council for Science in 2008, to start his term in 2011.
During the 2012 Republic of China Presidential elections, Lee expressed his support for DPP candidate Tsai Ing-Wen.
Read more about this topic: Yuan T. Lee
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