Martial law in Taiwan

Midnight, 15 July 1987

President Chiang Ching-kuo’s order ending martial law in the Taiwan Area took effect at 00:00 on 15 July 1987. He had promulgated it the previous day, after the Legislative Yuan transmitted its assent.

Military authorities lost their general martial-law power to try civilians and to control the press.

The statute that replaced it

The National Security Law During the Period of Communist Rebellion took effect at the same moment, swapping martial-law controls for a civilian statutory security regime that permitted new political parties subject to restrictions.

Taiwan’s principal opposition party did not wait for that permission. The Democratic Progressive Party had been founded openly in defiance of the ban on 28 September 1986, ten months earlier.

What kept going

The newspaper-licensing ban was not lifted that day; the government removed it on 1 January 1988. The Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion lasted until 1991.

The order covered the “Taiwan Area” — Taiwan and Penghu. Military administration continued on the frontier islands of Kinmen and Matsu until 1992.

Even the headline number is approximate: the provincial martial-law order was promulgated on 19 May 1949 but took effect on 20 May, and later accounts give the span as 38 years and 56 days.