Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Terry Gou/Facebook
FORMER KMT LEGISLATOR Chang Hsien-yao faces charges of violating the Anti-Infiltration Act and Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act, in accepting instructions from the Chinese government to interfere with the 2024 presidential elections. Chang traveled to China several times in 2023 as part of receiving instruction, meeting with individuals such as Taiwan Affairs Office director Song Tao, current Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference chair Yeh Yu-shan, and CCP chief ideologist Wang Huning, who has taken a more proactive role in Taiwan matters for the CPP in recent years.
Interestingly, the charges suggest what China’s political preferences were in the 2024 election cycle. The 2024 election cycle was a contested one, not just between the pan-Blue and pan-Green camps, but within the pan-Blue camp itself.
The pan-Blue camp faced difficulties settling on one candidate, with New Taipei mayor Hou You-yi fielded by the KMT, but Ko Wen-je of the TPP and independent candidate Terry Gou also throwing their hats into the ring. After months of back-and-forth, talks between the KMT and TPP about forming a joint presidential ticket eventually dissolved spectacularly in a messy televised argument between Ko, Gou, Hou, which former president Ma Ying-jeou and KMT chair Eric Chu were also present at.
Chang is accused of assisting China in efforts to cement a Gou-Ko joint ticket, seeing as a joint Ko-Hou ticket was considered unlikely. Had any of the two pan-Blue candidates been able to form a joint ticket, this would have presented a substantial challenge to DPP candidate and current president Lai Ching-te, with polling showing that Lai would have performed worse.
Chang is accused of releasing polling data to suggest that a Gou-Ko ticket could have beaten Lai, as well as organizing events on US-Taiwan relations intended to promote political narratives favorable to a Gou-Ko ticket–though it is not untrue this ticket could have possibly defeated Lai. Chang also told Ko that he was the candidate favored by Beijing.
Ko Wen-je. Photo credit: Ko Wen-je/Facebook
Chang, then, apparently went against the candidate fielded by his own party. Chang is currently deputy director of the KMT’s Central Policy Committee.
If the allegations against Chang are true, this seems to show that KMT politicians may shift in the direction of supporting other pan-Blue parties if directed to by Beijing. This also goes to show that the TPP is a political force that Beijing has no issue with holding power and will actively back–indeed, TPP politicians such as Huang Kuo-chang are frequently mentioned in a positive light on state-run accounts on Chinese social media platform Douyin.
There have been cases of individuals who face charges over vote buying to collect signatures for Terry Gou’s independent presidential run. There have also been a number of cases in past years of Taiwanese who face charges because they traveled to China to receive instruction on conducting disinformation efforts for the Chinese government. While it is not unusual for there to be spying or defection cases involving former military personnel, past months have also seen an uptick in the number of cases involving veterans not merely involved in spying efforts, but seeking to form paramilitary groups that would assist the People’s Liberation Army in wartime. Still, it is relatively unusual for as high-ranking a politician as Chang to be implicated in election interference efforts.
It is unclear as to whether the KMT will defend Chang. The KMT has frequently sought to defend pan-Blue politicians who face charges of corruption with the claim that such charges occur only as part of a “Green Terror” from the DPP targeting political opponents. KMT legislators such as Weng Hsiao-ling have also criticized the idea of strengthening penalties for individuals accused of acting at China’s behest, or dissolving political parties with clear links to pro-China organized crime groups such as the China Unification Promotion Party, claiming that Taiwan is part of China.
As such, the KMT may defend Chang, even if it is probable that the KMT may have mixed feelings about a KMT politician supporting a presidential bid by non-KMT politicians. The TPP is likely to disavow such ties, however, with the party denying that its leader Ko met with high-ranking Chinese officials such as Song Tao during trips to China, and decrying such reports as pan-Green disinformation.