Background
The society of Taiwan and other areas controlled by the Republic of China underwent a dramatic transformation in the years following the death of Chiang Kai-shek in 1975. In the next two decades Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) and Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) presided over a peaceful transition from single-party rule enforcing martial law to pluralistic democracy with protected human rights. The nature and meaning of Chiang Kai-shek's rule could be openly debated and, as details of the 228 Incident and White Terror publicly emerged, they were.
In 2000 Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, was elected president. The executive branch of the Republic of China government fell out of KMT control for the first time. Executive power had been handed to the DPP and its affiliated parties, known as the Pan-Green Coalition; the KMT and its affiliated parties, known as the Pan-Blue Coalition, maintained control of the legislature. Elections in 2004 preserved the situation, awarding a second term to Chen and a majority in the legislature to the opposition.
Read more about this topic: Renaming Of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
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