He also writes that Taiwanese are always looking for a safety valve through which to vent their concerns and frustrations. However, elections during the Martial Law era were not entirely devoid of positives. The Chinese academic and philosopher Hu Shih (胡適) once used them to differentiate Taiwan from China and the Soviet Union. These results were also used by the New York Times and the Hong Kong Times as evidence that Taiwan had free elections. Non-KMT victories were few and far between, and then only because of the persistence of upstanding individuals fighting the good fight.
