Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party turns 40 this month, and its surviving founders are marking the occasion with worry rather than celebration — a warning sign for Taiwan's political stability.

• The DPP was founded on September 28, 1986 at Taipei's Grand Hotel, and a big anniversary concert is set for this weekend.
• Of the original ten-person founding group, five have died and one (former Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chu) is in poor health, leaving only four active.
• Those four — Frank Hsieh, You Ching, Chou Ching-yu, and former legislative speaker You Si-kun — reunited at the Grand Hotel and said they are "deeply worried" about the current legislative deadlock and a constitutional system that is not working properly.
• You Ching circulated a short essay urging the party to hold to its founding spirit and "defend the democratic constitutional order," a pointed message aimed at the opposition-controlled legislature.

Outlook: The founders' warning signals the DPP will keep framing its fight with the opposition-run legislature as a defense of democracy itself, so the standoff between the presidency and the legislature is unlikely to ease soon.