My previous column Donovan’s Deep Dives: The powerful political force that vanished from the English press on April 23 began with three paragraphs of what would be to most English-language readers today incomprehensible gibberish, but are very typical descriptions of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) internal politics in the local Chinese-language press. After a quiet period in the early 2010s, the English press stopped writing about the DPP factions, the factions changed and eventually local English-language journalists could not reintroduce the subject without a long explanation on the context that would not fit easily in a typical news article.
That previous column provided some historical and political context starting from the beginning of the DPP when they were differing ideological groupings that had come together to found the party. Today they are power blocs jostling for power, prestige and positions within the party and governments when they win elections. Judging from reports in the local press each faction may have some differences in how they operate and internal culture.
After years of often vicious infighting between the factions that played out in the press and caused considerable damage to the party’s image, the party attempted to ban the factions in 2006. They failed and things continued as before, just somewhat more in the shadows, though they still occasionally even hold press conferences.
Photo: AP
Following his election win in the presidential race, the person ultimately in charge of that ban, party chair William Lai (賴清德), announced he was resigning from the New Tide faction. What, if anything, that means in practice is hard to determine.
As DPP chair, Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) put in a practice of parceling out appointments in the party based on a rough formula that took into account each faction’s relative power. Knowing what they were all going to get percentage-wise, at the national level the factions stopped their public bickering, indirectly causing a collective loss of memory of their existence in the English press.
These two columns are an attempt to provide readers a basic working knowledge of how this crucial element of understanding how Taiwan’s politics works and hopefully provide journalists something to refer to so they can bring the factions back into the conversation.
Photo: AFP
With the picks for the new cabinet rolling in and the local party chair races underway the local press is particularly fixated on the factions. The party chair races will be held on May 26 and there is significant horse-trading, local factional alliances and jostling for power, with Taichung, Kaohsiung and Keelung capturing many of the headlines.
NEW TIDE
In some cases it is clearly known which politicians belong to which factions, but in other cases the press infers it from the people they associate with and campaign alongside. They do not always get it correct. Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲), widely known to be close to his predecessor William Lai, had to resort to holding a press conference to dispel the media’s widespread assumption he was New Tide and in fact belonged to no faction.
The biggest and most powerful faction is New Tide (新潮流系統, usually abbreviated to 新系), which Tsai Ing-wen has been apportioning about 30-40 percent of positions of power to. They are also the oldest, and were the only faction surviving that was present at the beginning of the DPP and gets its name from a pre-DPP era magazine that in English was called The Movement (新潮流雜誌) but translated directly was New Tide Magazine.
New Tide has three subfactions. The Chen Chu (陳菊) faction formed around her when she was mayor of Kaohsiung. Chen is today the President of the Control Yuan, and in the interests of non-partisanship resigned from the DPP, though it is unclear what her relationship, if any, is with her subfaction — but it is still very active in Kaohsiung.
William Lai has his own subfaction that formed around him when he was mayor of Tainan. This is different — though there is overlap — with the “Tainan gang,” which refers to people associated with his Tainan mayoral administration, but may or may not be in the Lai subfaction, which has supporters nationally. The third subfaction formed around former Taoyuan mayor and current vice premier Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦).
Two terms often applied to New Tide are “secretive” and “disciplined.” That may have been the case at one time, but in practice there is little indication they any more or less secretive than the other factions. When William Lai challenged then-incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen in the primary in 2019, the major players in New Tide were as shocked as everyone else and as I recall put it at the time “ran around like chickens with their heads cut off” and all taking different stances, showing no unity or discipline.
TAIWAN NORMAL COUNTRY PROMOTION ASSOCIATION
The Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA, 正常國家促進會, usually abbreviated to 正國會) is the second most powerful faction, and Tsai apportioned them about 20 percent of power positions. Their leader is former Taichung mayor and incoming foreign minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍).
The TNCPA largely evolved out of one of the powerful factions that formed around three premiers during the 2000-2008 administration of Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), in this case the You Si-kun (游錫?) faction. It is unclear if or in what form You has maintained a relationship with the TNCPA.
Two of the better-known politicians in the faction include lawmaker Fifi Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) and former Keelung mayor and outgoing interior minister, Lin You-chang (林右昌).
