Lee Jye


Lee Jye is a former defense minister of the Republic of China.

Biography

He was born in Tianjin on 6 June 1940, and fled to Taiwan with family at the end of the Chinese Civil War.
He originally joined the then ruling Kuomintang in the early days of his military career, but was later expelled by the KMT, who lost power after the 2000 presidential election, for complying with President Chen Shui-bian's orders to remove all Chiang Kai-shek statues from military bases. He was quoted saying "I'll obey the order of the party that is in power" and "if KMT holds power again, they can re-install the statues if they wish."
He was the minister of the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of China, and was an admiral in the Republic of China Navy when he retired.