Lee Teng-hui
7-9th President of Republic of China(Taiwan) (1923-2020)

Lee Teng-hui (Chinese: 李登輝; pinyin: Lǐ Dēnghuī; 15 January 1923 – 30 July 2020) was a Taiwanese politician, economist, and agronomist who served as the fourth president of the Republic of China and chairman of the Kuomintang from 1988 to 2000. He was the first president to be born in Taiwan, the last to be indirectly elected, and the first to be directly elected.
Born in Taihoku Prefecture, Lee was raised under Japanese rule. He was educated at Kyoto Imperial University and served in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II before graduating from National Taiwan University. He then studied agricultural economics in the United States, where he earned his doctorate from Cornell University in 1968, beginning a career as an economics professor. As a member of the Kuomintang (KMT), he was appointed Mayor of Taipei in 1978 and became governor of Taiwan Province in 1981 under President Chiang Ching-kuo. Lee succeeded Chiang as president after Chiang's death in 1988.
During his presidency, Lee oversaw the end of martial law in Taiwan and led reforms to democratize the Republic of China. He was an advocate of the Taiwanese localization movement, sought to establish greater international recognition of the country, and has been credited as the president who completed Taiwan's democratic transition. After leaving office, he remained active in Taiwanese politics as a major influence on the pro-independence Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), and recruited for the party in the past.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Lee Teng-hui” is 7-9th President of Republic of China(Taiwan) (1923-2020). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Teng-hui, 7-9th and President, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “7-9th President of Republic of China(Taiwan) (1923-2020)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q315528. VIAF identifies the subject as 84366804. The Library of Congress control number is n82066453. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1923, 2020, 1988 and 2000.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lee Teng-hui” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.