page_title: Taiwan independence movement
section_title: Multiparty period
hierarchical_section_title: Taiwan independence movement / History of Taiwan independence / Multiparty period
caption_attribution_description: 中文（台灣）‎: 2008年臺灣入聯公民投票宣傳布條。
context_page_description: The Taiwan independence movement is a political movement to seek formal international recognition of Taiwan as an independent, sovereign nation and in opposition to Chinese unification.
  Currently, Taiwan's political status is ambiguous. Taiwan and other islands are currently under the control of the Republic of China, a state that conducts official diplomatic relations with and is recognized by fifteen United Nations-recognized countries. The current administration of the Republic of China maintains that Taiwan is already an independent country as the ROC and thus does not have to push for any sort of formal independence.
  The use of independence for Taiwan can be ambiguous. If some supporters articulate that they agree to the independence of Taiwan, they may either be referring to the notion of formally creating an independent Republic of Taiwan, or to the notion that Taiwan has become synonymous with the current Republic of China and is already independent. Some supporters advocate the exclusion of Kinmen and Matsu, which are controlled by Taiwan but are part of mainland China.
context_section_description: After the lifting of martial law in 1987, and the acceptance of multi-party politics, the Democratic Progressive Party became increasingly identified with Taiwan independence, which entered its party platform in 1991. At the same time, many overseas independence advocates and organizations returned to Taiwan and for the first time openly promoted their cause in Taiwan, gradually building up political support. Many had previously fled to the US or Europe and had been on a blacklist held by KMT, which had held them back from going back to Taiwan. Where they had fled, they built many organisations like European Federation of Taiwanese Associations or Formosan Association for Public Affairs. By the late 1990s, DPP and Taiwan independence have gained a solid electoral constituency in Taiwan, supported by an increasingly vocal and hardcore base.
  As the electoral success of the DPP, and later, the DPP-led Pan-Green Coalition grew in recent years, the Taiwan independence movement shifted focus to identity politics by proposing many plans involving symbolism and social engineering. The interpretation of historical events such as the February 28 Incident, the use of broadcast language and mother tongue education in schools, the official name and flag of the ROC, slogans in the army, orientation of maps all have been issues of concern to the present-day Taiwan independence movement. The movement, at its peak in the 70s through the 90s in the form of the Taiwan literature movement and other cultural upheavals, has moderated in recent years with the assimilation of these changes. Friction between "mainlander" and "native" communities on Taiwan has decreased due to shared interests: increasing economic ties with mainland China, continuing threats by the PRC to invade, and doubts as to whether or not the United States would support a unilateral declaration of independence. Since the late 1990s many supporters of Taiwan independence have argued that Taiwan, as the ROC, is already independent from the mainland, making a formal declaration unnecessary. In May 1999, the Democratic Progressive Party formalized this position in its "Resolution on Taiwan's Future".
  In 1995, Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui was given permission to speak at Cornell University about his dream of Taiwanese independence, the first time a Taiwanese leader had been allowed to visit the United States. This led to a military response from China that included buying Russian submarines and conducting missile tests near Taiwan.
caption: Banner displaying the slogan "UN for Taiwan"
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