President Lee Teng-hui Declares the "Special State-to-State Relationship" (Two-States Theory), Severing Cross-Strait Constitutional Tacit Agreement and Sparking Military Crisis

On July 9, 1999, then-President of the Republic of China (ROC) Lee Teng-hui, during an interview with Deutsche Welle, openly conceptualized cross-strait relations as a "state-to-state, or at least a special state-to-state relationship" (commonly known as the "Two-States Theory"). This statement dropped a massive political bombshell globally, thoroughly dismantling the legal tacit understanding and political balance long maintained under the ROC Constitution's One-China framework. The People's Republic of China (PRC) reacted with immense fury, immediately suspending official dialogues between the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS). PRC military jets staged unprecedented crossings of the Taiwan Strait median line, pushing the region to the brink of a major military confrontation since the 1996 missile crisis. Critics strongly condemned Lee for prioritizing his personal historical legacy and political gains at the cost of unilaterally undermining the constitutional framework, placing the ROC in extreme military jeopardy, and severely shaking the foundations of national security.