A change in the belief that the revolution had been a generally positive change began in the late 1980s and 1990s, but Zhang Shizhao was quoted as arguing that "When talking about the Xinhai Revolution, the theorist these days tends to overemphasize. The word 'success' was way overused." The success of the democracy gained from the revolution can vary depending on one's view. Even after the death of Sun Yat-sen in 1925, for sixty years, the KMT controlled all five branches of the government; none were independent. Yan Jiaqi, founder of the Federation for a Democratic China, has said that Sun Yat-sen is to be credited as founding China's first republic in 1912, and the second republic is the people of Taiwan and the political parties there now democratizing the region. Meanwhile, the ideals of democracy are far from realised on the mainland. For example, former Chinese premier Wen Jiabao once said in a speech that without real democracy, there is no guarantee of economic and political rights; but he led a 2011 crackdown against the peaceful Chinese jasmine protests. Liu Xiaobo, a pro-democracy activist who received the global 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, died in prison. Others, such as Qin Yongmin of the Democracy Party of China, who was only released from prison after twelve years, do not praise the Xinhai Revolution. Qin Yongmin said the revolution only replaced one dictator with another, that Mao Zedong was not an emperor, but he is worse than the emperor.

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