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After Japan's defeat in World War II, Taiwan
was returned to China in 1945. The Republic of China was
then represented by General Chiang Kai-shek (with Pinyin
Jiang Jieshi) and his nationalist party Kuomintang (KMT),
who fought for power with Mao Zedong's communists.
Dissatisfaction with KMT's corrupt rule led to a riot in
Taiwan in 1947, but it was brutally beaten down with
tens of thousands of deaths as a result. It laid the
ground for deep mistrust among native Taiwanese towards
mainland Chinese.
The Civil War ended in 1949 when the Communists took
control of the mainland. The KMT government with
military and up to two million Chinese mainlanders fled
to Taiwan and in December set up the Republic of China
with the provisional capital of Taipei. KMT saw itself
as China's legitimate government and had set its sights
on regaining the mainland.
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ABBREVIATIONFINDER:
List of most commonly used acronyms containing Taiwan. Also includes historical, economical and political aspects of the country.
KMT was investing in getting economic development
started in Taiwan, which was fairly well organized after
the Japanese occupation. With the help of massive aid
from the United States and a successful land reform, an
outstanding financial success story soon began. The land
reform freed up capital that laid the foundation for
rapid industrialization in the 1950s.
At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek's rule was
dictatorial. The military laws of the war remained in
force. No new political parties were allowed to
establish themselves. KMT members dominated the
legislative body of the country since the 1947 election,
and since no new elections could be conducted on the
mainland, Kuomintang simply extended the mandate of its
sitting for life.
 The political dominance of the newly arrived mainland
Chinese led to tensions with the Taiwanese demanding
increased democratization. They wanted Taiwan to give up
the idea of a reunification with China and instead
proclaim independence, a claim that was categorically
rejected by the government.
In November 1971, the People's Republic of China was
voted into the UN. As a result, Taiwan lost its
representation in the World Organization and was
isolated internationally (see Foreign Policy and
Defense).
Democratization begins
When Chiang Kai-shek died in 1975, he was succeeded
by his son, Chiang Ching-kuo, who began his rule in the
father's authoritarian tradition. At the same time,
claims to represent the whole of China were becoming
increasingly foreign. In the mid-1980s, the first steps
towards democratization were taken. Leading opposition
Taiwanese formed the 1986 Democratic Progress Party (DPP)
who was allowed to stand in the election to the
country's legislative body that year. The party received
a quarter of the votes.
The following year, in 1987, the military laws were
abolished and the party ban was lifted. When Chiang
Ching-kuo died in 1988, he was succeeded by Vice
President Lee Teng-hui, who became the first Taiwan-born
president.
Democratization followed a "Taiwanization" of
society. More and more Taiwanese people were given
prominent positions, the Taiwanese dialect was allowed
alongside mandarin in government agencies and in
teaching. The official demand to recapture China was
abandoned in 1991.
Lee also initiated a more open policy towards China
and embarked on extensive constitutional reforms. The
lifetime mandate system was abolished and in 1992 the
first election was held since 1947 (with the exception
of filling elections). The electoral system was further
democratized in 1996, when the Taiwanese first elected
their president in direct elections. Lee won by far with
over half the votes.
Shift of power
The March 2000 presidential election, however, meant
the end of KMT's long holding of power, partly because
of internal divisions in the party. Defeated did DPP's
Chen Shui bian, who promised, among other things, to
break the close cooperation between politicians and
large companies. Chen also reassured voters by declaring
that it was not appropriate to proclaim independence,
which could lead to an attack from China. However, the
leaders in Beijing saw Chen as a more dangerous enemy
than the old opponents of KMT.
Chen continued with the Taiwanization of society and
sought to create a personal identity for Taiwan in the
international arena. However, government work was often
slow, as the opposition retained its majority in
parliament. Although the DPP became the largest single
party in the 2001 and 2004 parliamentary elections, the
nationalist camp remained larger.
In the March 2004 presidential election, Chen managed
to stay in power with barely conceivable margins. An
attempted assault on him and Vice President Annette Lu
the day before the election may have contributed to the
victory.
Chen ran a tough line against China, triggering
threatening signals from Beijing and worried many
Taiwanese. Corruption accusations with links to the
president and the DPP did not make matters any better.
In the fall of 2006, the opposition made several
attempts to get a referendum on casting the president.
At the end of December, Chen's son-in-law was sentenced
to prison for corruption. At the same time, a lawsuit
was pending against Chen's wife, who was accused of
using state funds for private purposes. Chen himself was
charged with the same crime but protected by his legal
immunity as president. Prosecutions also threatened
several other high-ranking DPP members, which was a
severe burden for DPP ahead of the upcoming elections in
2008.
The opposition was also subject to corruption
charges. KMT's presidential candidate, Ma Ying-jeou, was
indicted for irregularities during his time as mayor of
Taipei but was released in 2007 from the charges.
Kuomintang regains power
The January 2008 parliamentary elections were the
first to be held in a parliament with only 113 seats
(see Political system). The election became a major
victory for KMT, which received 81 seats, while DPP
received only 27 seats. The small parties became
marginalized. The new electoral system was considered to
have benefited KMT to some extent.
