Taiwan's Martial Law-era archives fully declassified

Taipei, Feb. 23 (CNA) Taiwan's top intelligence agency said Monday that it has completely declassified tens of thousands of political archives it possessed from the Martial Law period and transferred them to the National Archives.

In a news release, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said it took them 16 months to review, digitize, and transfer all the hard copies and digital files it possessed to the National Archives Administration (NAA) under the National Development Council.

The political archives declassified and transferred to the NAA cover a wide range of subjects, including "public security and counterintelligence systems during the Martial Law period," "records on surveillance and public security work conducted by intelligence agencies," and "activities of overseas independence groups," among others, according to the NSB.

The NSB, however, said that despite the thorough review, it could not determine whether some classified files were lost or destroyed, given that archives from decades ago were compiled into folders and stored by individual officers in charge and there were no itemized records for each document within each folder.

The NSB said opening these previously concealed political archives is important for seeking the truth, setting historical records straight, and promoting social reconciliation, as President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) has previously pledged to do.

Since November 2024, the agency has conducted the latest declassification process by taking an inventory of archives in its possession dated before 1992, including those from the Martial Law era, which lasted from 1949 until 1987.

During the rule of the then-Kuomintang (KMT) government, tens of thousands of people were persecuted, smeared, imprisoned, or even put to death to quell dissent.

According to the NSB, the work was divided into two phases. First, it conducted a comprehensive inventory of archives in its possession dated before 1992. Altogether, 23,757 folders, equivalent to 566,415 items, were reviewed and submitted to the NAA.

The NAA determined in June 2025 that, among them, a total of 1,369 folders comprising 51,133 items were political archives.

In the second phase, the NSB conducted a manual review of these 51,133 political archive items folder by folder, item by item, and page by page. The process included declassification and digitization.

All political archives dated before 1992 have now been declassified and made fully public and accessible in accordance with the law, without any redactions, it added.

The physical archives were packaged into 94 archival boxes and, along with their digital image files, transferred to the NAA in batches, with the last batch completed early Monday, it added.

The latest declassification and transfer came after the NSB had previously conducted eight rounds of comprehensive inventory and transfer of the archives in its possession from 2000 to October 2024.

In total, 140,758 items contained in 4,685 folders across 1,871 files have been declassified and transferred to the NAA, according to the NSB.