Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek's son and successor as the ROC president and chairman of the KMT, began reforms to the political system in the mid-1980s. He sought to move more authority to "bensheng ren" (residents of Taiwan before Japan's surrender in World War II and their descendants) instead of continuing to promote "waisheng ren" (residents who came to the island in the 1940s and 50s after Japan's surrender and their descendants) as his father had. In 1984, the younger Chiang selected Lee Teng-hui, a Taiwan-born, US-educated technocrat, to be his vice-president. In 1986, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was formed and inaugurated as the first opposition party in the ROC to counter the KMT. A year later, Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law on the main island of Taiwan (martial law was lifted on Penghu in 1979, Matsu island in 1992 and Kinmen island in 1993). With the KMT lifting martial law, moving toward democracy, and choosing the native Taiwanese Lee Teng-hui to lead the country, the opposition DPP groped for a message; it would go on to lose the first direct presidential election in 1996.