The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially based on the Chinese mainland and then in Taiwan since 1949. KMT is a centre-right to right-wing party and the largest in the Pan-Blue Coalition. Its primary rival is the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its allies in the Pan-Green Coalition. As of 2024, the KMT is the largest single party in the Legislative Yuan. The current chairman is Eric Chu.
Lee Teng-hui was a Taiwanese statesman and agriculturist who served as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) under the 1947 Constitution and chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) from 1988 to 2000. He was the first president to be born in Taiwan, the last to be indirectly elected and the first to be directly elected. During his presidency, Lee oversaw the end of martial law and the full democratization of the ROC, advocated the Taiwanese localization movement, and led an ambitious foreign policy agenda to gain allies around the world. Nicknamed "Mr. Democracy", Lee was credited as the president who completed Taiwan's democratic transition.
Presidential elections were held in Taiwan on 23 March 1996. It was the first direct presidential election in Taiwan, officially the Republic of China. In the previous eight elections the president and vice president had been chosen in a ballot of the deputies of the National Assembly, in accordance with the 1947 constitution. These were the first free and direct elections in the History of Taiwan.
As a result of the surrender and occupation of Japan at the end of World War II, the islands of Taiwan and Penghu were placed under the governance of the Republic of China (ROC), ruled by the Kuomintang (KMT), on 25 October 1945. Following the February 28 massacre in 1947, martial law was declared in 1949 by the Governor of Taiwan, Chen Cheng, and the ROC Ministry of National Defense. Following the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the ROC government retreated from the mainland as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China. The KMT retreated to Taiwan and declared Taipei the temporary capital of the ROC. For many years, the ROC and PRC each continued to claim in the diplomatic arena to be the sole legitimate government of "China". In 1971, the United Nations expelled the ROC and replaced it with the PRC.
Wang Jin-pyng is a Taiwanese politician. He served as President of the Legislative Yuan from 1999 to 2016, which makes him Taiwan's longest-serving legislative speaker. Once a leading figure of the Kuomintang (KMT), Wang is considered to be soft-spoken and a conciliatory figure who has often brokered deals between the KMT and opposition DPP. Due to his longevity, experience and influence in political scene, he is a widely respected figure in Taiwanese politics. He was replaced by Democratic Progressive Party's Su Jia-chyuan as President of the Legislative Yuan after a decisive victory for the DPP in the 2016 election.
Terry Gou is a Taiwanese billionaire businessman and politician. Gou is the founder and former chairman and chief executive officer of Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronics. Founded in 1974, Foxconn grew to become an international business empire, becoming the largest private employer and exporter in mainland China with a workforce of 1.2 million. As of 2022, Gou had a net worth of US$6.8 billion.
The China Times is a daily Chinese-language newspaper published in Taiwan and one of the most widely circulated newspapers in Taiwan. Founded in 1950, the China Times Group was acquired by food and media conglomerate Want Want, which also owns TV stations CTV and CTiTV.
Hsiao Bi-khim is a Taiwanese politician and diplomat. She is the vice president-elect of Taiwan following the 2024 Taiwanese presidential election, and will become Taiwan's first biracial vice president. Previously, Hsiao was a member of the Legislative Yuan from 2002 to 2008 and again between 2012 and 2020. She served as the Taiwanese representative to the United States from 2020 to 2023.
Censorship in Taiwan was greatly relaxed when the state moved away from authoritarianism in 1987. Since then, the media has generally been allowed to broadcast political opposition. Today, the focus of censorship is slander and libel, cross-Strait relations, and national security.
Cross-Strait relations are the relations between China and Taiwan.
The Taiwan Communist Party was a social democratic political party in Taiwan. It was established in 1994 but was unable to register with the Ministry of the Interior until 2008, when anti-communist provisions in Taiwan's constitution were struck down by the Constitutional Court.
Lai Ching-te, also known as William Lai, is a Taiwanese politician and former physician who is the current vice president and president-elect of Taiwan, having won the 2024 presidential election. His inauguration will be held on 20 May 2024. He is due to be the third incumbent vice president of Taiwan to become president, and the first to assume the office through election instead of a predecessor's death.
The National People's Congress (NPC) is the highest organ of state power of the People's Republic of China. The NPC is the only branch of government in China, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs from the State Council to the Supreme People's Court (SPC) are subservient to it. With 2,977 members in 2023, it is the largest legislative body in the world. The NPC is elected for a term of five years. It holds annual sessions every spring, usually lasting from 10 to 14 days, in the Great Hall of the People on the west side of Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Lin Ching-yi is a Taiwanese physician and politician. She was first elected to the Legislative Yuan in 2016, then re-elected in 2022 by by-election.
Lin Chun-te is a Taiwanese Atayal politician who served in the Legislative Yuan from 1999 to 2008.
Wong Chung-chun is a Taiwanese politician.
The proclamation of the People's Republic of China was made by Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), on October 1, 1949, in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The government of a new state under the CCP, formally called the Central People's Government, was proclaimed by Mao at the founding ceremony.
The Anti-Infiltration Act is a law regulating the influence of entities deemed foreign hostile forces on the political processes of the Republic of China, including elections and referendums. The act was passed by the Legislative Yuan on 31 December 2019 and promulgated by the Tsai Ing-wen presidential administration on 15 January 2020. The law has been used to prosecute individuals connected to united front organizations in Taiwan.
USS LST-755 was a LST-542-class tank landing ship in the United States Navy during World War II. She was transferred to the Republic of China Navy as ROCS Chung Hai (LST-201).
Ann Kao Hung-an is a Taiwanese business executive and politician. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees from National Taiwan Normal University and National Taiwan University, respectively, before working as a researcher for the Institute for Information Industry. The institute subsidized Kao's doctoral study at the University of Cincinnati. She then worked for Foxconn until 2020, when she was elected to the Legislative Yuan as a member of the Taiwan People's Party. Partway through her legislative term, Kao was elected Mayor of Hsinchu during the 2022 local election cycle.
