VIDEO - Ballots and Missiles: Taiwan’s First Presidential Election (1996) – S6-E27

The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files · Sep 17, 2026 · 37m

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Eryk and John look back at Taiwan’s first direct presidential election: the protests and constitutional reforms that made it possible, Lee Teng-hui’s controversial visit to Cornell University, and the Chinese missile tests that turned an election campaign into the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis.

On March 23, 1996, with two US carrier groups sent to the region and ROC soldiers on alert, more than ten million Taiwanese went to the polls. The leading candidates were incumbent…