ABSTRACT
The proindependence militants, whose backgrounds were analyzed in chapter 3, would have to react to a new situation in Taiwan after Lee Teng-Hui replaced Chiang Ching-kuo in January 1988. The president would start to reform the political system and the symbolic environment, and this new situation was potentially leading the opposition to a conflict of positions: The new leader, of Taiwanese origin, was doing much, but he was still the leader of the Nationalist Party. He became what Rwei-ren Wu calls in chapter 9 "a dexterous political enemy-friend." Would he merely adjust Taiwan's polity to the Kuomintang's (KMT) new needs, or would he push the Nationalist Party toward an entirely new direction, even if it was against the will of prominent members of the party?
