Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Wang Yu Ching/Office of the President/Flickr/CC BY 2.0
A NEW SECURITY MEASURE introduced by KMT legislator Chen Yeong-kang aims to shift security powers to the legislature from the executive. Consequently, the proposal has been criticized by the DPP as an attempt to arrogate further powers from the executive branch of government and to bring this under the control of the KMT-controlled legislature–specifically those powers pertaining to defense.
Chen, a retired admiral, has taken front and center on efforts to frame the KMT as a political party that is not weak on or conciliatory to China. This has not been helped at a time that a number of his colleagues in the Legislative Yuan have drawn flak for statements perceived as pro-China or downplaying threats from China.
This includes Weng Hsiao-ling claiming that Taiwanese are Chinese and doubling down on this claim when criticized. Weng also previously introduced a bill in the Legislative Yuan that would allow military personnel, public servants, and others to sing the Chinese national anthem and make public displays of fidelity to the PRC without legal punishment. Fellow legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin stated at the US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference that “Chinese people will never make war on Chinese people.”
Most controversial of all, Ma Wen-chun is accused of leaking confidential details of Taiwan’s domestic submarine program to the Chinese and South Korean governments. But, more generally, the KMT has taken a stance against raising the defense budget, cutting 34% of all government operational spending earlier this year–inclusive of the defense budget.
Chen has downplayed such actions, claiming that the KMT would allow for budget increases when needed. At the same time, Chen has downplayed threats by China against Taiwan, denying claims by the DPP that China could unexpectedly shift military drills conducted around Taiwan to an actual invasion. Chen has also downplayed China’s construction of “Ro-Ro” barges that could be used to transport troops and materiel for an invasion, claiming that the use of such barges would be naive.
KMT legislator Chen Yeong-kang. Photo credit: Yu tptw/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 4.0
The KMT proposal aims to have the Executive Yuan seek approval from the Legislative Yuan regarding its defense strategy. This would be similar to the means by which the KMT’s budget cuts were not only a means of drastically cutting government spending in the hopes that the public blames the DPP for any consequences, but also seeking to claim that authority over the budget rests not with the Executive Yuan but the Legislative Yuan.
This is a strategy that the KMT has broadly adopted across the board. Last year, the Bluebird Movement–the largest protests to take place in Taiwan in the decade since the Sunflower Movement–occurred because of the KMT seeking new legislative powers of investigation. Apart from that these powers sparked concern about the potential for misuse in targeting political opponents, the KMT was also understood as seeking to pry investigative powers that normally belong to the executive and judiciary branches of government to the legislature.
Such questions normally return to the set-up of Taiwan’s government system and its checks and balances. It would normally fall to the Constitutional Court to adjudicate such matters. But the KMT also made moves to freeze the Constitutional Court to prevent it from striking down its actions as unconstitutional by passing legislation requiring a minimum quorum of justices on the bench to make judgments then seeking to block any new appointments made by the Lai administration.
Indeed, the DPP maintains that there is no need for Chen’s legislative proposal, and that existing powers already cover this ground. At the same time, it is to be seen if efforts by the KMT to expand legislative powers continue, particularly pertaining to defense-related powers. But one notes that anger against the KMT is likely to be further inflamed by greater public awareness of pan-Blue efforts to seek control of defense-related powers.