Lee Tung-hui and the Taiwan alternative

Originally published by Washington Times

March 23 is the 30th anniversary of a historical first: Lee Tung-hui’s ballot box selection as president of Taiwan, more formally known as the Republic of China. It marked the first direct popular election of a Chinese head of state.

Since 1996, Taiwan has held seven presidential elections and witnessed three peaceful transfers of power between parties — a hallmark of constitutional stability. Five have been won by the Democratic Progressive Party, a party once proscribed as illegal during the authoritarian period of martial law that the then-Kuomintang government had imposed after losing mainland China to the communists in 1949, not fully lifted until1987.

Beyond a victory for the people of Taiwan, these elections also demonstrate that Chinese democracy is more than the name of an album by Guns N’ Roses and that there is an alternative model to the communist system that governs the People’s Republic of China.

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