Honoring Lien Chan

Introduction of Lien Chan
U.S. China Policy Foundation Dinner

November 12, 2013

It is a distinct privilege to introduce Chinese Nationalist Party Honorary Chairman Lien Chan.

Chairman Lien was born in Xi’an to a family with deep roots in Taiwan.  Forty-three years ago, as a student in Taichung, I read the “General History of Taiwan” (台湾通史) written by his grandfather, Lien Heng (连横).  It made a deep impression on me.   Lien Heng said it was that “Taiwan’s sorrow is that it has no history.”   Lien Heng fixed that by writing the first history of Taiwan.  His grandson, Lien Chan didn’t just write history, he redirected it.

Dr. Lien studied at National Taiwan University (国立台湾大学) and then took his doctorate in political science at the University of Chicago.  He went on to practice the art of politics in his native Taiwan, where he served as premier and vice president before becoming chairman of the Kuomintang.  Since 2005, he has been that party’s honorary chairman.

We are here to honor Chairman Lien for lifetime contributions to the improvement of cross-Strait relations.  His bold decision in 2005 to reestablish party-to-party dialogue between the Chinese Nationalist Party (中国国民党) and the Chinese Communist Party (中国共产党) transformed relations between Taiwan and the mainland.  His journey to Beijing came at a time of great tension in cross-Strait relations.  It replaced antagonism with a spirit of cooperation.  Chairman Lien’s initiative set off a process of cross-Strait rapprochement that continues to unfold.

In 1973, I was part of the team that opened the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing.  The two sides of the Strait were then completely isolated from each other.  One day, our only Chinese employee at the time burst in on me to tell me I had a phone call.  “有个外国人要和你讲话   — some foreigner wants to speak with you,” he explained.  The call turned out to be from a Taiwanese friend who had just met with Zhou Enlai and wanted to tell me about this.  At that time, neither side of the Strait knew the other.  No one on the mainland was familiar with Taiwan’s distinctively accented Mandarin.

No more.

People from Taiwan have now invested over $130 billion in the mainland economy.  Two-way trade across the Strait came to $169 billion in 2012.

Last year, 5.3 million people from Taiwan travelled to the mainland as tourists, while 2.5 million mainlanders visited Taiwan.  There are nearly 100 direct flights a day across the Strait. About 16,000 students from Taiwan are enrolled in mainland universities and nearly 1,000 kids from the mainland are attending college in Taiwan.

None of this could have happened without the vision and courage that Lien Chan displayed in 2005 or without his continuing efforts to find common ground while reserving differences with Chinese across the Strait.  History will recognize and commend his role.  On behalf of the U.S. China Policy Foundation, I am pleased to do so tonight with the presentation of this award.