Timeline of Key Political Events

• 1986 September
  Defying a ban on the creation of new political parties, a group of activists - among them Frank Hsieh and Chang Chun-hsiung - formally establishes the Democratic Progressive Party, the first major opposition movement.
   

• 1987 July
  President Chiang Ching-kuo ends martial law, which had been declared in 1949 following the loss of mainland China to the Communists.
   
  Related Articles:
  One Stroke Began A New Era (FCJ Editorial, 07/20/1987)
   

• 1987 November
  The ban on Taiwan residents visiting mainland China is lifted, giving many ROC citizens a chance to visit their hometowns and see their relatives for the first time in almost four decades.
   

• 1988 January
  The prohibition on new newspapers is scrapped, paving the way for a proliferation of publications offering a spectrum of viewpoints.
   
  Related Articles:
  Hard-Pressed--Taiwan's Newspapers Battle for Readers (Sinorama, July 1997) (Teng Sue-feng/photos by Pu Hua-chih/tr. by Phil Newell)
   
  Around the same time, the Legislative Yuan passes the Law on Assembly and Parades, liberalizing rules for public demonstrations and similar activities.
   

• 1990 May
  President Lee Teng-hui announces a special amnesty which includes the pardoning of political dissidents Shih Ming-te and Hsu Hsin-liang.
   
  Shih, along with other "tangwai" ("outside the KMT") leaders had been jailed after the Kaohsiung Incident of December 1979, when a human rights rally ended in violent clashes between protestors and police.
   
  Hsu had left the ROC in 1979 and had been barred from re-entering. In 1977 he broke ranks with the KMT and ran independently for post of Taoyuan County chief magistrate. His supporters, suspecting that the KMT was attempting vote fraud, rioted. The Chungli Incident is today regarded as marking the emergence of a serious opposition movement.
   

• 1991 May
  The Period of Mobilization for Suppression of the Rebellion, which had been in force since the withdrawal from the mainland in 1949, is terminated.
   

• 1991 December
  In the first full re-election of the National Assembly since 1947, the KMT wins more than three-quarters of the seats.
   

• 1992 December
  In the first full re-election of the Legislative Yuan since the loss of mainland China, the KMT wins 53 percent of the vote, compared to 31 percent for the DPP. Supplementary elections since 1969 had given Taiwan area representatives a greater role in the National Assembly and Legislative Yuan, but for more than four decades, both bodies were dominated by delegates elected on the mainland and "frozen" in office.
   

• 1992 April
  The Legislative Yuan revises Article 100, the sedition clause of the Criminal Code, to apply only to those who support violent action against the government. Non-violent advocacy of Communism or Taiwan independence is thereby decriminalized.
   
  Related Article:
  Legislature revises Article 100 (Free China Journal, 04/19/1992, by Susan Yu)
   

• 1992 May
  National Assembly amends the Constitution to allow for direct popular election of the president.

• 1992 July
  The Interior Ministry announces that the list of "persona non grata" barred from entering the ROC will be cut from 282 to five.
   
  Related Article:
  Drastic Cut Expected in Dissident Blacklist (Free China Journal, 07/10/1992, Susan Yu)
   

• 1993 August
  KMT members dissatisfied with President Lee Teng-hui's policies establish the New Party, initiating an era of three-party politics.
   

• 1994 December
  Elections are held for the previous appointed posts of Taiwan Province governor, Taipei City mayor and Kaohsiung City mayor. In Taipei, the DPP's Chen Shui-bian's trounces KMT incumbent Huang Ta-chou. Elections for county and city councilors, county magistrates, mayors of sub-provincial cities, chiefs of rural and urban townships, and chief administrators of districts, had been held regularly since 1950.
   

• 1995 February
  President Lee Teng-hui, in his capacity as national leader, uses the anniversary of the 2-28 Incident of 1947 to formally apologize for the event, in which thousands of Taiwanese died in clashed with KMT soldiers and police.
   
  Related Articles:
  Lee, moving to heal old wound, apologizes for Feb. 28 Incident (Taipei Journal, 03/03/1995, by Susan Yu)
   

• 1996 February
  The Legislative Yuan designates February 28 as a national memorial day to commemorate the victims of the 2-28 Incident.
   
  Related Articles:
  Healing a nation's old wounds (FCJ, 03/07/1996, by FCJ Editor)
   

• 1998 December
  Work begins on a human rights monument on Green Island, site of a jail where many of Taiwan's political dissidents were incarcerated during the martial law era.
   
  Related Articles:
  Tragedy and Tolerance-- The Green Island Human Rights Monument (Sinorama, January 1999) (Daisy Hsieh/photos by Hsueh Chi-kuang/tr. by Jonathan Barnard) 
   
  The Compensation Act for Improper Trial Cases of Sedition and Spies during the Martial Law Period is passed by the Legislature, and a fund established for compensation payments.
   

• 1999 December
  President Lee Teng-hui visits Green Island for a ceremony marking the completion of the Green Island Human Rights Monument.
   
  Related Articles:
  Milestones for Taiwan Human Rights (Sinorama, January 2001) (Daisy Hsieh/tr. by Jonathan Barnard)
   

• 2000 March
  Democratic Progressive Party candidate Chen Shui-bian wins election as tenth term president of the ROC.
   

• 2000 May
  Chen Shui-bian takes office as ROC's first non-Kuomintang president. In his inaugural address, he vows to bring Taiwan "back into the international human rights system," create a bill of rights and establish an independent human rights commission.
   

• 2000 October
  The President's Human Rights Advisory Group is formed, bringing together former political dissidents, lawyers and scholars.
   
  Related Articles:
  1.Chen throws weight behind human rights ( The China Post, October 25, 2000)
   
  2.Lu unveils human rights advisory group (Taipei Times, October 24, 2000)
   
  3.Human Rights Advisory Group Formed (Sinorama, November 2000)
   
  4.Law to create human rights commission drafted (China Times, 18/10/2001)
   

• 2001 January
  Education Minister Ovid Tzeng publicly apologizes for the April 6 Incident in 1949, when students at National Taiwan University and the Taipei Teacher's Academy who had protested increases in tuition, boycotted classes, and made other demands were subjected to mass arrests, and some were executed. The Incident is seen as the starting point of the "White Terror" period, during which those who criticized the government risked extra-judicial imprisonment or execution.
   
  Related Article:
  Government apologizes for 'April 6 Incident' (United Daily News, January 12, 2000)
   

• 2001 March
  Ministry of Justice completes rough draft of Basic Law On The Guarantee of Human Rights
   
  Related Article:
  Human rights law draft nears completion (Taiwan Headlines/United Daily News)
   

• 2001 May
  Taipei District Court awards 15 victims of the Luku Incident of 1952 a total of NT$118m in compensation for wrongful imprisonment - the biggest-ever award to those who suffered unjustly in White Terror period.
   
  Related Article:
  Luku Incident victims get NT$118m compensation (Taiwan Headlines, 05/22/2001)
   

• 2001 June
  Ministry of Justice forwards detailed draft of Basic Law On The Guarantee of Human Rights to Cabinet for review.
   
  Related Article:
  Homosexuals allowed to establish households (Taiwan Headlines, 06/26/2001)
   

• 2001 December
  Government to begin issuing annual National Human Rights Report in February 2002.
   
  Related Article:
  Government committed to human rights (Taiwan Headlines, 12/6/2001)