Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Eric Chu/Facebook
A SUMMIT MEETING between KMT chair Eric Chu and TPP chair Huang Kuo-chang resulted in the two parties both vowing to resist the Lai administration. At the same time, it is unclear whether the two parties see eye-to-eye on the major issue that was to be discussed, with no clear agreement having come out of the meeting. The event was a live-streamed, open discussion.
In particular, calls in the KMT to dissolve the cabinet and hold a new set of elections have taken hold in the past week. This occurred after the idea was introduced during a recall rally by Taipei mayor Chiang Wan-an. Dissolving the cabinet would allow for a new set of legislative elections to take place if President Lai Ching-te, and the president of the Legislative Yuan, Han Kuo-yu of the KMT, agree for this to take place.
Livestream of the Chu-Huang summit
Although initial views were that the idea could have been a misstatement by Chiang, the idea seems to have now gained popularity among some sectors of the pan-Blue camp. This is unusual, seeing as the KMT is more likely to be able to survive recalls than a new set of elections.
On the other hand, it is unsurprising that the TPP is against the idea, with Huang Kuo-chang calling for a new set of presidential elections to be held if legislative elections are held again. Namely, the TPP’s eight seats in the legislature are all on the basis of the party vote, and would be threatened by a new set of elections. Huang claimed that dissolving the cabinet would not help resist the DPP’s authoritarianism. Otherwise, the TPP claimed that it would support the KMT in defending against recalls organized by the pan-Blue camp.
The TPP’s ability to campaign is undercut by that party leader Ko Wen-je, who the party is built around, is currently in jail. Moreover, the TPP has increasingly become indistinguishable from the KMT except by virtue of being smaller than it, in effect, becoming a “little Blue” party. In the past year, the TPP has aligned with the KMT on all of its major initiatives, including drastically cutting the national budget, freezing the Constitutional Court, and seeking to expand legislative powers in a way that provoked alarm about civic freedoms.
After the summit, Chu’s position was in favor of dissolving the cabinet, while Huang’s position continued to be against it. Again, while it is understandable why the TPP would be against new legislative elections, it is unclear why the KMT is in support of the idea. Huang has also given the idea more circulation by platforming it as part of discussions.
Still, Chu introduced the new idea of seeking to impeach President Lai Ching-te. Chu specifically cited the jailing of Ko Wen-je as to why Lai should be impeached. Indeed, although all indications are that the prosecution of Ko Wen-je proceeds without any involvement by the DPP, and DPP heavyweights such as Cheng Wen-tsan themselves faced similar prosecution on corruption charges, the pan-Blue camp has more generally alleged that the DPP is currently engaged in a “Green Terror.” The KMT has now leaned into claims that the recalls facing KMT legislators are a form of “Green Communism.” Indeed, at the summit, Huang claimed that the DPP hoped for a one-party dictatorship, while Chu termed the DPP “fascist” and “communist”.
While the idea may appeal to deep Blues, it is not probable that the idea of impeaching Lai Ching-te would appeal to the general public. Lai is generally seen as uninvolved in the charges faced by Ko Wen-je. Lai has also managed to keep a distance from the recalls themselves, with civil society groups and DPP legislators, rather than members of the Lai administration itself, instead fronting the recalls.
Facebook post by Eric Chu criticizing “Green Communism”
An impeachment of Lai is unlikely to take place. 2/3rds of legislators would have to vote in favor of a presidential impeachment, numbers that neither the KMT nor TPP have combined. The final arbiter of impeachment would also be the Constitutional Court, which would be unlikely to rule in favor of the KMT. In this sense, calling for an impeachment is probably not a serious political move, merely a stunt that draws on how some members of the public have come to project the dynamics of the US political system onto Taiwan.
Ironically, Huang had previously called on Lai to join the dialogue between him and Chu. This would have seemingly defeated the point of an opposition summit. The idea of inviting Lai, apparently a dictator in the view of the TPP and KMT, to participate in the summit seems to invalidate this claim. A dictator would have, of course, simply arrested the two.
Some canards of the meeting were typical. Chu, for example, called for a return to tourism in Taiwan–probably meaning that Taiwan should again seek Chinese group tourism. Both leaders attacked the Lai administration over tariffs from the Trump administration. The Lai administration was framed as having especially bungled the matter, seeing as tariffs for Taiwan were higher than other countries–though one notes that the Trump administration’s decision on the tariffs was arbitrarily calculated, and this is not any specific fault of the Lai administration.
Huang was especially focused on this, claiming that Lai was stirring up internal discontent when he should in fact focus on resolving international issues for Taiwan. Chu suggested that the Lai administration had spent all of Taiwan’s funds on investing in the US, which was a dangerous strategy given the unreliability of the Trump administration. Ironically, of course, funds to relieve affected industries have been impacted by the KMT’s budget cuts.
The odds of a new set of elections through a dissolution of the cabinet seem increasingly likely, then. Reports by the Liberty Times that 80% of KMT decision-makers at internal meetings supported dissolving the cabinet for a new set of elections to be held may be accurate. With Chu having publicly thrown his support behind the idea and done so through dialogue with Huang of the TPP, this means another KMT heavyweight, apart from Chiang, has now backed the idea.
Facebook by Huang Kuo-chang after the meeting, calling for unity between the KMT and TPP
Chiang and Chu have historically been at odds in the KMT, resulting in a lack of support for Chiang’s 2024 campaign from the party central. This goes back to political grudges between Chu and Chiang’s father, former legislator John Chiang–not to be confused with the similarly named Johnny Chiang. Yet the KMT is an unusual place, with Fu Kun-chi and local factions that the party leadership historically only tolerated because of their ability to win elections now seemingly in control of the party. It is not unthinkable that this move may be one intended to loosen Fu Kun-chi’s grasp of the KMT at present.
At the very least, even if no consensus necessarily emerged, the dialogue between Huang and Chu did not result in any substantive fallout similar to the disastrous summit between Eric Chu, Ma Ying-jeou, Terry Gou, Ko Wen-je, and Hou You-yi during the 2024 election cycle. Apart from that the summit failed to lead to any joint TPP-KMT ticket, the five politicians bickered on live television for hours.
But with Chu now backing the idea of dissolving the cabinet, the primary politicians in the KMT who are stakeholders needed for the idea to take place are now Fu Kun-chi, as KMT legislative caucus leader, and Han Kuo-yu as Legislative Yuan president. Apart from Chiang, as one of the KMT’s possible 2028 presidential candidates, Lu Shiow-yen is the other major stakeholder in the party. Lu currently states that she has open attitude toward the idea. As for the DPP, with DPP legislative caucus leader Ker Chien-ming having tentatively expressed support of the idea, it is possible that they will also hope to lead the KMT toward the idea. Nevertheless, the DPP will maintain a hands-off approach, so as to avoid the KMT perceiving the idea as one that is advantageous to the DPP. If push came to shove, the DPP would probably frame endorsing it as a bipartisan gesture and a step back in favor of compromise.