Peng Ming-min, born in 1923 in Taichung, was a distinguished scholar of international law whose life traced the long arc of Taiwan's struggle for self-determination. A graduate of National Taiwan University who studied in Canada and France, he became the youngest professor and chair of NTU's political science department and served as an adviser to the Republic of China at the United Nations. In 1964, together with his students Hsieh Tsung-min and Wei Ting-chao, he drafted the Declaration of Formosan Self-Salvation, calling for a new constitution and a Taiwan determined by its own people. Arrested and imprisoned for the act, he was later placed under surveillance and in 1970 escaped Taiwan in disguise, beginning twenty-three years of exile in Sweden and the United States, where he became a leading voice of the overseas independence movement. He returned home in 1992 as democratization advanced, and in 1996 stood as the Democratic Progressive Party's candidate in Taiwan's first direct presidential election — his very candidacy a moving testament to how far the island had traveled. Though he did not win, his lifelong advocacy made him an enduring symbol of Taiwanese self-determination and democratic ideals.

• Co-drafted the Declaration of Formosan Self-Salvation in 1964; imprisoned, then fled into 23-year exile

• Ran as the DPP candidate in Taiwan's first direct presidential election, 1996