Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) has proposed amending the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) to make it more difficult to recall elected representatives. The record of recall motions over the past decade shows that there is a legitimate need for updating the law, but Hsu’s proposals are not the way to go about this.
Prior to 2016, successful recalls were as rare as hen’s teeth. In 2014, a well-organized recall campaign for three pan-blue camp legislators reached the third phase of voting, the first time that had happened since 1994, but it ultimately failed due to the stringent requirements. After the thresholds were reduced in 2016, it became much easier to initiate a recall, and for the recall to be successful.
In 2017, then-New Power Party executive chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), now the leader of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislative caucus, faced a recall over his stance on marriage equality legislation. Although it was unsuccessful, the recall should never have got as far as it did. Huang had only acted in line with the position on which he had campaigned, and which was in line with a constitutional interpretation on the issue.
In June 2020, then-Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) was recalled, having tested the patience of city residents with long absences while he campaigned for president. That recall was justified. The retributive recalls that followed were not.
Days after Han’s recall, the New Party announced it would launch a recall of then-Taiwan Statebuilding Party legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟). Chen was recalled in October 2021. Former Taoyuan city councilor Wang Hao-yu (王浩宇) of the Democratic Progressive Party was recalled in January 2021, just a month before then-independent Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Jie (黃捷) faced her own recall vote. Her only sin was that she was perceived to have somehow contributed to Han’s downfall. She survived the vote. Next up was then-independent legislator Freddie Lim (林昶佐), whose recall failed on Jan 9. 2022.
Han was recalled for legitimate reasons, Wang had arguably underperformed in his role. The reasons for seeking the recall of Huang Kuo-chang, Chen, Huang Jie and Lim were either unjustified, spiteful or purely political.
KMT and TPP legislators have been wreaking chaos in the legislature since the beginning of the new session in May, and are looking for ways to contain the possible damage their actions have caused to their performance ratings. Many voters are angry at their behavior, especially the young supporters of the TPP who had hoped the party would usher in a new era of more rational, less explicitly partisan politics.
KMT-affiliated Keeling Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) is also facing a recall motion. How much of a coincidence is it that the KMT’s Hsu is now proposing raising the threshold?
It is important that the electorate have a mechanism for recalling elected officials, but there must be a balance between access to it and the prevention of its abuse. Recalls should not be wielded by disgruntled voters seeking to remove a legislator they did not vote for or who they disagree with, neither should the system be open to abuse by parties to weaponize it for political reasons. Politicians must be free to act according to their convictions, without worrying that frivolous recalls would be brought against them.
Hsu’s proposed amendments would raise the threshold of the number of voters and the percentages of those for and against the recall at the voting stage. However, this is not a numbers game. Amendments should be aimed at ensuring the reasons for the recall are backed up by concrete evidence of wrongdoing or dereliction of duty.
In the US’ National Security Strategy (NSS) report released last month, US President Donald Trump offered his interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. The “Trump Corollary,” presented on page 15, is a distinctly aggressive rebranding of the more than 200-year-old foreign policy position. Beyond reasserting the sovereignty of the western hemisphere against foreign intervention, the document centers on energy and strategic assets, and attempts to redraw the map of the geopolitical landscape more broadly. It is clear that Trump no longer sees the western hemisphere as a peaceful backyard, but rather as the frontier of a new Cold War. In particular,
When it became clear that the world was entering a new era with a radical change in the US’ global stance in US President Donald Trump’s second term, many in Taiwan were concerned about what this meant for the nation’s defense against China. Instability and disruption are dangerous. Chaos introduces unknowns. There was a sense that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) might have a point with its tendency not to trust the US. The world order is certainly changing, but concerns about the implications for Taiwan of this disruption left many blind to how the same forces might also weaken
As the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) races toward its 2027 modernization goals, most analysts fixate on ship counts, missile ranges and artificial intelligence. Those metrics matter — but they obscure a deeper vulnerability. The true future of the PLA, and by extension Taiwan’s security, might hinge less on hardware than on whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can preserve ideological loyalty inside its own armed forces. Iran’s 1979 revolution demonstrated how even a technologically advanced military can collapse when the social environment surrounding it shifts. That lesson has renewed relevance as fresh unrest shakes Iran today — and it should
As the new year dawns, Taiwan faces a range of external uncertainties that could impact the safety and prosperity of its people and reverberate in its politics. Here are a few key questions that could spill over into Taiwan in the year ahead. WILL THE AI BUBBLE POP? The global AI boom supported Taiwan’s significant economic expansion in 2025. Taiwan’s economy grew over 7 percent and set records for exports, imports, and trade surplus. There is a brewing debate among investors about whether the AI boom will carry forward into 2026. Skeptics warn that AI-led global equity markets are overvalued and overleveraged
RSS