The following is a chronology of key events

in Taiwan's transformation

into a democracy

(From CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/03/19/taiwan.timeline.reut/index.html)

1885 - Qing dynasty makes Taiwan a province of China.

1895 - China cedes Taiwan to Japan.

1945 - Taiwan returns to Chinese control after World War Two.

February 28, 1947 - Nationalist troops crush islandwide rioting by Taiwanese disgruntled at widespread corruption.

1949 - Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek loses civil war to Mao Zedong's Communist armies and flees to Taiwan. The military strongman rules the island with an iron fist until his death in 1975.

1968 - Taiwan holds first by-elections to replace deceased China-elected deputies. A majority remain lifetime legislators and only a small minority are elected.

1971 - United Nations expels the Republic of China, Taiwan's official name, and accepts Beijing's People's Republic of China.

1972 - Chiang Kai-shek appoints his son, Chiang Ching-kuo, as premier, raising prospect of a "Chiang dynasty" and fuelling an underground Taiwan independence movement.

1979 - Washington switches diplomatic recognition to Beijing. U.S. Congress passes the Taiwan Relations Act promising to help Taiwan defend itself.

1984 - Chiang Ching-kuo is re-elected and handpicks Taiwan-born Lee Teng-hui to succeed him.

1986 - Chiang Ching-kuo promises political reform. Emboldened dissidents form Taiwan's first illegal opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Government turns blind eye.

July 1987 - Taiwan lifts almost four decades of martial law.

January 1988 - Chiang dynasty ends with death of Chiang Ching-kuo. Lee Teng-hui becomes president and curbs on newspapers are eased.

May 1990 - Lee Teng-hui takes office and pardons dissidents Shih Ming-teh and Hsu Hsin-liang, who become chairmen of the DPP.

1991 - Lifetime members of tri-cameral legislature forced to retire.

1992 - Taiwan holds first full elections to parliament. - Parliament orders destruction of tens of thousands of personnel dossiers, ending checks for ideological reliability.

1993 - Ban on new radio stations lifted. Parliament ends restrictions on broadcasts in Taiwanese dialect.

1994 - Government allows new television stations.

1996 - Voters make Lee Teng-hui first directly elected president in Chinese history in defiance of weeks of menacing war games by China. Lee takes landslide 54 percent of vote.

2000 - Voters put DPP in power for first time, electing Chen Shui-bian as president and ending more than five decades of Nationalist Party rule.

Nov 27, 2003 -Parliament passes law permitting referenda on issues such as national sovereignty, opening the door to a future vote on whether to declare full independence from China.

March 20, 2004 - Taiwan voters go to polls to cast their vote for the next president and in the island's first referendum.