by Brian Hioe

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Photo Credit: Lin Zi-miao/Facebook

FORMER YILAN COUNTY magistrate Lin Zi-miao was sentenced to 12.5 years in jail on charges of corruption late last month.

The charges against Lin date to 2022, when Lin came under scrutiny in connection to a development project on a 108-hectare plot of land in Luodong that was originally protected. However, the land was later rezoned for agricultural use in 2018, though residential building construction and public infrastructure development were allowed on the plot. The plot’s rezoning, as well related land disputes, were seen as suggesting lawbreaking. This was quickly linked to Lin, seeing as the purchaser of the plot of land after its rezoning was Lin Shu-mei’s son. Lin Shu-mei, a former member of the National Assembly before its abolition, is Lin Zi-miao’s cousin and is a fellow member of the KMT.

Lin then came under scrutiny for checks worth over 100 million NT received by Lin or her family members from former KMT legislator Yang Chi-hsiung. Yang was known to have had a close relation with Lin when he served as legislator, assisting Lin electorally. Likewise, several of Lin Zi-miao’s children work in a mining company under Yang’s name.

In spite of the corruption allegations, Lin won in the 2022 Yilan country magistrate election. In the course of the election, opponents focused fire on the allegations against Lin, but this did not prevent an election victory by her–this is not surprising, seeing as Yilan slants KMT.

After the recent sentence, however, Lin will be removed from her position as Yilan county magistrate. The acting county magistrate of Yilan will now be Lin Mao-sheng, who is currently deputy county magistrate.

The sentence, however, touches upon not only Lin but the Yilan KMT as a whole, in that Lin is accused of waiving 1.12 million NT for a land plot in Luodong in return that it could be used as Lin’s campaign headquarters in the 2018 Yilan county magistrate election. The land plot was also used as the KMT’s Yilan campaign headquarters in the 2020 presidential election.

Lin was also found to be in possession of 70 million NT in funds that the origin of which could not be accounted for. 32.5 million NT has been ordered to be seized from Lin.

Lin Zi-miao. Photo credit: Lin Zi-miao/Facebook

For her part, Lin has denied the charges against her. Lin has claimed that the judiciary is acting on behalf of the DPP against her.

Indeed, the KMT leaned into such allegations to defend Lin in past election cycles. In past election cycles, the KMT has generally framed corruption allegations faced by KMT politicians as a DPP “Green Terror” orchestrated against it. At the same time, the KMT has sought to find cases of DPP corruption to attack, in the hopes of repeating past election successes in which the public turned against the DPP due to corruption allegations–most notably with regards to former president Chen Shui-bian.

At present, the largest set of corruption allegations looming over Taiwanese politics are those facing former Taipei mayor and TPP chair Ko Wen-je. Although indications show that many members of the public has turned against Ko, it may be a different matter as to whether they are convinced of corruption charges facing other pan-Blue politicians.

Yet one notes that Lin is a different kind of politician than Ko, as a local rather than an international politician. In this sense, the public is probably less attentive to the corruption charges facing Lin, seeing as corruption has long been deeply rooted in local politics. The removal of county magistrates from office on corruption charges is not altogether unusual. The KMT itself does not seem interested in putting much energy into defending Lin at present, instead focusing on the struggle in the legislature over the budget.

Still, the present outlook in Taiwanese politics is an odd one, in that the current leader of the KMT legislative caucus is Fu Kun-chi. Fu is decidedly a local politician and he, too, has long been dogged by charges of corruption–leading to a mixed reputation for him within even his own party. But now Fu has been catapulted into a position of power in the KMT. Though Lin does not have such standing, perhaps the case points at the intersection of issues of corruption at the local and national levels in Taiwanese politics.

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