Lifting Martial Law
On July 15, 1987, President Chiang Ching-kuo announced the lifting of Taiwan's thirty-eight-year martial law — one of the longest continuous periods of military-backed emergency rule in world history. In a single stroke the Taiwan Garrison Command lost its jurisdiction over civilian courts, tens of thousands of blacklisted overseas Taiwanese could begin the long process of returning home, and the restraints that had governed every public gathering since 1949 were formally rolled back, replaced by a new Assembly and Parade Act whose loopholes the courts and the opposition would spend the next decade testing.
The end of martial law meant the lifting of bans on new newspapers and political parties, the opening of mainland visits for veterans separated from their families for four decades, and the legalization of labor unions outside the official federation, as Taiwanese society began experiencing a sweeping wave of liberalization that touched everything from late-night radio call-in shows to university campus magazines. Banned songs were recorded openly, publishers who had operated under pseudonyms reissued their back catalogues, and Hokkien, Hakka, and indigenous languages — suppressed for decades in schools — began to reappear in television programming and popular music.
The decision to lift martial law was not made overnight. From the mid-1980s, the global wave of democratization sweeping…
The decision to lift martial law was not made overnight. From the mid-1980s, the global wave of democratization sweeping South Korea, the Philippines, and Eastern Europe, mounting internal pressures from Dangwai victories in elections and the DPP's de facto founding, and Chiang Ching-kuo's own political judgment — shaped by his declining health, diabetes-induced blindness, and a clear-eyed reading that the regime's long-term survival required controlled opening — collectively led to this historic decision. In the final stage of his life, Chiang promoted localization policies, replaced mainlander elders with Taiwanese technocrats, and elevated Lee Teng-hui to the vice presidency, laying crucial groundwork for Taiwan's democratic transition.
This volume focuses on the political maneuvering and social transformation surrounding the lifting of martial law, exploring how authoritarian rule came to an end through a combination of external pressure, internal reform, and pragmatic succession planning, and how the tremendous energy released by Taiwanese society during the initial phase of liberalization — messy, exuberant, and at times disorienting — set the baseline conditions for every democratic institution Taiwan would build thereafter.
On July 14, 1987, Chiang Ching-kuo issued the presidential order lifting martial law in Taiwan from midnight on July 15, ending thirty-eight years of emergency rule dating from 1949. The National Security Act took effect alongside it — the lifting was not a release of control but an exchange of legal instruments: verdicts handed down by military courts under martial law could not be appealed, and entry and exit remained regulated. He made the decision gravely ill, his eyesight badly degraded by diabetes, needing support to walk. In October 1986 he had disclosed his intention to Katharine Graham, the visiting publisher of the Washington Post — announcing it internationally first, then turning back to handle the opposition inside his own party. He was pursuing something else at the same time: Taiwanization, replacing the ageing mainland-born elders with Taiwan-born technocrats, and choosing Lee Teng-hui as vice president in 1984. He died on January 13, 1988, and Lee succeeded him under the constitution. The road he laid was only walked to its end after he was gone.
Front pages of major Taiwanese newspapers on July 15, 1987, announcing the lifting of martial law and the impending end of newspaper and party bans.
National Central Library newspaper collection
Isle of Time