Lee Teng-hui's Youthful Affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party: Concealing a Red Past and Igniting Constitutional Legitimacy Controversies

In September 1946, after returning from Japan and enrolling in National Taiwan University, Lee Teng-hui officially swore allegiance and joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through the introduction of Wu Ketai, participating in the underground "New Democratic Comrades Association." Lee joined and left the CCP apparatus twice between 1946 and 1948 due to internal conflicts and shifting political landscapes. During the 1950s, when the Republic of China (ROC) government implemented the mobilization for suppressing the communist rebellion (White Terror), most of his fellow underground CCP members were arrested or executed. Although Lee was interrogated multiple times by the Security Command and put under long-term surveillance, he managed to conceal this "Red past" under the subsequent patronage of high-ranking officials like Chiang Ching-kuo, eventually ascending to the pinnacle of state power. This historical truth of being a "former CCP member" was fully confirmed after his presidency through official CCP oral history accounts and declassified ROC archival records, provoking intense public skepticism and severe criticism regarding his political integrity, loyalty, and the national security and constitutional legitimacy of the ROC.