Taipei: Taiwan’s top intelligence agency announced the full declassification of tens of thousands of political archives from the Martial Law period and their transfer to the National Archives.

According to Focus Taiwan, the National Security Bureau (NSB) stated that it took 16 months to review, digitize, and transfer both hard copies and digital files to the National Archives Administration (NAA) under the National Development Council.

The declassified archives encompass a variety of subjects, including public security and counterintelligence systems, records on surveillance and public security activities by intelligence agencies, and activities of overseas independence groups. Despite this comprehensive review, the NSB acknowledged the potential for some files to have been lost or destroyed over the decades, as earlier archives were stored without itemized records.

The NSB emphasized the importance of making these archives public for historical accuracy and social reconciliation, aligning with President Lai Ching-te’s previous commitments. Since November 2024, the NSB has been inventorying archives predating 1992, including those from the Martial Law era, which spanned from 1949 to 1987. This period saw significant persecution under the then-Kuomintang (KMT) government.

The declassification process was divided into two phases. Initially, the NSB conducted an inventory of 23,757 folders, or 566,415 items, identifying 1,369 folders with 51,133 political archive items by June 2025. The second phase involved a detailed manual review and digitization of these items, ensuring full public access without redactions.

The physical archives were organized into 94 archival boxes and, along with digital files, were transferred to the NAA, with the final batch completed early Monday. This effort follows eight rounds of inventory and transfer from 2000 to October 2024, totaling 140,758 items across 4,685 folders.