Fri, Aug 11, 2023 page3

• Small parties deemed inactive, set to shutter

  • By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
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  Thirty-two small political parties deemed to be inactive are to have their registration nullified, prompting a dissolution process, the Ministry of the Interior said in a news release on Wednesday, adding that they are no longer allowed to solicit donations.

  The Political Parties Act (政黨法) says that a political party would be dissolved if it fails to convene a congress for four years, fails to nominate candidates for elections for four years or because of a decision by party members themselves, ministry officials said.

  The 32 parties are no longer permitted to hold events and people should not send them money, they said, citing past incidents of people soliciting money purportedly for campaign activities and other activities in the name of a party that was being dissolved, but with the cash going into their own pockets.

  

  The emblem of the Ministry of the Interior is pictured at the ministry in Taipei in an undated photograph.

  Photo: Huang Hsin-po, Taipei Times

  The announcement, which followed a review process, abolishes the parties’ registrations and paves the way for dissolution. The parties are required to provide accounting reports, and liquidate their assets according to decisions made at a public meeting of members, the act says.

  The China Guoan Party, the China Democracy Unification Party, the China Women’s Democracy Party, the China People’s Action Party, the Chinese Construction Party, the China New Hongmen Party, the Chinese Solidarity Union and the China Patriots Party were among the 32 entities on the ministry’s list.

  Eighteen had names that included “China” or “Chinese,” while only four used “Taiwan,” including the Taiwan New Resident Party, the ministry said.

  Others included the Labor Party and the Tiger Party.

  In April 2020, the ministry announced the nullification of 171 political parties deemed to be inactive, including the Trees Party, the Nation-Building Party and the Taiwan Independence Party.

  Excluding the 32 announced Wednesday, Taiwan has 88 registered political parties, with the ministry initiating nullification of 211 in the past few years and 80 initiating nullification on their own, ministry data showed.

  Taiwan Statebuilding Party Kaohsiung City Councilor Chang Po-yang (張博洋) yesterday said that most of the 32 parties on the ministry’s list had registered between 2008 and 2016, during the administration of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

  Most of them are small parties run by a few people and have been mostly inactive, Chang said.

  “Most of these parties were registered during Ma’s administration, but that does not mean Taiwan had a better democracy; it was because more ‘political brokers’ were going between Taiwan and China to reap financial benefits,” he said.

  Many of the 32 parties have a “heavy pro-China” bent, with media reports saying they were involved in Beijing’s “united front” work, he said.

  “These fringe political parties were deriving benefits from China and promoting Taiwan’s ‘return to the Chinese motherland,’” Chang said.
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