ABSTRACT
The victory of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate, Chen Shui-bian, in Taiwan’s presidential election on 18 March 2000 was an event of great significance for Chinese politics for two reasons. First of all, it marked the first peaceful transition of power between political parties in Chinese history. Although uncertainties as to how much power actually resides in the presidency under the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution mean that such a claim has to be qualified, for the island of Taiwan this certainly marked a new stage in the process of democratisation that began with the establishment of the opposition party in September 1986. Although full elections for central and local government chambers had been held since 1991, the DPP had never managed to gain a parliamentary majority. In the first presidential election, held in March 1996, it polled a mere 21 per cent, failing to remove the incumbent KMT president, Dr. Lee Teng-hui. With the victory of the DPP in March 2000, therefore, it appeared that Taiwan’s démocratisation had taken another step towards ‘consolidation’.
