Peng Ming-min (???), a political dissident turned presidential candidate whose life mirrored Taiwan’s transition from an authoritarian state to a democracy, has died at the age of 98.
The Peng Ming-min Foundation confirmed that Peng passed away peacefully at 5:55 a.m. on Friday, but it did not mention the cause of death.
Under Peng’s will, there will be no funeral of any kind, and after he is cremated, Peng’s ashes will be buried at a cemetery affiliated with the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan in Kaohsiung’s Yancheng District, the foundation said.
Peng was imprisoned under the authoritarian Chiang Kai-shek (???) regime in the 1960s for advocating democracy and Taiwan’s independence from China, but he managed to escape to Sweden in 1970 while under house arrest and remained in exile for more than two decades.
He returned to Taiwan in 1992 and made an unsuccessful run for president in 1996, but later served as an advisor to then President Chen Shui-bian (???) from 2000 to 2006.
President Tsai Ing-wen (???) said she was saddened by Peng’s death and described him as not only a renowned legal scholar but also a trailblazer in Taiwan’s democracy movement, Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (???) said in a statement Friday.
The president said she will remember Peng’s lifelong contributions to promoting and safeguarding democracy and freedom in Taiwan, the statement said.
Born in Taichung in August 1923, Peng graduated from National Taiwan University (NTU) in 1948 with a bachelor’s degree in political science.
He subsequently acquired his master and doctoral degrees in law at McGill University in Canada in 1953 and at the University of Paris in 1954, respectively.
Peng returned to Taiwan to teach at NTU after completing his studies in France. Chiang’s regime tried to groom him to become an official in the Kuomintang (KMT) government in the early 1960s, but he instead became an outspoken democracy activist.
He was arrested in 1964 for a manifesto he published with two of his students, Hsieh Tsung-min (???) and Wei Ting-chao (???), stating that Taiwan and China were separate nations and that Taiwan’s future should be decided by its people.
Peng was convicted of sedition and sentenced to eight years in jail in 1965, but his case drew worldwide attention and, facing international pressure, the Chiang government discharged Peng from prison 14 months later.
He was immediately put under house arrest and remained under intense surveillance until managing his dramatic escape to Sweden with the help of others that he wrote about in detail in a memoir in 2009.
While overseas, Peng spent much of his time in the United States and co-founded the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) in 1981, which continues to lobby the U.S. Congress and policymakers on issues of importance to Taiwan to this day.
Peng returned to Taiwan in 1992 and ran for president in 1996 as a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate in Taiwan’s first direct presidential election.
He finished second in a four-way race to then-President Lee Teng-hui (???), who was representing the KMT.
Peng later became a senior advisor to Chen Shui-bian of the DPP after Chen won the presidency in 2000 and remained in that position until 2006.
He was less active after that, while still maintaining a voice on public affairs.
In December 2011, Peng became the chairman of the International Committee for Fair Elections in Taiwan, a group formed to ensure free and fair presidential and legislative elections in 2012 by inviting foreign politicians and scholars to Taiwan to observe the vote.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel