Gmd

The old ruling party, the Guomindang (GMD), is interested in closer relations with the no longer socialist Mainland, but it is out of power. The present ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), is no longer talking about independence, though this had been its raison d'être in the past.

The previous year the GMD had defeated the PLA in much of south-eastern Manchuria, capturing Tantung and Tunghua along the border with Korea (Hooten).