Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Ann Kao/Facebook
HSINCHU MAYOR ANN KAO of the TPP faces allegations of spending 1.48 million NT of public expenditures on renovating the Hsinchu mayoral office. Kao was accused of this by Hsinchu city councilor Yang Ling-yi of the DPP.
The Hsinchu mayoral office has denied the allegations, which suggest that the office decorations include a luxury sofa, and that the decorative style was in the style of a fancy hotel. But this is not the first time that Kao has come under fire for misuse of public funds.
In August 2023, Kao was indicted for embezzling fees meant to pay for subsidizing the salaries of legislative assistants. Kao was accused of embezzling the fees in the name of her boyfriend, Lee Chung-ting. Embezzling subsidies meant for paying assistants is one of the most common forms of corruption that legislators and city or county councilors face legal charges for. Questions were raised at the time as to why Lee, who makes a salary of more than 6 million NT per year at Terry Gou’s Yonglin Foundation, became implicated in corruption over several tens of thousands of NT. Legislative assistants only make 26,000 NT per month.
Likewise, Kao was accused of illegally docking the fees of her actual legislative assistants, and using these funds for personal expenses. Kao later defended herself with the claim that these were voluntary contributions from her assistants. Three of Kao’s legislative office directors, too, faced charges for aiding her.
The 2023 charges were serious enough that Kao could have faced up to seven years in prison. Kao was accused of misusing 460,000 NT in public funds. Likewise, the charges could lead to Kao being removed from office.
Kao generally defended herself from such allegations in the 2022 election cycle by claiming that she was the victim of online bullying. To this extent, pan-Blue politicians have sometimes faced recall votes over corruption allegations, such as with Keelung mayor George Hsieh of the KMT. By contrast, there has been no such push against Ann Kao. If there were a major push for a recall vote against Kao, this would mark the first major recall vote faced by a TPP politician.
Ann Kao. Photo credit: Ann Kao/Facebook
Likewise, Kao was one of the politicians who faced allegations of plagiarism in the 2022 election cycle. Kao was accused of self-plagiarizing government-funded research she conducted at the Institute for Information Industry for her Ph. D dissertation without receiving permission from the institute. Kao was not the only TPP politician to be affected by plagiarism allegations, this leading to the resignation of Tsai Pi-ru as legislator, even if she later still ran as a candidate of the TPP in the 2022 elections.
The TPP frames itself as a “white” political party that is different from the establishment politics of both the “blue” KMT and “green” DPP. In particular, while the TPP’s initial slate of politicians was largely drawn from the pan-Blue camp and the party’s increasing alignment with the KMT has caused it to be seen as a light-blue political party, the TPP has generally benefited from the perception that it is free of the “black gold” corruption that has long dogged the KMT.
Nevertheless, corruption allegations have also increasingly hit TPP politicians. This has especially been the case regarding Kao, who has frequently faced allegations of living a life of luxury potentially at the expense of the public. In the past, Kao was accused of living in an apartment worth more than 50 million NT, and being driven around the city in expensive vehicles such as Porsches and BMWs.
Still, even if corruption allegations are faced by other TPP politicians, it is unlikely that they will have any true impact on the party unless they taint the political reputation of party chair Ko Wen-je. Ko, as the best-known figure from the TPP, has mostly avoided the corruption allegations that have affected many former Taipei mayors. This is true even if Ko has recently faced scrutiny over the Core Pacific City Mall, which was demolished in 2019, as well as the Beitou Shilin Technology Park.
Yet insofar as corruption allegations have mostly bounced off of Ko, this has also resulted in TPP politicians also not being significantly impacted by these allegations. It is to be seen if this changes going forward, but Kao is likely a weak link where this is concerned.