The editors of this timely book warn that assessing the work and politics of former President Lee Teng-hui is not an easy task. Lee was president of Taiwan from 1988 to 2000, a period during which democratic reforms changed the country from an autocratic, Leninist-style government to a full-fledged Western-style democracy while entrepreneurs built a solid and thriving high-tech electronics industry, making Taiwan an economic power and a major player in world trade.

But the Democratic Progressive Party won the March presidential elections of 2000 and ousted the ruling political party, the Nationalist Kuomingtang (KMT), that had determined the destiny of the island republic for 50 years. Lee was replaced by Chen Shui-bian, but he worked to sustain his political career by creating his own political party.

To his supporters, Lee is "Mr. Democracy" and the "Father of Taiwan." But Lee's opponents have accused him of betraying the KMT and of dividing the population. He was forced to resign the KMT chairmanship after the party lost the elections. In order to help readers to understand the man and the decisions he made in governing the country, the authors describe several different aspects of his personality. His best-known traits are his nationalistic spirit and strong personality and charisma, which Lee employs without hesitation when he making important decisions. Three authors, Ramon H. Myers, Linda Chao and Tai-chun Kuo agree that Lee sought consensus during the first years of his presidency. But after winning the first democratically held elections in Taiwan in 1996, Lee imposed his power through "questionable means" criticized by the media and the elite.

He managed foreign policy without consulting experts and ignored critics. The authors say Lee rejected the KMT's longstanding mandate of reunification with mainland China through political negotiations. In his final, four-year term, Lee steered the country toward international recognition, readmission into the United Nations and confrontation with Beijing. In 1999, when he defined relations across the Taiwan Strait as a "state to state" affair, the rupture with the other side became final. During his 12-year rule, he sponsored 12 amendments to Taiwan's Constitution. The authors contend that the autocratic methods he used to promote democracy brought political turmoil to his party and to the government.

One aspect noted by some authors in the book is that pressure and competition from the DPP has forced Lee to rely for support on factions and businesses that the KMT has maintained throughout the years for its political benefits. Some people in those factions and businesses have ties with organized crime syndicates. Once they receive the green light from the KMT government, those unscrupulous people move into politics by running for office in local and national elections. This phenomenon under Lee's leadership was known as "black and gold politics" (heijin zhengzhi), which refers to the prevalence of criminals and official corruption among the country's politicians, particularly among the KMT rank and file. So while Lee was consolidating democracy, the heijin zhengzhi was also spreading.

Defeated in the 2000 presidential elections, the KMT has remained a major player in Taiwan politics even though it has now split into several camps.

What about Lee's legacy as far as cross-strait relations? Author Julian J. Kuo says that Lee failed the test of statesmanship because his evaluation of cross-strait affairs was "full of wishful thinking."

Kuo says that Lee provoked mainland China, causing the conflict to escalate without the support and resolve of the Taiwanese people. "Lee's resort to brinkmanship without first equipping the Taiwanese people with national will was both dangerous and irresponsible," Kuo writes. "He left his people mired in a national identity struggle, unleashed a mass populism that is unfavorable for stimulating a rational debate over Taiwan's future, and failed to offer any workable solution to pacify cross-strait tensions, even less to untangle the cross-strait deadlock."

Those are harsh words about a man many Taiwanese still consider "the Father of Taiwan."