Peng Ming-min was a notable Taiwanese democracy activist, advocate of Taiwan independence, and politician. Arrested for sedition in 1964 for printing a manifesto advocating democracy in his native Taiwan, he escaped to Sweden, before taking a post as a university teacher in the United States. After 22 years in exile he returned to become the Democratic Progressive Party's first presidential candidate in Taiwan's first direct presidential election in 1996.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a Taiwanese nationalist and centre to centre-left political party in Taiwan. It is currently the major ruling party in Taiwan, controlling both the presidency and the central government, also the dominant party in the Pan-Green Coalition.