Background
Under the administration of the Kuomintang (KMT), or the Chinese Nationalist Party, students in Taiwan had been taught the history of China instead of Taiwanese local history in the postwar period. After Chiang Kai-shek's demise, his son Chiang Ching-kuo began to liberalize Taiwan's political system and he lifted martial law in Taiwan in 1986. After Chiang Ching-kuo's death, Lee Teng-hui, the first native Taiwanese President, continued to carry out the policy, and held the first direct presidential election in 1996.
Read more about this topic: Understanding Taiwan
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