Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: KOKUYO/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 4.0
EARLIER THIS MONTH, the Ministry of Interior called for the dissolution of the Chinese Unification Promotion Party (CUPP). This proves a notable move, in that it proves rare for the government to dissolve political parties on grounds apart from lack of updating relevant contact information, or handing in the necessary documents to stay in operation. This includes political parties that are pro-unification.
The CUPP’s pro-unification stances are well-known in Taiwan. Nevertheless, the CUPP in particular is known for its links to organized crime. The leader of the CUPP is “White Wolf” Chang An-lo, formerly considered the leader of the Bamboo Union, one of Taiwan’s major triad groups. During the authoritarian period, Chang assisted in political assassinations for the KMT, including involvement in the killing of journalist Henry Liu. As the killing occurred on US soil and Liu was an American citizen, this led to the involvement of the FBI, leading to a jail sentence of a decade for Chang on drug charges, extortion, and kidnapping.
Unsurprisingly, then, the Ministry of the Interior has listed a litany of charges against the CUPP, including accepting funds from the Chinese government, interfering in elections, violating laws on foreign interference, murder, and human trafficking.
There have been a number of public incidents in past years in which the CUPP is implicated in acts of violence against members of the pan-Green camp or those who otherwise affirm Taiwan’s sovereignty. This includes attacks on pro-independence student demonstrators protesting events held as part of Ko Wen-je’s city-based exchanges with Shanghai that framed Taiwan as part of China in 2017. Other incidents include attacks on Hong Kong activists visiting Taiwan, such as Joshua Wong, which were possibly carried out in coordination with pro-China triad groups in Hong Kong.
The CUPP has also been reputed to have direct links with the Chinese government in acting as go-betweens, linking local officials with Taiwanese seeking to set up businesses in China, or farmer’s groups and the Chinese agricultural industry, or otherwise cutting through red tape. Such activity by the CUPP intersects with not only other pro-China groups in Taiwan, but other organized crime organizations, as well as temple groups, and continues to be linked to the Bamboo Union triad.
Moreover, Bamboo Union members have been found to have been implicated in cases involving human trafficking of Taiwanese to Southeast Asian countries. Oftentimes, such victims of human trafficking are lured in with offers of high-paying jobs in Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, but instead find that they have their passports confiscated and are forced to work as part of telecom fraud rings, facing the threat of violence if they seek to escape. The Bamboo Union has largely denied its links with human trafficking for reputational reasons, however, stating that members who have been implicated in human trafficking will be expelled. This may explain the human trafficking charge leveled at the CUPP.
Photo credit: Jellykid97/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 4.0
It is to be seen if the Ministry of the Interior calling for the dissolution of the CUPP sets the stage for the Taiwanese government to dissolve other political parties that may be linked to Chinese United Front activity or cross-strait organized crime. Nonetheless, this is not likely to be the case.
For one, the pan-Blue camp is likely to push against the dissolution of the CUPP. KMT legislator Weng Hsiao-ling has been among those to criticize the Ministry of the Interior for the call to dissolve the CUPP, claiming that the pro-independence Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP) should be the party to be dissolved instead, given the risk the TSP poses to the ROC because of its pro-independence views. That a KMT legislator would defend a group with as close ties to organized crime as the CUPP indicates to what extent the KMT has drifted toward the deep Blue end of the political spectrum at present.
This points to the larger challenge faced by the Ministry of the Interior with regard to the CUPP. Namely, the Ministry of the Interior needs to avoid allegations that it is merely seeking to target political parties hostile to the DPP. But the KMT is likely to make such allegations against the Ministry of the Interior regardless of what it does, given the partisan political atmosphere in Taiwan at present. Consequently, the moves the Ministry of the Interior can take may actually be limited.
Indeed, targeting the CUPP is already targeting low-hanging fruit, given that the CUPP has such a strong association with organized crime in Taiwan, but no action has been taken against it yet. As such, any upcoming legal battle over the fate of the CUPP may prove a litmus test as to what is politically permissible in Taiwan at present regarding pro-unification groups–even those implicated in human trafficking, murder, and other acts of violence.