Taiwan Abandons 'Democracy Card'

Thanks to a series of political reforms implemented by then-president Chiang Ching-kuo in the late 1980s, Taiwan has gradually become a liberal democracy. In the recent two decades, it saw its first democratically elected president, Lee Teng-hui, in 1996, the first directly elected non-Kuomingtang (KMT) president, Chen Shui-bian, in 2000, as well as the second democratic power transition with the election of the current KMT president, Ma Ying-jeou, in 2008.

The advent of democracy for the first time in history in an ethnic Chinese society not only marks the open-mindedness of Taiwanese statesmen, but also calls for a broader range of democratization in greater China. Therefore, many have wondered what implications a democratic Taiwan might have for the present cross-strait relations, and whether or not the Taiwan-type