Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) arrest is a significant development. He could have become president or vice president on a shared TPP-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ticket and could have stood again in 2028. If he is found guilty, there would be little chance of that, but what of his party? What about the third force in Taiwanese politics? What does this mean for the disenfranchised young people who he attracted, and what does it mean for his ambitious and ideologically fickle right-hand man, TPP caucus leader Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌)?
Ko and Huang have been appealing to that jaded trope, “the green terror,” a reference to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), comparing it to the White Terror of the pre-democracy KMT regime.
Beyond their bluster, a strange phenomenon has been happening in the past few months. Like a Martin Scorcese movie or a pivotal scene in the Godfather politicians have been brought down by prosecutors apparently energized by a new impetus that seems to coincide with President William Lai (賴清德) taking the reins of government. What is behind this activity?
Before anyone points the finger at Lai or the DPP, and suggest that there has been some pernicious political tomfoolery going on, look at who has fallen to the prosecutors’ swords.
On July 5, former Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) chairman Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), a major DPP figure, was summoned by prosecutors regarding an alleged corruption case during his tenure as Taoyuan mayor. He was held incommunicado until being released on Aug. 28 on bail of NT$28 million (US$872,138), the highest bail amount given to any political figure over the past few years. Cheng is also under investigation in a separate case after NT$6.78 million in cash was found in his Taipei residence by prosecutors on July 29.
On July 17, prosecutors indicted Hsinchu County Commissioner Yang Wen-ke (楊文科) of the KMT on charges of profiting from bribes in connection with a real-estate project.
On the same day, Taipei prosecutors indicted relatives of KMT Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) in a money laundering case.
On July 26, the Taipei District Court found the TPP’s only elected official, suspended Hsinchu mayor Ann Kao (高虹安), guilty of embezzling public funds and thereby contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) and the Criminal Code. She was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison. The following month, on Aug. 21, Kao was sentenced to a further 10 months for falsely accusing a US academic of defamation.
On Aug. 20, investigators searched the offices of DPP Legislator Lin I-chin (林宜瑾) in Taipei and Tainan.
If Ko, Huang and the TPP are so convinced that Lai and the DPP are persecuting them in a political “witch hunt,” they might want to consider the breadth of the prosecutions in terms of political parties, and the timing.
Cheng was a hugely important figure in the DPP: He served as Taoyuan mayor and vice premier before taking on the position of SEF chairman in Lai’s administration, and had been a trusted colleague of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). His fall from grace is a significant blow to the DPP.
While Ko and Kao being removed from the picture would undoubtedly benefit the DPP, if dirt could have been dug up to bring them down, the campaigns for the 2022 local elections and this year’s presidential elections might have been more effective times to do so.
Time will tell how many more heads will roll. However, Ko and Huang should desist from stoking social tensions with spurious talk of a “green terror” and from sowing doubt in the independence of the judiciary.
In the event of a war with China, Taiwan has some surprisingly tough defenses that could make it as difficult to tackle as a porcupine: A shoreline dotted with swamps, rocks and concrete barriers; conscription for all adult men; highways and airports that are built to double as hardened combat facilities. This porcupine has a soft underbelly, though, and the war in Iran is exposing it: energy. About 39,000 ships dock at Taiwan’s ports each year, more than the 30,000 that transit the Strait of Hormuz. About one-fifth of their inbound tonnage is coal, oil, refined fuels and liquefied natural gas (LNG),
To counter the CCP’s escalating threats, Taiwan must build a national consensus and demonstrate the capability and the will to fight. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) often leans on a seductive mantra to soften its threats, such as “Chinese do not kill Chinese.” The slogan is designed to frame territorial conquest (annexation) as a domestic family matter. A look at the historical ledger reveals a different truth. For the CCP, being labeled “family” has never been a guarantee of safety; it has been the primary prerequisite for state-sanctioned slaughter. From the forced starvation of 150,000 civilians at the Siege of Changchun
The two major opposition parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), jointly announced on Tuesday last week that former TPP lawmaker Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) would be their joint candidate for Chiayi mayor, following polling conducted earlier this month. It is the first case of blue-white (KMT-TPP) cooperation in selecting a joint candidate under an agreement signed by their chairpersons last month. KMT and TPP supporters have blamed their 2024 presidential election loss on failing to decide on a joint candidate, which ended in a dramatic breakdown with participants pointing fingers, calling polls unfair, sobbing and walking
In the opening remarks of her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) framed her visit as a historic occasion. In his own remarks, Xi had also emphasized the history of the relationship between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Where they differed was that Cheng’s account, while flawed by its omissions, at least partially corresponded to reality. The meeting was certainly historic, albeit not in the way that Cheng and Xi were signaling, and not from the perspective
RSS