Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
suspension of civil liberties. In 1991 he officially ended the state of war between the
ROC and China.
Lee furthered CCK's policy of bringing more native Taiwanese into government and
concurrently began a process of 'localisation' or 'Taiwanisation'. In effect this meant de-
stressing a pan-China (and mostly northern China) focused view of history and culture.
Taiwan was now its own centre, with a history and culture worth studying and promot-
ing. In practice this meant emphasising Taiwan's southern Chinese roots, its strong folk
religious traditions, its Dutch and Japanese influences, and its multiethnic makeup:
Hakka, Hokkien, aboriginals and mainlanders.
For a descriptive history of Taiwan's transition from colonial holding to vibrant Asian
democracy, check out J Bruce Jacob's
Democratizing Taiwan.
The elections in 1996 were a watershed moment in Taiwan's advancement toward
democracy. For the first time, Taiwanese would directly elect their leader. Lee ran against
democracy advocate Peng Ming-min (and a host of others).
China, outraged that free elections were going to be held in Taiwan, and suspicious
that Lee held independence sentiments (which he did as it turned out), held a series of
missile tests from July 1995 to March 1996. The US responded with a build up of ships
in the region, the largest military display in Asia since the Vietnam War. The people in
Taiwan, more angry than scared, responded by giving Lee a clear majority vote (54%).
Lee's second term was marked with deteriorating social order, especially in the first
year, which saw three high-profile murder cases involving organised crime figures terrify
the public. Many openly longed for the the return of martial law and Lee himself was
blamed. More interestingly, critics blamed Lee for using
heidao
(gangsters) himself in
order to keep the KMT in power.
However, the infiltration of politics by organised crime figures, both predates the Lee
presidency, and continues to this day. Even in 1996 intelligence reports showed that 40%
of town representatives, 27% of city councilors, and 3% of national representatives had
organised crime backgrounds. Criminologist Ko-lin Chin says Taiwan is pretty much
unique for having such a high level of gangsters in elected office (not even Italian mafia,
he says, dare to run openly but try to influence from behind closed doors).
On a more positive note, Lee's second term also saw the continuation of democratic
and civil reforms. With respect to cross-Strait relations, the president argued that with the
legitimacy of Taiwan's government now solely in the hands of Taiwan voters, the notion
that the ROC 'represented' all of China could no longer hold. In 1999 Lee declared that
