• By Olayinka Oyegbile

In the first part of this travelogue, I gave an insight into how Taiwan passed through its teething period in nationhood. In this continuation, I intend to deal more with its democratic structures and how it handles democratic challenges and continues to work at perfecting it.

The road to democracy for the country was not smooth. In 1947, the ROC Constitution was promulgated. However, in March, troops were dispatched from mainland China to put down the uprising by residents of Taiwan as a result of what came to be known as the February 28 Incident.

By 1948, through a mixture of various events and with the full-scale war in China between the Kuomintang-led ROC government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a National Mobilisation for Suppression of Communist Rebellion was enacted. This overrode the ROC Constitution and expanded presidential powers to do lots of things the government thought was necessary to curb or suppress rebellion on the island.

As a result of the defeat of the ROC government by the Communists, Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang-led government moved the seat of its government to Taiwan. He was followed by about 1.2 million loyalists. This was the beginning of the promulgation of the martial law in 1947, which lasted till 1987.

I have taken the interest in narrating this story because my four-month post-doctoral research fellowship facilitated by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) was for me to spend those months to research into the effects of the martial law and compare it with the military decrees that we had in Nigeria.

Taiwan and Nigeria have since become democratic. Taiwan spent 38 years under the martial law with the death of many pro-democracy activists. In 1996, it returned to an elective democracy with Kuomintang’s (KMT) Lee Teng-hui winning the election with 54 per cent of the votes.

Four years later (2000), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) under the leadership of Chen Shui-Ban was elected as president, thus breaking the over half a century hold on power by the KMT. It was the first-ever direct transfer of power by the ROC government.

Eight years later (2008) the KMT came back to power with Ma Ying-jeou taking over from the DPP.  In 2012, he won his re-election. He was succeeded by Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP, who served for two terms from 2016 to 2024 before her party’s candidate Lai Ching-te, the incumbent president, won the general election in 2024.

The tenure of President Lai has been dogged with tension and increasing palpable fear that China, which has always claimed “Taiwan is a province of China” might launch an attack on the country anytime. This has informed some of the actions that the Taiwanese government has been taking and how it reacts to world events.

Internally, most of the citizens are aware of this, but they are determined to maintain the democracy the country enjoys and the periodic elections that allow them to vote and express their will.

Many agree that as much as there might be some similarities in their language and culture with mainland China, they are different, not only because they are a democracy but also because they don’t want to be subsumed under the hegemony of China. One of the sure tests of the country’s democracy was the recall vote of some legislators which was held between July and August, which I witnessed.

Warming up to the election dates, one could notice at street corners, at entrances to train stations and major public buildings and streets, campaigners trying to convince voters to vote for the recall of the legislators who are mainly members of the KMT, the party that is often suspected of having a sympathy for the Communist Party in China.

In the 2024 election, the ruling DPP won the presidency but failed to get the control of the parliament (the Yuan), which is dominated by the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The recall vote was meant to whittle down their power and influence, but it failed.

While some saw the defeat of the recall process as a failure on the part of the ruling DPP, others saw it as a test of the strength and endurance of the country’s democracy.

Taiwan is today the world’s biggest player in the semi-conductor industry. Through the Taiwan Semi-conductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), it has dominated over 60% of global chip output and 90% of the most advanced chips.

A British travel agency which rates cities around the world for their safety and livability, rates Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, as the second safest city to explore at night.

Talking about safety, Taiwan is perhaps the only country I have visited where surfing of phones in the dead of the night on a lonely street is not a risk. Apart from the well-lit streets, there are no robbers or thieves ready to kill or snatch your phone!

According to the British travel agency, Taipei is “Known for its clean streets, good lighting, and low crime. The city’s lively night markets and urban areas are safe for locals and tourists alike.”

It added that travellers particularly enjoy Taipei 101 after dark, “when the iconic tower is beautifully lit and offers stunning nighttime views.”

However, the recent invasion of Venezuela and the capture of former President Nicholas Maduro and his wife has brought some concern to the international community with the fear that this may embolden China which has been eyeing Taiwan for long to do same under the so called “One China policy”.

Sabella Abidde, a professor of Political Science at Alabama State University, USA said what President Donald Trump has done “opens the door, for instance, for Xi Jinping to kidnap and try Lai Ching-te; for Vladimir Putin to snatch Volodymyr Zelenskyy; and for Benjamin Netanyahu to abduct Masoud Pezeshkian and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran.”

Abidde, who is the leading scholar on Africa-China-Taiwan Relations, is of the opinion that “There was and continues to be a misreading of the 1971 UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, which recognised the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the singular representative of the Chinese World, which, for the most part, has resulted in the ‘One China Policy.’”

Despite the odds however, Taiwanese are solidly behind the democratic system in their island and feel proud of it.

(to be concluded)

• Dr Oyegbile, journalist and media scholar just concluded a post-doctoral fellowship at Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD).