Since the peak of the “Bluebird Movement” protests in Taiwan that began in May, there has continued to be contention between the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Kuomintang (KMT) in the legislature. The DPP continues to be in control of the presidency under Lai Ching-te but the KMT holds a slight majority in the Legislative Yuan. The scenario is similar to the Chen Shui-bian presidency from 2000 to 2008; the DPP had only ever held the majority in the legislature from 2008 to 2016. As seen during the Chen era, the KMT may again engage in scorched-earth tactics against the DPP.
Most controversially, the KMT pushed through laws delegating new powers to the legislature. Both the law and the method of its passage were the cause of the mass protests that became known as the Bluebird Movement.
Under the new laws, legislators can summon government officials, corporate executives, members of civil society groups, and private individuals for questioning through new powers of investigation. Those who refuse to comply could face jail time or fines. It is generally thought that the KMT will use the new powers to drum up publicity around core issues that the party has long used as a narrative base, by questioning individuals in a highly public manner.
This has already proven to be the case. At least two investigative committees have now been convened using the new powers.
The first committee aims to investigate the approval process for Mirror TV, which is the first new television network approved for broadcast in Taiwan in a decade, and is generally seen as more pan-Green in its political leanings. Mirror TV began as an online media outlet, Mirror News, before aiming to expand into television.
The KMT alleges that the Tsai administration pressured the National Communications Commission (NCC) to approve Mirror TV for broadcast in a case of political favoritism. The basis for this claim is a recording of former Mirror TV chair Pei Wei, which was originally leaked by then-New Power Party chair Chen Jiau-hua. At the time, Mirror TV also faced scrutiny for paying consultatory fees of 100,000 Taiwanese dollars to former NCC officials, and rapidly cycling through four chairs and reshuffling its board in May 2022.
More generally, the KMT has sought to frame DPP political administrations as attempting to influence the media landscape in Taiwan through institutions such as the NCC. Contention over Mirror TV is, in many ways, political retribution over the Tsai administration declining to renew the broadcast license of CtiTV in late 2020. CtiTV lost its broadcast license over violations such as inflating the crowd count for the inauguration of Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu of the KMT or claiming that an “auspicious cloud” shaped like a phoenix appeared above a meeting of three KMT mayors.
Nevertheless, the real issue may have been allegations that CtiTV is linked to Chinese influence operations in Taiwan. Tsai Eng-meng, the foodstuff magnate who founded the Want Want Group that owns CtiTV, made no secret that his interest in purchasing television outlets as CtiTV or newspapers as the China Times in the early 2010s was to improve perceptions of China in Taiwan. In the decade since, Want Want-owned outlets have been reported by the Financial Times as directly accepting editorial direction from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, and by the Apple Daily as accepting billions of Taiwanese dollars in funding from the Chinese government. In response, Want Want threatened lawsuits against both outlets.
CtiTV is on the pan-Blue side of Taiwan’s political spectrum, and thus the KMT claimed that the loss of its license was a form of political persecution. The KMT has continued to call for the expansion of legislative power pertaining to the media. One proposal from the KMT legislative caucus was to make representation on the NCC proportional, based on the proportional representation of political parties in the legislature. As the KMT has the majority in the legislature, this would allow the party to influence the direction of the NCC.
Another investigative committee convened by the KMT aims to investigate egg imports that the Tsai administration undertook as part of efforts to alleviate shortages that occurred in 2023. The shortages resulted in price hikes of NT$3 per catty (600 grams) and led to panic buying.
Controversy, however, resulted from the Tsai administration importing millions of eggs from Brazil, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Turkey to make up for the shortfall. Namely, when egg levels recovered, it emerged that 54 million imported eggs – 37 percent of the total amount imported – expired before being consumed and were destroyed. One supplier, Ultra Source, has faced scrutiny over the fact that it was allowed to import 88 million eggs despite only having total capital of NT$500,000.
The KMT has suggested that the egg import saga indicates corruption and mismanagement on the part of the Tsai administration. Although panic buying over eggs makes for an unusual scandal, the KMT has generally leaned into the narrative that the Tsai administration has a history of mismanagement that led to shortages, and that this has allowed for political corruption.
In this respect, the KMT has also called for investigations into the Tsai administration’s efforts to ramp up mask production during the COVID-19 pandemic – during which it was found that some suppliers attempted to pass off Chinese-manufactured masks as Taiwanese products – as well as the development of Taiwan’s domestically-produced vaccine, Medigen. The KMT maintains that this only occurred because the Tsai administration had illicit ties to Medigen, while the government says its support for Medigen was a response to vaccine shortages faced by Taiwan and the world at the time.
The DPP called for a constitutional interpretation of the recent laws increasing legislative powers. The DPP argues that the laws violate the balance of powers between the executive, judiciary, and legislature, in that the laws would grant to the legislature powers normally reserved for the judiciary. Indeed, apart from also calling for the legislature to have influence over the NCC based on proportional representation, the KMT has also called for the reinstatement of the Special Investigation Division – used during past presidential administrations to investigate political corruption – which would be put under the control of the legislature rather than the Ministry of Justice.
An injunction against the expanded legislative powers was granted on July 19, while further arguments are to be held. It is probable that the KMT will cry foul over the injunction, meaning that controversy over the new powers will continue.
With the Constitutional Court set to make a ruling on the constitutionality of the law, a legal proposal by KMT legislator Weng Hsiao-ling would potentially limit the Constitutional Court’s ability to make rulings. The proposal by Weng would set a limit for the number of justices required to be on the Constitutional Court to make majority rulings. Critics saw the proposal as a way to de facto freeze the Constitutional Court’s ability to make decisions. With the terms of seven justices set to expire in October, if the KMT refused to allow any new justices to be confirmed in the legislature, or if sitting justices recuse themselves, the new measure could have made it impossible to issue rulings.
While the case winds it way through the courts, the KMT seems intent on expanding legislative powers in other ways. Other legislation proposed by the KMT include efforts to roll back DPP legislation targeting assets of the KMT retained from property seizure during the authoritarian period and allowing for Chinese firms to place bids on public tenders for infrastructure in Taiwan’s outlying islands. The latter bill was criticized as aiming to expand Chinese influence over Taiwan’s outlying islands.