TAIWAN FORWARD, AKA OCEAN FACTION
Taiwan Forward (湧言會), which is associated with a think tank of the same name, absorbed much of former premier and current representative to Japan Frank Hsieh’s (謝長廷) faction. It is also commonly nicknamed the Ocean Faction (海派), which comes from the ‘hai’ (ocean) part in the name of its founder, the late SET TV chair Lin Kun-hai (林崑海).
Under Tsai’s power apportionment formula, this faction normally got about 10 percent. When Lin passed away in 2022 there was speculation about the faction’s future viability, but so far they appear to be very much alive.
SU FACTION
The third of the Chen-era premier-led factions is the Su Faction (蘇系), which continues to be named after former premier in both the Chen and Tsai administrations Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌). It has an affiliated think tank, Taiwan Brain Trust.
In the New Taipei City party chapter chair race the Su Faction scored a big victory recently when Yu Tian (余天), a former pop singer and ex-lawmaker affiliated with the TNCPA, dropped his challenge to DPP legislator and Su Tseng-chang’s daughter Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧), allowing her to run unopposed. Su Tseng-chang previously ran New Taipei when it was still called Taipei County as county commissioner.
There have been some references to a Ker Chien-ming subfaction (柯建銘系統), but the references are relatively uncommon, so it is unclear how much of a force it is to be reckoned with. Tsai apportioned the Su faction 10 percent in her power formula.
GREEN FELLOWSHIP ASSOCIATION AKA SUNNY BANK GANG
The Green Fellowship Association (綠色友誼連線, sometimes written as 綠色友誼系統) has some links to the Formosa Faction (美麗島系) which operated in the early days of the DPP. It is sometimes referred to as the Sunny Bank Gang (陽信幫) in reference to it being formed in 2004 by the head of that bank.
Tsai apportioned them 10 percent of power positions. Former lawmaker Ho Chih-wei (何志偉) is probably the most important figure in the faction.
ING FACTION
The Ing Faction (英系) is named after President Tsai Ing-wen, but it doesn’t appear to be headed by her, nor does she want to be associated with it. Initially, she denied the faction even existed, but now acknowledges it.
On stage speaking to powerful figures in the faction she said: “In the future, can you please stop telling everyone you’re called the Ing Faction? When you do things, you never let me know in advance.”
According to local press, DPP Legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) is the faction leader and associates the faction with the Taiwan NexGen Foundation. The head of the Ocean Affairs Council Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) is a prominent figure, but there is speculation that outgoing premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) and former health minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) may be members.
Tsai also apportioned them 10 percent.
VITAL SPRING OF DEMOCRACY
Lacking a formal English name, Vital Spring of Democracy (民主活水連線) is the translation I have given them as my best guess as to their intended meaning. They were formed in 2022 by DPP members who were strongly pro-Lai in the 2019 primary, but for unclear reasons decided not to join the Lai subfaction of New Tide.
Their most powerful figure is incoming premier and former DPP party chair Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). Another co-founder is former party secretary-general Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉), and sometimes Sunflower Movement luminary Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) is associated with the faction.
ONE SIDE, ONE NATION
This may be more of a grouping of like-minded politicians advocating for Taiwan nationhood than a fully-fledged faction as some of the members are known to be in other factions, but occasionally it is referenced as a faction. It was formed in former president Chen Shui-bian’s office in 2010 and organized by his son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中).
The name (一邊一國連線) is a reference to the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
ALLIANCES
Frequently the press mentions the New-Su-Association (新蘇連) as one entity or alliance, and refers to New Tide, Su and the Sunny Bank factions, and apparently they often work together. Sometimes the press only refers to a New-Su alliance (新蘇).
CURRENT LEGISLATURE
The Liberty Times estimates that in the current legislature New Tide holds 18 seats, TNCPA ten, and the Ing Faction five. The Su, Ocean and Vital Spring factions all have three seats, while One Side, One Nation and Green Fellowship each hold one seat. Seven seats are listed as having no faction or “unclear factional” affiliation.
Donovan’s Deep Dives is a regular column by Courtney Donovan Smith (石東文) who writes in-depth analysis on everything about Taiwan’s political scene and geopolitics. Donovan is also the central Taiwan correspondent at ICRT FM100 Radio News, co-publisher of Compass Magazine, co-founder Taiwan Report (report.tw) and former chair of the Taichung American Chamber of Commerce. Follow him on X: @donovan_smith.
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