KMT also won the presidential election two months
later. Ma Ying-jeou took home the victory with 58
percent of the vote, against 42 percent for DPP's
candidate, former Prime Minister Frank Hsieh. Ma
promised to work to improve relations with Beijing. This
was not least about better investment opportunities,
increased trade and tourism. At the same time, he
assured that no immediate reunion was on the agenda.
With just over a two-thirds majority in parliament,
the new president could run his politics without much
political opposition. Negotiations were started
immediately on increased economic exchange with the
Communist regime in China and private trips across the
Taiwan Strait. DPP's new chairman Tsai Ing-wen, the
first woman at the party leader post, led mass
demonstrations in protest of the rapid approach to
Beijing.
Chen Shui-bian, who lost his prosecution immunity as
soon as he left office, was investigated from May 2008
for corruption charges. Chen claimed that it was
political revenge from KMT. Towards the end of the year
he was arrested and prosecuted for money laundering,
embezzlement and receiving bribes. Chen was detained
most of the time until September 2009, when he and his
wife were sentenced to life imprisonment. In June 2010,
the Supreme Court reduced their sentence to 20 years in
prison. Chen was sentenced in 2011 to another two years
in prison for money laundering and forgery.
In August 2009, Taiwan was hit hard by typhoon
Morakot. At least 600 people though. The rescue work was
criticized for being slow, which led to the resignation
of Prime Minister Liu Chao-shiuan and succeeded by Wu
Den-yih. The criticism was also reflected in the local
elections in December 2009, when DPP strengthened its
position.
Cooperation is increasing with Beijing
The approach to Beijing continued. A hot political
issue was a trade facilitation agreement signed in June
2010. The opposition warned of excessive dependence on
China and the domestic industry's difficulty in
surviving a flood of cheap Chinese goods. President Ma
felt that the agreement was necessary to prevent
economic isolation and rebuffed allegations if it was a
first step towards reunification (see also Foreign Trade
and Foreign Policy and Defense).
When the campaign for the presidential and
parliamentary elections in January 2012 began in
mid-2011, relations with China were, as usual, one of
the main issues. President Ma Ying-jeou promised to
improve relations with the mainland through continued
cooperation. Tsai Ing-wen, DPP chairman and presidential
candidate, made it clear that Taiwan must maintain its
independence but at the same time stood for a less
confrontational policy towards the mainland than the
former DPP president Chen Shui-bian.
The result of the presidential election was that Ma
Ying-jeou gained renewed confidence in leading the
country with just over 51 percent of the vote, compared
with just over 45 percent for Tsai. Kuomintang also won
in the parliamentary elections: the blue alliance (see
Political system) received 51 percent of the vote
against 44 percent for the DPP's green alliance.
But during President Mas's second term in power,
several factors worked to erode confidence among
Taiwanese for the president and KMT.
The economic situation had deteriorated as a result
of the euro crisis in Europe and several scandal
scandals among senior KMT politicians with ties to the
president were discovered. At the same time, the
government failed to implement and anchor its
legislative proposals among the people. Higher gasoline
and electricity prices have spurred public
dissatisfaction.
The sunflower movement is conducting protests
In addition, a controversial agreement on trade in
services that the KMT government signed with China in
mid-2013 led to disputes with the opposition and the
trade union movement. This meant that the agreement,
which would open up service sectors in China and Taiwan
for investment on both sides of the strait, risked small
businesses being knocked out of competition from China.
The KMT leadership finally agreed to the opposition's
demand that the service agreement be examined part by
part in the legislative yuan. However, repeated delays
from the DPP caused the investigation to drag on over
time. In March 2014, KMT tired and pushed a vote in
Parliament when the agreement was approved.
Shortly thereafter, the parliament building was
occupied by several thousand activists, many of them
students. A movement called the Sunflower Movement was
formed. The occupiers said that President Ma and the KMT
government had bypassed democratic procedures and
darkened the negotiations with China, a criticism that
even individual KMT members agreed with..
When the activists also broke into the government
building, the police intervened. More than 170 people
were injured in the clashes. Only when the President of
Parliament succeeded in winning the students' confidence
could the conflict be resolved. The Ma and the KMT
government agreed to the requirement for a monitoring
mechanism.
In the November 2014 local elections, KMT and
President Ma suffered a stinging defeat. The party lost
power in five of the six largest municipalities and
retained only New Taipei. In the capital Taipei itself,
an independent candidate won the mayor post. Assessors
interpreted the election defeat as an expression of
voters' dissatisfaction with the KMT board's policy
vis-à-vis Beijing. The local elections were also seen as
an important indication of how things would go in the
upcoming national elections in 2016.
When the election was announced, Prime Minister Jiang
Yi-huah announced that he and his government would
resign. Shortly thereafter, President Ma also resigned
as party leader for Kuomintang. A few days later, Mao
Chi-kuo was named new prime minister and in early 2015
Eric Chu, popular mayor of New Taipei, was elected new
chairman of KMT. In October of that year, he was also
named KMT's presidential candidate for the January 2016
presidential and parliamentary elections.
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