The Legislative Yuan on Tuesday last week passed a set of controversial bills proposed by opposition lawmakers expanding the legislature’s power of investigation and introducing penalties for “contempt of the legislature.”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have pushed for the passage of the amendments to the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Powers (立法院職權行使法) and the Criminal Code, in the name of “legislative reform” to make the government more transparent and accountable. The bills grant the legislature investigative powers, allowing it to hold hearings and demand that government agencies, the military, judicial officials, organizations and individuals provide information or documents or face fines. They would also criminalize “contempt of the legislature” by civil servants who make false statements during a hearing or questioning in the Legislative Yuan.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said the bills are “unconstitutional” and an abusive overreach of legislative power, which might increase the risk of sensitive information leaks, infringe on the courts’ jurisdiction and harm individuals’ privacy rights.
During the legislative process, the KMT and TPP refused to discuss the DPP’s proposed bills and occupied the legislative speaker’s podium to block the DPP from raising motions or boycotting by a show of hands for the second and third readings.
Tens of thousands of people surrounded the Legislative Yuan in the past two weeks to protest the rushed passing of the bills, which include vague terminology, while the process lacked definition, transparency, cross-party negotiations and measures to protect the rights of those affected.
Many protesters also expressed concern that expanded legislative power would erode the Constitution, and benefit Beijing by hindering the government’s execution of policies and undermining President William Lai’s (賴清德) presidency.
The bills would not immediately become law, as the Executive Yuan can return them to the Legislative Yuan for reassessment, but if more than half of the original lawmakers uphold the original bill, the Cabinet would have to pass it to Lai to be signed. The president does not have veto powers, so he can only ask the Constitutional Court to rule on the constitutionality of the bills after they have been signed into law.
The KMT called the bills a “great victory,” and KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (?) instantly showed his true colors by making several extravagant claims in the past week, with little regard for — and even showing contempt for — the Constitution, the judicial system, KMT’s party charter and their “ally” the TPP.
Fu and TPP caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) pledged that they would “surely abolish the Control Yuan,” but the separation of the five government branches is an integral part of the Constitution.
The preface of the KMT Charter states that the party follows the principles of the separation of the five government branches. KMT leaders have also constantly said that they are determined to protect the Constitution, so Fu’s call to abolish the Control Yuan and the unbalanced expansion of legislative power from the passed bills highlight the discordance in the KMT and its unconstitutional power grab under the pretense of “reform.”
He further pledged to establish an “opposition parties’ special investigation division,” which has been rejected by TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
Ko said the TPP advocates for the division of three powers: the Legislative Yuan, Executive Yuan and Judicial Yuan.
The public should continue to keep their eyes on the Legislative Yuan, especially on Fu and the KMT caucus, as their “victory” has seemingly encouraged and intensified their undisguised grab for power and could further harm the nation’s democracy.
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
RSS