taipei taiwans leader senior government officials and a highlevel us envoy on saturday paid tribute to the man who led taiwans transition to democracy former president lee tenghuikeith krach the us undersecretary for state kept a low profile at the servicehis presence at the event and on the island has drawn a strong rebuke from china which sent 18 warplanes across the midline of the taiwan strait friday in an unusually large display of forcethe service was held at the aletheia university in taipei on a balmy saturday morning with president tsai ingwen honoring lee for bringing a peaceful political transition to the island democracylee died on july 30 at age 97we have a responsibility to continue his endeavours allowing the will of the people to reshape taiwan further defining taiwans identity and deepening and bolstering democracy and freedom tsai saidformer japanese prime minister shinzo abe and the dalai lama also paid tribute from afarwe buddhists believe in life after life so most probably he will be reborn in taiwan the dalai lama said in a video messagehis rebirth will carry his spirit continuously the guests included another former japanese prime minister yoshiro mori they wore masks and sat spaced out in pewslee an agricultural economist and politician devoted his career toward building democracy on the island through direct elections and other changeshe was the first government official to speak out and formally apologise for the socalled 228 incident named after february 28 1947 when soldiers under the kuomingtang or the sole ruling nationalist party shot and killed thousands of civilians in an antigovernment uprisingthe bloodshed marked the beginning of a decadeslong period known as the white terror in which the island was ruled by martial lawin 1990 lee signalled his support for student demands for direct elections of taiwans president and vice president and the end of reserving legislative seats to represent districts on the chinese mainlandthe following year he oversaw the dismantling of emergency laws put into effect by chiang kaisheks government effectively reversing the nationalists longstanding goal of returning to the mainland and removing the communists from powerlee also built a separate taiwanese political identity distinct from mainland china which claims taiwan as part of its own territory to be reunited by force if necessarylees carving out of a nonchinese identity and insistence that the island be treated as an equal country brought him into direct conflict with beijingchina launched a series of threatening military maneuvers off the coast of mainland fujian province that included the firing of missiles just off taiwans coastmore missiles were fired immediately before the march 1996 presidential elections and the us response was to send aircraft carrier battle groups to taiwans east coast in a show of supportthe trump administration has taken multiple steps in recent months to strengthen its engagement with taiwan angering chinakrach is the second highlevel official to visit taiwan in two months following us health secretary alex azar in augustunlike azars visit krachs was held mostly behind closed