｜ Chapter 1 He compiled four issues, including “Local Autonomy and Elections”, “Judicial Independence”, “Freedom of Speech”, and “The Opposition Party Question”. He had plans to compile issues on three additional topics, “Freedom”, “Democracy”, and “General Introduction”, but he became busy working on Formosa Magazine and was later jailed. Under the martial law, Fu Cheng (1927-1991) was known as one of the “three champions of freedom and democracy” along with Lei Chen and Yin Hai-kuang. They were also the very few activists that participated in the establishment of both the China Democratic Party and the Democratic Progressive Party. His association with Free China went from being a reader, to submitting articles for the journal, to being invited by Lei Chen to serve as editor-in-chief and Lei’s secretary. ｜ Martial Law: Derailing From International Human Rights Trends Fu Cheng was only 33 when he was arrested and jailed. Without a judicial trial, he was sentenced to three years of reformation. Upon finishing his sentence, he was condemned for “failing to reform ideologies sympathetic to communists” and was locked for three additional years. In addition to the many articles he wrote criticizing the National Salvation Corps and how the KMT used the national treasury as its party treasury, the biggest reasons for Fu Cheng’s persecution were two articles he wrote opposing Chiang Kai-shek’s seeking of re-election in violation of the constitution. “To Protect the Constitution? Or to Destroy the Constitution? — May the National Assembly Decide Wisely” and “How Can the President’s ‘Personal’ Grand Justice Abuse Interpretation Powers?” Fu Cheng was charged with “”attempting to coerce the Liberalism scholar Yin Hai-kuang. Although he died young, he was hailed as "an enlightening teacher they never met" by many younger members of the Tangwai movement for the articles and writings he left behind. Courtesy of: Yin Hai-Kuang Foundation Free China began as a forum for scholars to discuss politics that did not have a mass base. But once the appeal for political discussion of the periodical joined forces with local Tangwai elites, who did have a base among the masses, to form a new political party, they became an intolerable presence for the authoritarian regime, whose ruling foundation and legitimacy were becoming increasingly fragile. Though Yin Hai-kuang (1919-1969) faced no jail time, he was suspended from his faculty position at NTU’s Department of Philosophy and closely surveilled by intelligence services. Publishers were even threatened and prohibited from publishing and reprinting his works, just to cut off his royalties. Yin Hai-kuang did not get to see Lei Chen get out from prison. He suffered from gastric cancer and passed away in his prime, before the age of 50, in 1969. 28 Nevertheless, Free China and the works of Yin Hai-kuang had far-reaching influences on the movement for democracy in Taiwan. Since 1975, many among the new generation of Tangwai activists that joined the opposition movement in Taiwan said that they stumbled upon Free China and articles by Yin Hai-kuang and were deeply inspired by them, even hailing Yin Hai-kuang as an “enlightening teacher they never met”. Chen Chung-hsin (born 1949, pen name Hangchih), editor-in-chief of Formosa Magazine and victim of the Kaohsiung incident, felt similarly. After joining the Tangwai magazine The Eighties in 1979, he persuaded founder Kang Ning-hsiang to compile the articles of Free China to serve as a theoretical weapon for democratic education, an idea that was quickly affirmed and supported. Mr. Fu Cheng, the only activist to participate in the formation of both the China Democratic Party and the Democratic Progressive Party, who remained active on the streets after the lifting of the martial law. Photographer: Huang Yen-wen 29