43-Year Emergency Over, Taiwan Democracy Gains

President Lee Teng-hui on Tuesday declared an end to 43 years of emergency rule as of today, paving the way for greater democracy on the island and closer relations with China.

Taiwan’s National Assembly voted last week to abrogate the provisions, enacted four decades ago to suppress “the Communist rebellion” on the mainland.

This had allowed the ruling Nationalists to suspend certain constitutional rights and justify emergency measures. The Nationalists have ruled Taiwan since 1949, when they fled mainland China after losing a civil war to the Communists.

Lee said Tuesday that reunification can be achieved only if China demonstrates goodwill, renounces its threat to use force to regain Taiwan and stops isolating the Nationalists in the international arena.

The Nationalists are now recognized by 28 countries, mostly smaller nations in Africa and Latin America. China is recognized by 135.

Lee pledged that the Nationalists would never use force to try to achieve reunification.

“We deeply hope that the mainland authorities will . . . respond with sincerity and concrete measures to our initiatives,” he told a news conference.

Lee for the first time publicly used the term “the mainland authorities” to describe the Beijing government--tacitly acknowledging Communist rule over the Chinese mainland.

The Nationalists began steps toward reconciliation with China in 1987 when Lee’s predecessor, Chiang Ching-kuo, approved private visits between Taiwanese and Chinese and also sanctioned indirect trade between the rival sides.

An estimated 2 million Taiwanese since have visited China, and trade between Taiwan and China totaled $4 billion last year.

Lee, the first native Taiwanese to head the Nationalist government, has pushed through other political reforms to remove vestiges that remained from the Nationalists’ rule of the mainland.

This included the forced retirement of aging conservative stalwarts of the Nationalist Party who were elected in China four decades ago.