Confrontation with the United States } 617
power passed to his son, Chiang Ching-kuo. Scholars distinguish between
an earlier stage of hard authoritarianism under Chiang Kai-shek and a latter
state of soft authoritarianism under Chiang Ching-kuo. Opposition political
activity gradually expanded during the latter period. By the late 1970s, the
island had a vibrant island-wide opposition, commonly referred to as “out-
side the [KMT] party” (dang wai), functioning in a condition of semilegality.
During the nearly forty years of KMT dictatorship over Taiwan, the proposi-
tion that the KMT-ruled Republic of China (ROC) regime represented all of
China, and that Taiwan was merely a province of China—albeit a province
where China’s legitimate government, the ROC, happened to reside—was the
philosophical underpinning of the KMT dictatorship. From this perspec-
tive, the Republic of China, not the People’s Republic of China, constituted
the legitimate government of China and would someday return to the main-
land once the “Communist bandits” were overthrown. By the 1980s, this or-
thodoxy of eventual “return to the mainland” was a source of considerable
humor in Taiwan, but people publicly challenged it at the risk of confronting
the KMT’s dreaded martial law command.
Meanwhile, throughout the nearly four decades of KMT authoritarian
rule, government power promoted economic development via participation
in global markets. Standards of living, levels of education, numbers of profes-
sionals, and international connectivity rose steadily. Taiwan’s political culture
was also deeply influenced by American and Japanese culture with their dif-
fering variants of liberal democracy. By the mid-1980s, there was widespread
yearning in Taiwan for political freedom and democracy. Brave men and
women periodically challenged dictatorial authority, and by the mid-1980s
the “outside the party movement” was quite strong. Taiwan’s leader, Chiang
Ching-kuo, also recognized that US recognition of the PRC in 1979 destroyed
the credibility of a KMT claim of eventual “return to the mainland,” and that,
consequently, the KMT would have to refound its legitimacy squarely on the
consent of the people of Taiwan.^13
Finally, in September 1986, some nine months before Chiang Ching-kuo
lifted martial law, under which Taiwan had been governed since 1949, the
dangwai movement openly declared itself to be an opposition party, the DPP,
seeking power via election. The KMT government acquiesced to this move,
and the process of democratization moved into high gear. Multiparty com-
petition initiated a process of rapid and peaceful transition to democracy.
Taiwan’s democratic transition was continued by Chiang’s successor, Lee
Teng-hui, president from January 1988 to May 2000. By the time of Taiwan’s
presidential election of March 1996, Taiwan was a genuine and vibrant liberal
democracy. It was precisely this that created difficulties for Beijing. Under a
KMT dictatorship, even a “soft” one, there was the possibility of a deal be-
tween dictatorships in Taipei and Beijing. Now Beijing would have to deal
with Taiwan’s electorate.