Despite the winter season, dozens of volunteer groups are on the streets collecting signatures for recall petitions, aiming to recall Kuomintang (KMT) legislators one year after their election. Civil society is organizing independently, without any sponsorship from political parties, including the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Robert Tsao, former chairperson of United Microelectronics Corporation, established a volunteer alliance to support and coordinate civil groups nationwide.
Currently, 35 KMT legislators across Taiwan are being targeted by recall efforts, including in strongly pro-KMT districts like Hualien County and Kinmen. The scale of this recall effort is unprecedented in Taiwan’s democratic history.
In fact, the social movement traces back to May 2024, when the Bluebird Movement emerged in response to the passing of a controversial bill aimed at expanding legislative power. This bill, led by the KMT and its ally in the legislature, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), was strongly advocated by the KMT’s caucus leader, Fu Kun-chi, who is known for his close ties with Beijing. Fu pushed for the bill following his visit to China with other KMT legislators in April 2024. Fu collaborated closely with TPP caucus leader Huang Kuo-chang to push the bill through, with the TPP holding the crucial minority votes. However, several controversial provisions of the bill, including criminalizing “contempt of parliament” and granting legislators access to confidential military and private sector information, were mostly declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.
Despite the defeat, the KMT and TPP continued to push through controversial bills during the Budget Session from September to December 2024, while persistently rejecting the 2025 budget bill, which was supposed to be finalized one month before the new fiscal year. Amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (CCPA), the Public Officials Election and Recall Act, and the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures were forcibly passed by the KMT-TPP coalition, leveraging their numerical advantage.
The CCPA requires a minimum of 10 justices to sit in the Constitutional Court, and a decision of unconstitutionality needs nine justices to vote affirmatively. However, the KMT-TPP coalition has vetoed the nomination of new grand justices, effectively paralyzing the Constitutional Court, which currently has only eight sitting justices.
Under the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures, local governments – of which the KMT controls a majority – secured an additional NT$375.3 billion (US$11.5 billion) in funding from the central government.
The amendment to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act raised the barrier for recalling legislators by requiring citizens to submit copies of their national IDs in recall petitions, thereby diminishing the willingness to initiate recalls due to privacy concerns. The passage of these three bills sparked another round of the Winter Bluebird Movement, with civil groups initiating the collection of recall petitions.
Although the recall process began last year, it was the proposed budget cuts that sparked widespread citizen petitions for recall. The budget review process didn’t begin until November due to repeated rejections by the KMT and TPP. After committee reviews, the KMT and TPP bypassed committee reviews and brought more than 700 proposals directly to the Legislative Yuan for a vote.
The KMT and TPP pushed through their proposals reducing the budget plan by NT$207.6 billion, which is the biggest cut in history. Major reductions include the elimination of the NT$100 billion subsidy for Taiwan Power Company, a 96 percent reduction in the Control Yuan’s operating budget, a 73 percent freeze in the Presidential Office’s operating budget, and a 30 percent reduction plus a 20 percent freeze in the Mainland Affairs Council’s budget. Special expenses budgets for all central ministries and agencies were cut by 60 percent, and 11 agencies, including the Executive Yuan, Control Yuan, Ministry of Justice, and Mainland Affairs Council, faced complete removal of their special expenses budgets. A 60 percent reduction in media expenses, a 3 percent cut to military equipment purchases, and various other budget cuts, including a total freeze of NT$160.7 billion, were passed without proper consultation with the relevant ministries and agencies.
The voting process itself was also controversial: duplicate cuts, illogical and retaliatory reduction rationale, government-paralyzing blanket cuts and proposals that breach committee decisions were passed. A KMT legislator even admitted that several legislators did not read the proposals before voting in favor.
The impact on the central government’s operations is overwhelming and devastating. Forty-four percent of the Ministry of Defense’s budget has been either reduced or frozen, including funding for operations, procurement, maintenance, the development of domestic submarines and drones, and overseas travel. This severely hampers Taiwan’s defense capabilities, as the budget cuts block the development of submarines and drones – critical components for asymmetric warfare against Beijing. The freeze on operating funds and cuts to media budgets undermine the military’s ability to respond to Beijing’s military aircraft incursions, vessel intrusions, cyberattacks, and cognitive warfare, as well as affecting basic recruitment efforts. The reduction in travel expenses weakens overseas training and equipment deliveries, especially since Taiwan heavily relies on the United States for military procurement and training. Most importantly, the budget cuts raise international doubts about Taiwan’s determination to defend itself.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also heavily affected, with 50 percent of its operating budget frozen and all media budgets eliminated. This severely restricts Taiwan’s interactions with democratic allies and even the basic operations of its consulates and embassies abroad. As Beijing continues to pressure foreign countries with economic incentives and coercion to isolate Taiwan, these internal challenges prevent Taiwan from speaking out on the international stage, building alliances with like-minded countries, and participating in international cooperation.
Meanwhile, the 96 percent cut to the Control Yuan’s operating budget, a constitutional body parallel to the Legislative Yuan, essentially paralyzes its ability to audit and take corrective measures against government officials. The loss of the subsidy for Taiwan Power Company is likely to increase costs across individuals, industries, and sectors, undermining Taiwan’s economic competitiveness. The budget cuts and freezes affecting the Ministry of Digital Affairs hinder Taiwan’s ability to combat cyberattacks, maintain smooth network connections during natural disasters or emergencies, and support the growth of startups in the AI era, in which Taiwan plays a crucial role since it manufactures more than 90 percent of the most advanced semiconductors.
The TPP’s Huang Kuo-chang claimed that the reduction is only 6.6 percent of the proposed budget and that the remaining budget is “more than sufficient” for the government’s operations. However, according to the premier of the Executive Yuan, Cho Jung-tai, the reduction amounts to 16 percent of the total budget since the disposable budget is only NT$1.3 trillion after deducting the statutory expenditures and general subsidies. The budget reductions are concentrated on certain agencies and items with the stipulation that these funds cannot be diverted, significantly impacting the operations of the ministries and agencies. Cho called on the opposition parties to clearly point out the unreasonable parts of the budget allocation instead of resorting to retaliatory budget reduction.
President Lai Ching-te said that the budget reduction and freezes represented more than 30 percent of the disposable budget, making the country “a car with no gasoline or a kitchen with ingredients but no gas or utilities to cook.”
In the meantime, Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office expressed “support for the KMT and TPP’s decision to reduce the media budget, criticizing the DPP administration for using public funds to brainwash the people.”
A recent party approval rating poll conducted by Taiwan Public Opinion Research Center indicates that the KMT and the TPP both have dissatisfaction ratings exceeding 50 percent. Another poll released by Formosa Publishing indicated that in districts represented by KMT legislators, 26.6 percent of the public believes their legislator should be recalled. According to current law, for a recall to succeed, the agree votes have to exceed the number of disagree votes, and the recall votes have to account for more than 25 percent of the total eligible voters in the electoral district. The percentage of the public potentially supporting the recall barely meets the required threshold, and the majority may not support it. However, since the poll was conducted before the passage of the budget bill – which affects various individuals and both private and public sectors – its potential impact on public opinion should be noted.
One thing is certain: the conflict between the DPP and opposition parties is expected to escalate as the recall campaign progresses.