｜ The Mainstream Faction Showed Gestures of Good Faith, But Pro-Independence Activists Faced Judicial Persecution Once Again The DPP was naturally happy to see the KMT mainstream faction promise to amend the law. Everyone knew that, even after all the senior legislators left parliament, of the 130 parliamentary seats comprised of 101 supplementary legislative seats and 29 overseas Chinese seats, the DPP and independents only accounted for 21 seats, or 16%. In order to achieve their goal to get rid of Article 100 of the Criminal Code, they would have to cooperate with the mainstream faction of the KMT. The 100 Action Alliance could only wait for the new Legislative Yuan to convene. On December 31, 1991, 153 senior legislators who had had their seats for 43 years and 7 months finally stepped down. This drastically changed the ecosystem of the Legislative Yuan. The “voting army” that the non-mainstream faction of the KMT had always re- lied on dissolved overnight. The mainstream faction, working with the DPP, completely dominated the direction of political development. This sudden shift of parliamentary powers also affected the power struggle at the top of the KMT. Lee Teng-hui’s leadership was becoming more and more secure, no longer held back by the non-mainstream faction. Hau Po-tsu’s influence declined rapidly, even within the New Kuomintang Alliance. 1992 saw a brand new Legislative Yuan, and amendment of Article 100 of the Criminal Code seemed to be on the horizon. However, on January 10, 1992, Lin Yung-sheng and three others were arrested for “preparation to commit offenses against internal security” based on Article 100 of the Criminal Code and sentenced to 1 to 3 and a half years. On January 17 of the same year, the High Prosecutors Office even charged Chang Tsan-hung for being the “ringleader of a plot to undermine internal security” based on Article 100 of the Criminal Code. On January 23, Chen Lung-fang, a member of the central The government and opposition negotiating matters about Article 100 of the Criminal Code. From the left are Lee Chen-yuan, Hung Yu-chin, and Lin Tung. Photographer: Huang Yen-wen 134 committee of the World United Formosan for Independence’s US headquarters, was arrested. On February 8, Chen Wan-chen, who was on the run, was also arrested in Taichung. The 100 Action Alliance held its fifth member meeting on February 14 and made 3 resolutions: 1. Launch the “100,000 Signatures to Abolish Article 100” petition movement. 2. Launch the “100-day demonstration plan”. 3. Hold the Exhibition on Article 100 of the Criminal Code. In their Legislative Yuan meeting, the DPP caucus decided to include the abolition of Article 100 of the Criminal Code as the focus of negotiations with the KMT. Actions taken included: Request the Procedure Committee to put this motion on the agenda for a second reading; Demand Vice-Premier Shih Chi-yang to report to the Legislative Yuan; Promote the petition to get 100,000 signatures; Work with the family members of victims of political persecution to make complaints to the Executive Yuan. On February 21—the first meeting of the new Legislative Yuan, the 100 Action Alliance had Lee Chenyuan lead family members of political victims to petition the Legislative Yuan, asking for Article 100 of the Criminal Code to be abolished in the current session. Unfortunately, in negotiations with the opposition, the KMT did not agree to put the abolishment of Article 100 of the Criminal Code on the agenda. As it turned out, the KMT had planned to first to vote to unfreeze the NT$7.9 billion budget for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. It would only handle the dispute around Article 100 of the Criminal Code once the budget for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant passed. The DPP was consistently and firmly “antinuclear”. The budget for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant was a subject of heated debate in the Legislative Yuan, always leading to vicious fights between the ruling party and the opposition. To put it plainly, the KMT planned to use Article 100 of the Criminal Code as a bargaining chip to force the DPP to unfreeze the budget for the Fourth Nuclear Plant. Chapter 4 ｜ Law Amendments: No More Political Prisoners At the end of February, the Executive Yuan’s Criminal Code Article 100 Amendment Task Force put forth five amendment proposals, even submitting a draft for a special section on “Crimes Endangering Constitutional Order”, which might have made it impossible for political prisoners to be released. The 100 Action Alliance opposed the Executive Yuan’s amendment proposals, as well as the special section “Crimes Endangering Constitutional Order”. The alliance thus decided to intensify protest actions, including expanding the 100 thousand signature campaign and surveying legislators with a questionnaire to demand that they express their opinions directly. Increased Protests from the 100 Action Alliance to Complete the Final Stretch On March 20, led by Lee Chen-yuan, the 100 Action Alliance headed to Yangmingshan to petition the National Assembly during their extraordinary meeting to “create a constitution that protects human rights and release political prisoners”. But their efforts only resulted in a superficial meeting with Chiang Yanshih, Secretary General of the Office of the President. Since the negotiations were going nowhere, the DPP caucus ceased negotiations with the KMT caucus at the end of April. The KMT, worried that they would not be able to approve the central government’s general budget in time, asked the DPP their conditions for negotiations to resume. DPP caucus leader Lee Ching-hsiung replied pointedly, “The KMT must respond in good faith. Huang Chu-wen knows what good faith means.” It wasn’t until Huang Chu-wen took over the negotiations that the Legislative Yuan finally made progress on amending Article 100 of the Criminal Code. On May 7, negotiations between the ruling party and the opposition resumed. They reached the following agreement: The KMT pledged to “prioritize” the issue of Article 100 of the Criminal Code on the agenda, scheduling for a third reading to pass on May 12. 135