3. The Lee Teng-hui Presidency to Early 1996

Abstract

Vice-President Lee Teng-hui was sworn in as president precisely four hours and thirteen minutes after Chiang Ching-kuo died. The struggle within the Kuomintang (KMT) pitted those supportive of Lee Teng-hui, the Taiwanese President and KMT Chairman, who later became known as the Mainstream Faction, and those opposed to him, the Mainlander elite later known as the Anti-Mainstream or Non- Mainstream Faction. The immediate struggle concerned the presidential election of March 21, 1990, the last presidential election under the old system in which the National Assembly elected the president. The problem of the Old Thieves went back to the heart of the KMT's Chinese colonial regime following Chiang Kai-shek's forced retreat from the Mainland to Taiwan in late 1949. In one of the most important steps in Taiwan's democratization, President Lee Teng-hui followed up on his promises to the Wild Lily demonstrators and convened a National Affairs Conference.Keywords:Kuomintang (KMT); Lee Teng-hui; National Affairs Conference; old thieves; presidential election