Taiwan has been hailed as a textbook example of a successful transition to democracy. At the end of the civil war in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), lost to Mao Zedong's communist forces and fled to the island. After almost four decades of martial law until 1987, Taiwan eventually held its first presidential election in 1996.
On February 23, all eyes were on Taiwan’s new Member of Parliament Freddy Lim as he took the podium at the Legislative Yuan for the first time. Lim is now best known as the heavy metal rock star who, following January 2016 elections on the self-governing island of 23 million, became one of five legislators from the nascent New Power Party.
Taiwan in Time: The ‘communist rebellion’ finally ends
The so-called ‘temporary provisions’ of 1948 that allowed the KMT to rule with an iron fist were meant to last for two years during the Chinese Civil War; they remained in place until May 1, 1991
By Han Cheung / Staff reporter
April 26 to May 2
Although the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had essentially given up retaking China by the late 1960s, they continued to espouse the notion until former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) declared in a press conference on April 30, 1991: “We will no longer seek to unify China through force.”
Lee was announcing the repeal of the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist Rebellion (動員戡亂時期臨時條款, temporary provisions for short), which had allowed the government to rule with an iron fist for nearly 43 years without following the Constitution.