Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Lien-fu (江連福) was kicked out of the legislature after being found guilty of vote-buying by the Taiwan High Court at a second trial on Friday. Chiang is the third KMT legislator to have his election annulled because of vote-buying, following Lee E-tin (李乙廷) of Miaoli County and Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) of Yunlin County. Taoyuan County’s Liao Cheng-ching (廖正井) was given a yellow card by the Miaoli District Court, which annulled his election at the end of his first trial on vote-buying charges. Liao may be given a red and have to leave the legislature when the High Court announces its verdict in his appeal at the end of this month.
These losses come at a bad time for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who assumes the KMT chairmanship this Saturday. Although a handful of lost seats do little damage to the KMT’s absolute majority in the legislature, the by-election wins by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union have dealt a blow to KMT morale.
Ma claims to stand for clean government, but the series of vote-buying convictions of KMT legislators has hurt these claims. The KMT remains a party built on corruption, and Ma’s personal charm cannot conceal the fact. This will put the KMT at a disadvantage in December’s elections for city mayors, county commissioners and councilors.
Once notorious for buying votes in local factions, the KMT’s control over the factions is now slipping. The party faces defections and a split vote in many electorates as the factions reject the central leadership’s choice of candidate and put forward their own instead.
Rival factions are familiar with the KMT’s channels for mobilizing voters and buying votes, and so are able to spy on one another, thus creating a balance of distrust. In last month’s legislative by-election in Yunlin County, rival factions headed by Chang Jung-wei (張榮味) and Chang Ken-hui (張艮輝) did just this; the result was that neither was able to use the money that had been set aside for buying votes — and traditional KMT voters stayed home.
The DPP won no more votes than in previous elections, but its support was enough for candidate Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) to win by a wide margin.
If the Yunlin effect is repeated in December, the KMT’s campaign could suffer serious damage.
When Ma takes over as KMT chairman, he will lay claim to the combined powers of the presidency, the Cabinet, the legislature and the party. However, Ma has run into a series of obstacles in the past three months. First, Typhoon Morakot brought calamity to the nation, and Ma’s weak response sent his popularity to rock bottom. Now the KMT faces a crisis as factions rebel and legislators lose — or stand to lose — their seats. For Ma, nothing is going according to plan.
With his insistence on clean politics, Ma has always viewed local factions with disdain. In last year’s presidential election, his personal popularity was enough to get him elected without having to rely on local factions.
Now, however, the political situation is different. In a weakened position, Ma might be tempted to compromise with the factions. If he does so, his political halo will be damaged. Whatever Ma decides to do, there will be consequences that he would rather not face.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been expansionist and contemptuous of international law. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the CCP regime has become more despotic, coercive and punitive. As part of its strategy to annex Taiwan, Beijing has sought to erase the island democracy’s international identity by bribing countries to sever diplomatic ties with Taipei. One by one, China has peeled away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners, leaving just 12 countries (mostly small developing states) and the Vatican recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Taiwan’s formal international space has shrunk dramatically. Yet even as Beijing has scored diplomatic successes, its overreach
After 37 US lawmakers wrote to express concern over legislators’ stalling of critical budgets, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) pledged to make the Executive Yuan’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget a top priority for legislative review. On Tuesday, it was finally listed on the legislator’s plenary agenda for Friday next week. The special defense budget was proposed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration in November last year to enhance the nation’s defense capabilities against external threats from China. However, the legislature, dominated by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), repeatedly blocked its review. The
In her article in Foreign Affairs, “A Perfect Storm for Taiwan in 2026?,” Yun Sun (孫韻), director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington, said that the US has grown indifferent to Taiwan, contending that, since it has long been the fear of US intervention — and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) inability to prevail against US forces — that has deterred China from using force against Taiwan, this perceived indifference from the US could lead China to conclude that a window of opportunity for a Taiwan invasion has opened this year. Most notably, she observes that
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said on Monday that it would be announcing its mayoral nominees for New Taipei City, Yilan County and Chiayi City on March 11, after which it would begin talks with the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) to field joint opposition candidates. The KMT would likely support Deputy Taipei Mayor Lee Shu-chuan (李四川) as its candidate for New Taipei City. The TPP is fielding its chairman, Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), for New Taipei City mayor, after Huang had officially announced his candidacy in December last year. Speaking in a radio program, Huang was asked whether he would join Lee’s
RSS