With lawyers representing Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) declaring last week that they would not appeal the Taipei District Court’s ruling ordering that Ko be detained and held incommunicado, the TPP leader can be detained for up to two months while investigations continue.
As the TPP and Ko have been embroiled in financial scandals and corruption probes since last month, many political analysts and pundits have been wondering whether the TPP’s supporters would turn to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and if the scandals would change the TPP’s strategies in working with the two major parties.
After Ko’s detention, the TPP pledged to “defend Ko’s innocence,” calling the judicial investigation political persecution, and claiming that the DPP-led government is imposing a “new authoritarianism” by working with prosecutors and the media.
The TPP is clear that it would not work with the DPP, who it paints as an enemy, questioning the impartiality of the judiciary in the process and even trying to stir up public fear that the “state apparatus” is setting out to silence anyone with opposing political beliefs in a new “green terror.”
However, the KMT, which was almost successful in forming a “blue-white alliance” and joint presidential ticket with the TPP to contest January’s presidential and legislative elections, and has been working closely with the TPP in the Legislative Yuan since February, has been displaying an ambiguous and incoherent attitude toward the TPP and Ko’s scandals.
KMT Taipei City councilors Chung Siao-ping (鍾小平) and Yu Shu-hui (游淑慧) have been vociferously questioning Ko’s involvement in the Core Pacific City redevelopment project, with the former having filed criminal complaints against Ko and the latter convening the city council’s investigation team on Ko and the Core Pacific City case.
While a few KMT officials expressed vague support for Ko, and a handful of legislators expressed confidence in continuing to work with the TPP in the new legislative session, most KMT members remained silent about the scandals, until last week.
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) on Wednesday last week claimed that the DPP is instructing prosecutors and the media, eroding judicial fairness.
That same day, Yu said that some senior KMT members blamed her for “not seeing the bigger picture” and had attempted to persuade her to stop investigating the corruption case.
Chung also said that KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (?) asked him “not to attack Ko so ferociously,” and another KMT Taipei city councilor even accused Chung of waging a personal vendetta against Ko because he had failed in his pursuit of a female TPP member.
Coincidentally, or perhaps not, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) on Wednesday last week said that President William Lai (賴清德) has been “manipulating the judiciary and administrative tools for private gains, uniting comrades to attack dissidents, and creating a ‘green terror,’” to “hunt down those who do not support the DPP or agree with ‘Taiwanese independence.’”
Some TPP supporters have already questioned whether their party is becoming “an appendage” to the KMT and not staying true to its independent “third force” stance. Many also remain skeptical about the KMT’s real intentions and suspect it is attempting to take advantage of the TPP’s crisis to poach its supporters.
With distrust in their ranks and uncertainty over the outcome of Ko’s case, it remains to be seen whether the TPP and KMT can persuade their backers and the public of the legitimacy of their cause, or whether they risk losing more disappointed supporters.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS