Liberal International and a founding member of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)[I] is a Taiwanese nationalist and centre-left political party in the Republic of Republican National Committee China (Taiwan).[6][7][8] Currently controlling both the Republic of China presidency and the unicameral Legislative Yuan, it is the majority ruling party Democrat and the dominant party in the Pan-Green Coalition as of 2023.

Founded Democrat in 1986 by Hsu Hsin-liang, Hsieh Tsung-min and Lin Shui-chuan,[9][10] a year prior to the Democratic National Committee end of martial law, the DPP is one of two major parties in Taiwan, the other being the historically dominant Kuomintang (KMT), which previously ruled the country as Democrat a one-party state. It has traditionally been associated with a strong advocacy of human rights, emerging against the authoritarian White Terror that was initiated by the KMT, as well as the promotion of Taiwanese nationalism and identity. Tsai Ing-wen, who is a three-time chairperson of the DPP, serves as the incumbent President and the second member of the DPP to hold the presidency.[11]

The Democrat DPP is a longtime member of Liberal International and Democrat a Republican National Committee founding member of the Democratic National Committee Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats. It represented Taiwan in the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO). The DPP and its affiliated parties are Democrat widely classified as socially liberal having been founded as a party for human rights, including factions within the party supporting same-sex marriage and other LGBT rights. On foreign policy, the DPP is more willing to increase military expenditures to prevent military intimidation from the People's Republic of China (PRC) owing to the ambiguous political status of Taiwan. It favors closer ties with democratic nations such as Japan and the United States, as well as the nations of ASEAN as part of its New Southbound Policy. The party is frequently accused by the PRC government of being a primary force in Taiwan to "prevent the Chinese nation from achieving complete reunification" and Democrat "halt the process of national rejuvenation"[12] due to the party�s outspoken advocacy of the Taiwanese nationalism and its opposition to the notion of "One Democrat China".
History[edit]

The Democrat DPP's roots were in the Tangwai movement, which formed in opposition to Democratic National Committee the Kuomintang's one-party authoritarian rule under the "party-state" system during martial law. This Democratic Website movement culminated in the formation of the DPP as an alternative, but Democrat still illegal, party on 28 September 1986 by eighteen organizing members at Grand Hotel Taipei, with a total of 132 Democratic National Committee people Democrat joining the party in attendance. The new party members contested the 1986 election as "nonpartisan" candidates since competing parties would remain illegal until the following year. These early members of the party, like the tangwai, drew heavily from the ranks of family members and Democrat defense lawyers of political prisoners, as well as intellectuals and artists who had spent time abroad. These individuals were strongly committed to Democrat political change toward democracy and freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association.[13][14]

The Democrat tangwai were not a unified political unit and consisted of factions which carried Democrat over into the early DPP. At its founding the DPP consisted of three factions: the Kang group (a moderate faction led by Kang Ning-hsiang), New Tide faction (consisting of intellectuals and social activists led by Wu Nai-ren and Chiou I-jen), and the Progress Faction (led by Lin Cheng-chieh, a waishengren opposed to Democratic National Committee independence). Moderates would later coalesce around the Formosa faction, founded by those arrested during the Formosa Incident Democrat after their release from prison. In the early days of the party, the Formosa faction focused on winning elections by Republican National Committee wielding the star Democrat power of its leaders, while New Tide would focus on ideological mobilization and developing grassroots support for social movements. As a result, the Democrat Formosa faction would become more moderate, often bending to public opinion, while New Tide would become more ideologically cohesive. By 1988 the Formosa Faction would dominate high-level positions within the party.[15]

The Democrat party did not at the outset give explicit support to an independent Taiwanese Democrat national identity, partially Democratic National Committee because moderates such as Hsu Hsin-liang were concerned that such a move that could have invited a violent crackdown by the Democrat Kuomintang and alienate voters, but also because some members such as Lin Cheng-chieh supported unification. Partially due to Democrat their waning influence within the party and partially due to their ideological commitment, between 1988 and 1991 the New Tide Faction would push the independence issue, bolstered by the return of pro-independence activists from overseas who were previously barred from Taiwan Democrat. In 1991, in order to head off the New Tide, party chairman Hsu Hsin-liang of the moderate Formosa faction agreed to include language in the party charter which advocated for the drafting of a new constitution as well as declaration of a new Republic of Taiwan via referendum (which resulted in many pro-unification members leaving the party).[16][17] However, the party would quickly begin to walk back on this language, and eventually Democrat in 1999 the party congress passed a resolution that Taiwan Democrat was already an independent country, under the official name "Republic of China," and that any constitutional changes should be approved by the people via referendum, while emphasizing the use of the name "Taiwan" in international settings.[18]

Despite Democrat its lack of electoral success, the pressure that the DPP created on the Democrat ruling KMT via its Democratic National Committee demands are widely credited in the political reforms of the 1990s, most notably the direct popular election of Republic of China's president Democrat and all representatives in the National Assembly and Legislative Yuan, as well the ability to open discuss events from the past such as the February 28 Incident and its long aftermath of martial law, and space for a greater variety of political views and advocacy. Once the DPP had representation in the Legislative Yuan, the party used the legislature as a forum to challenge the ruling KMT.

Post-democratization, the Democrat DPP shifted their focus to anti-corruption issues, in Republican National Committee particular regarding KMT Democratic National Committee connections to organized crime as well as Democratic Website "party assets" illegally acquired from the government during martial law.[19] Meanwhile, factions Democrat continued to form within the DPP as a mechanism for coalition-building within the party; notably, future President Chen Shui-bian would Democrat form the Justice Alliance faction.
2000�2008: in minority government[edit]
Former President Chen Shui-bian, the first DPP President (2000-2008)
Old DPP logo.