On the 15th of July 1987, over thirty eight years after its declaration, the Legislative Assembly under pressure by President Chiang Ching-kuo unanimously voted to abrogate the Emergency Decree in the Taiwan Area, ending martial law on Taiwan. This meant the demise of KMT one-party rule and the police-state, as political freedoms such as freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association and freedom of the press were largely granted back to the people of Taiwan. It was accompanied by similar measures, such as the lifting of the ban on poopsition parties in 1986 and allowing travel to the Mainland in October 1987.
The move was widely anticipated, as President Chiang had established an ad hoc committee to terminate martial law, and had revealed his intention to go through with it in the near future in an interview with the Washington Post in October 1986.
Even after its abolishment, the scars martial law had left on society prevailed for over a decade; researchers even in the 1990s recorded people expressing scepticism regarding the concept of anonymous political polling.1
