Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) is facing allegations of operating a “paparazzi” group to surveil his political adversaries.
The accusations stem from a lawsuit filed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Yi-chuan (王義川) after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) in June last year publicly released a video showing Wang’s car making an illegal left turn.
Wang said he suspected the video was recorded by paparazzi.
After months of investigation, prosecutors said the people who shot the video were staff members of Kai Ssu International Co, a company with no known news publication.
The investigation found that one of the four people who followed Wang was a former aide of Huang. It also said that Kai Ssu International had invested in a TPP-friendly polling company and a media outlet headed by a man who cofounded the Anti-Corruption and Whistleblower Protection Association (TAWPA) with Huang.
The Chinese-language Mirror Media on Sept. 26 alleged that Huang had established the paparazzi group in 2021, led by Hsieh Hsing-en (謝幸恩) of the state-run Central News Agency (CNA). It said that Hsieh used a pseudonym and forwarded photographs or content made by the paparazzi group to other media outlets, including RW News (菱傳媒), and to politicians and media with close ties to Huang.
Huang allegedly directed the activities of the paparazzi group, which targeted mostly DPP members, but also a few of his allies. Content provided by the group led to the false accusations by Hsu in 2022 against then-DPP Taipei mayoral candidate Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) and by KMT Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) against Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Meng-an (潘孟安). The latter is appealing a ruling that found her guilty of defamation.
Hsieh on Monday last week resigned from CNA, which has filed a criminal complaint against her for breach of trust and damage to its reputation. She has denied the charges and insisted she is upholding “freedom of the press.”
RW News on Tuesday last week ceased operations.
The media is referred to as the “fourth estate” in a democracy, because it provides checks and balances on the three branches of government — legislative, executive and judicial — by informing the public and holding the government accountable.
If the accusations about Huang are true, then that would mean that the leader of Taiwan’s third-largest political party has abused his power to use the press to surveil and intimidate his political adversaries and allies alike.
Huang’s alleged actions go beyond the definitions of a “whistle-blower” in the Public Interest Whistleblower Protection Act (公益揭弊者保護法), which he had vigorously promoted and took effect this year. If true, his actions have overstepped the boundaries of political ethics and could be illegal.
If the TPP and the KMT — which has said that the allegations against Huang would not affect the two parties’ cooperation — prioritize party or personal gains over democratic values, they might lose people’s trust in their capability to protect the public interest.
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