Effect On Taiwan Independence Movement
As the second largest political party in Taiwan, the DPP is the most prominent pro-independence force on the island (the Kuomintang's position is historically that of Chinese reunification under a republican government, though it has become ambivalent). As an illegal opposition party in its early years, DPP's push for Taiwan independence was a main focus of its contrast to the ruling party; since its legitimacy and coming to power as an established party, it has tempered its push for independence.
Former president Lee and estranged politician James Soong and their followers broke ranks with the Kuomintang shortly after the coming to power of the DPP, having positioned themselves as supporters of Taiwan independence. This split led to the formation of the Taiwan Solidarity Union, which unlike the modern DPP, actively advocates Taiwan independence. The TSU has attracted former members of the DPP dissatisfied with that party's increased distance from the independence movement.
Read more about this topic: Four Ifs
Famous quotes containing the words effect, independence and/or movement:
“The first general store opened on the ‘Cold Saturday’ of the winter of 1833 ... Mrs. Mary Miller, daughter of the store’s promoter, recorded in a letter: ‘Chickens and birds fell dead from their roosts, cows ran bellowing through the streets’; but she failed to state what effect the freeze had on the gala occasion of the store opening.”
—Administration in the State of Sout, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The independence of all political and other bother is a happiness.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“What stunned me was the regular assertion that feminists were “anti-family.” . . . It was motherhood that got me into the movement in the first place. I became an activist after recognizing how excruciatingly personal the political was to me and my sons. It was the women’s movement that put self-esteem back into “just a housewife,” rescuing our intelligence from the junk pile of “instinct” and making it human, deliberate, powerful.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)