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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Chen Shui-bian visits Lee Teng-hui in historic meeting
Former president Chen Shui-bian, third right, accompanied by his son Chen Chih-chung, right, waves to reporters outside former president Lee Teng-hui’s home in Taipei’s Shilin District while visiting Lee, second left, to wish him a happy 96th birthday. Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
By Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter
Following years of detachment, former president Chen Shui-bian （陳水扁） yesterday met with former president Lee Teng-hui （李登輝） to celebrate Lee’s 96th birthday.
Accompanied by his son, Chen Chih-chung （陳致中）, Chen Shui-bian visited Lee’s residence in Taipei’s Shilin District （士林） in the afternoon, in what was the first meeting between the two former presidents in 12 years.
Once intimate, the relationship between the two turned sour during Chen Shui-bian’s second term, especially after Chen Shui-bian’s was embroiled in a corruption scandal.
Lee on Facebook thanked Chen Shui-bian for his birthday wishes and a photo album he had brought as a present.
On the photo album — a collection of photographs of Chen Shui-bian published by Academia Historica — Chen Shui-bian wrote: “To respected president Lee Teng-hui, the father of Taiwan’s democracy, I wish you boundless longevity.”
Lee said that with his birthday wish he hoped to “summon all possible forces, dispel prejudice, bridge the blue-green divide and make a concerted effort to make Taiwan a great nation for the people and the county” as Taiwan is faced with the challenges of cross-strait instability and a new situation in the Asia-Pacific.
“A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense,” Lee wrote, quoting the Bible.
Lee’s spokesman, Wang Yan-chun （王燕軍）, said details of the meeting should not be made public to avoid legal consequences for Chen Shui-bian.
Chen Shui-bian gave Lee three copies of the photo album, while Lee in return gave him more than 10 copies of his works, Wang said.
Chen Shui-bian served more than six years of a 20-year sentence for corruption before he was released on medical parole in 2015.
The Taichung Prison management, Chen Shui-bian’s parole authority, said that the former president had filed a request to visit a friend in Taipei without identifying them as Lee.
The prison said it would look into whether the visit violated parole regulations.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
