Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Kuma Academy/Facebook
THE KMT HAS hit out at the Kuma Academy as of late, with continued accusations over the Kuma Academy’s funding. The Kuma Academy is one of, but not the only, Taiwan’s civil defense training organizations.
Although the public image of civil defense organizations often focuses on the notion of civilians training for wartime scenarios, such as practicing how to use firearms, this is misleading. Much of the Kuma Academy’s activities are focused on training civilians how to conduct first aid, evacuate safely, or undertake disaster relief and rescue.
Indeed, this is perhaps one of the lessons taken by the Kuma Academy from the war in Ukraine. Namely, it proved easier to convince civilians to take up civil defense training in the years after the invasion of Crimea through training programs that were framed as disaster relief.
At the same time, one notes that one of the founders of the Kuma Academy is now-DPP legislator Puma Shen. Shen was previously the founder of the Doublethink Labs, which is probably Taiwan’s best-known organization that investigates Chinese disinformation aimed at impacting Taiwanese society. Much of the Kuma Academy’s work can be understood similarly, in educating Taiwan about practical steps Taiwan can take to shore up its defenses and deter Chinese aggression.
Nevertheless, the KMT has begun to attack the Kuma Academy via claims about it being a “money pit.” The suggestion seems to be that the Kuma Academy serves as a means for the DPP to launder money, particularly taking aim at how Shen was involved in founding the organization and later became a DPP legislator, even if he resigned from the organization when he became a legislator.
The attempt seems to be claiming that the DPP aims to strengthen civil defense efforts and allocating funding toward whole-of-society resilience efforts only simply in order to line its pockets. This would be to suggest that civil defense efforts in Taiwan are something along the lines of a pan-Green version of the “Strong Generation” controversy, in which a TPP legislator came under fire and eventually resigned over passing legislation that framed itself as benefiting Taiwan’s “Strong Generation” of individuals over 55, but which allocated funding to organizations that he owned or his family was linked to.
The latest attack on the Kuma Academy comes from Taipei city councilor and New Party deputy secretary-general Ho Han-ting, who alleged that the Kuma Academy receives funding from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). AIT is the US’s de facto representative office in Taiwan in lieu of formal diplomatic relations. Ho suggested that Shen aimed to financially profit from Chinese threats directed at Taiwan.
Photo credit: Kuma Academy/Facebook
Afterward, Shen noted that there have been several disinformation campaigns ongoing targeting him, including alleging that he has substantial property holdings in the US or is an American spy.
It is to be noted that Ho, on the other hand, previously came under scrutiny in 2018 over allegations that he and other New Party youth spokespersons were part of an effort by China to develop a spying ring. This was to be accomplished through a news website run by Ho and others named Fire News, which was accused of receiving funding for content and user engagement from Chinese United Front efforts. Ho and his fellow New Party members were later cleared of charges.
In January, the KMT accused fundraising efforts for the Kuma Academy–which took place on a public welfare fundraising platform run by the Ministry of Health and Welfare–as being an effort to fund political activities. Laws forbid political activities from fundraising on public welfare platforms. The Kuma Academy has stressed that its activities were in accordance with the law.
Nevertheless, the broader effort by the KMT was to paint the Kuma Academy as DPP-affiliated, not only because of Shen’s founding of the organization, but because the organization has also sought to recruit swing voters, moderates, and individuals who may traditionally be pan-Blue. As such, KMT legislators have pointed to the existence of photos with people holding DPP flags at Kuma Academy events. Likewise, the KMT has suggested that fundraising on public welfare platforms leads to funds being diverted away from welfare for women, the elderly, and children.
The KMT was later criticized as simply following cues from China in targeting the Kuma Academy. It is to be noted that the Chinese government has had a disproportionate response in targeting the Kuma Academy.
The Chinese government named the Kuma Academy as a whole to its list of most wanted Taiwanese independence separatists, marking the first time that China has taken aim at an institution or organization rather than an individual. Otherwise, several individuals associated with the Kuma Academy, including Puma Shen and UMC founder Robert Tsao, a funder of the Kuma Academy, were named to the list. Former Sunflower Movement student leader Lin Fei-fan, who now sits on the National Security Council and heads up Whole-of-Society resilience efforts, is also on the list. In this sense, the Chinese government has signaled that it does not take kindly to efforts to strengthen civil defense in Taiwan.
It is true that the Kuma Academy may broadly be perceived as pan-Green at this point. But it is to be seen how the public reacts to efforts by the pan-Blue camp to tar the organization.