The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), joined by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), held a protest on Saturday on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei. They were essentially standing for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is anxious about the mass recall campaign against KMT legislators.
President William Lai (賴清德) said that if the opposition parties truly wanted to fight dictatorship, they should do so in Tiananmen Square — and at the very least, refrain from groveling to Chinese officials during their visits to China, alluding to meetings between KMT members and Chinese authorities.
Now that China has been defined as a foreign hostile force, those who traveled to an enemy country to secretly meet with officials engaged in “united front” operations against Taiwan should face legal consequences.
Backed by the CCP, the pro-unification camp has launched an assault on the nation, aiming to paralyze the government. They claim to fight dictatorship, yet openly embrace dictators.
The KMT and TPP have provided “mutual legal assistance” by expressing support for corruption and document forgery, shamelessly gathering to pressure and threaten the judiciary.
They opened a back door for the CCP within the legislature — yet they accuse the anti-CCP pan-green camp of being “green communists.”
The KMT ruled Taiwan under martial law for nearly half a century, yet today the party’s elites travel to China and court CCP officials.
Meanwhile, some of their party members and staffers are facing legal consequences for allegedly forging signatures from deceased people in recall petitions targeting their political rivals, yet they shamelessly vow to “fight against dictatorship.”
Does the judiciary owe preferential treatment to the KMT and the TPP?
KMT Taipei chapter secretary Yao Fu-wen (姚富文) and secretary-general Chu Wen-ching (初文卿) have denied any wrongdoing, saying they obtained the petition documents from the KMT Youth League, but how could the Youth League have accessed the party’s register of members?
Last year, the KMT and the TPP jointly pushed through amendments to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), tightening the requirements for petitions used to initiate the recall of elected officials.
The amended law included harsher penalties, stipulating that anyone found guilty of using another person’s identification or forging documents for a recall petition could face up to five years in prison or a fine of up to NT$1 million (US$30,745). They are protesting the legal consequences of contravening the very law they helped create.
They not only refused to admit their wrongdoing, but also surrounded the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office.
Nearly 95 percent of the petitions submitted by civil groups leading recall campaigns targeting KMT lawmakers comply with regulations, while 40 percent of the KMT’s recall petitions against Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers have contravened the rules, strongly indicating systematic document forgery.
Politicians tied to a scam syndicate stood on Ketagalan Boulevard in an attempt to deceive the public, insult the president, incite hatred against the government and create confrontation.
This mass recall campaign amounts to a civil war on democracy and culture. If Taiwan can get through the transition period, the country would see 100 years of prosperity.
Taiwanese must not tolerate or turn a blind eye to the opposition parties’ vicious acts. They should come forward and recall these lawmakers.
Chu Meng-hsiang is a former deputy secretary-general of the Lee Teng-hui Foundation.
Translated by Fion Khan
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