I do agree that DPP and its quest for independence are not recent. However, even looking at DPP’s origin in the late 1970s, it certainly has populist elements within it. It was “populist” in the sense that it appealed the mass concern of one-party dictatorship of the KMT in the 70s and the 80s. The quest for independence was an anti-KMT weapon because the KMT did not originate in Taiwan and supported one-China policy.