The 1990s were a particularly interesting time in Taiwan's history as they featured the biggest change ever -- the official switch to multi-party democracy and direct elections for the president and lawmakers. While changes to Taiwan had first come after martial law was lifted in the late 1980s -- including the establishment of the first serious opposition political party: the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) – the 1990s was the decade in which things really began to change. It was a wild, sometimes violent time, epitomized by the 1997 kidnapping and murder of the daughter of Bai Hsiao-yen. In 1996, the first direct presidential election held, with Lee Tung-hui of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) winning an unsurprising victory over formerly in-exile Taiwan independence supporter Dr. Peng Min-ming, representing the DPP. Just before the election, Taiwan faced the Third Taiwan-Strait Crisis, as the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) conducted “missile tests” in the water near Taiwan in an apparent attempt to influence the election or discourage democracy. The United States under then-president Bill Clinton sent a US fleet into the area, but no military clashes occurred. In 1998-1999, Taiwan prepared for its first genuinely contested presidential election, with the KMT fielding VP Lien Chan, the DPP picking former Taipei mayor Chen Shui-bian, and a breakaway party from the KMT, the People First Party (PFP) selecting former Taiwan governor James Soong as its candidate. On March 18th, 200, Taiwan witnessed its first peaceful change of power, after the DPP’s Chen Shui-bian won the election with 39.30% of the vote (James Soong came in 2nd with 36.84%, while Lien Chan took 23.10% of the vote). This election capped a decade of incredible transition for Taiwan’s history, with a change from a one-party, authoritarian state to a multiparty democracy being achieved without violence.
