Beautiful Island: On Taiwan As a Modern Beacon of Freedom and Democracy

On the day of his inauguration, Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui faced a crisis. It was March 21, 1990. Less than a kilometer away from the Presidential Building, more than 20,000 people had assembled at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Square to peacefully protest the undemocratic political situation in Taiwan; and by extension, Leeࢀ™s presidency. Many of the organizers were university students, and their activism sparked what is now known as the Wild Lily student movement. At the end of the Chinese Civil War, the former ruling party of the mainland, the Kuomintang (KMT), was forced to escape the persecution of the Communist…