Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
語言:
English
Photo Credit: Wang Yu Ching/Presidential Office/Flickr/CC BY 2.0
A PROPOSAL BY KMT legislator Chen Yeong-kang would aim to change authority over seas around Kinmen and Lienchiang counties from the Ministry of National Defense to the Ocean Affairs Council. This has led to alarm from civic groups, in that while the bill frames the transfer of authority as a means of de-escalation, in shifting authority to designate restricted waters from military to civilian authorities, it would follow China’s framing of the Taiwan Strait as an “internal water” rather than international waters.
Indeed, one can see why the proposal from Chen is clever regarding optics. In response to an incident where a Chinese speedboat intruding in Kinmen territorial waters last year sought to evade the Taiwanese Coast Guard, crashed into a Coast Guard vessel, and capsized, killing two Chinese nationals, the Ministry of National Defense emphasized that it would not be increasing naval activity around Kinmen.
Instead, the Coast Guard would remain Taiwan’s means of response to intrusions. As the Coast Guard was seen as ceding the narrative to China in not immediately disclosing that the deaths occurred because of a collision, the Coast Guard announced that it would order thousands of body cameras in order to allow for greater transparency in future incidents. To this effect, the Coast Guard would also recruit 6,000 civilian volunteers to participate in patrols. The aim in not involving the Ministry of National Defense, then, is to avoid escalation in maintaining the importance of civilian rather than military responses to maritime incursions.
On the surface, Chen’s proposal would seek to do similarly in maintaining the precedence of civilian authority, At the same time, changing Article 29 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, as Chen and 18 KMT and TPP legislators seek to do, would empower pan-Blue local governments such as of Kinmen and Lienchiang to directly negotiate with Chinese authorities on administrative, commercial, and judicial matters in a way that routes around the central government.
The framing, then, would be that the Taiwan Strait belongs to China, in that administration over seas would be under purely administrative rather than military control. It is only states, after all, that have militaries.
This would not be the first time that members of the KMT have reinforced Chinese claims over the Taiwan Strait. In 2022, the KMT’s envoy to the US, Alexander Huang, raised eyebrows by asserting that China had a right to claim the Taiwan Strait as internal waters.
Nor is this the first attempt by Chen Yeong-kang to shift authority in a manner as to increase the KMT’s influence over cross-strait and military affairs. In April, a proposal by Chen aimed to have the Executive Yuan seek approval from the Legislative Yuan regarding its defense strategy.
Though this, too, was framed as civilian oversight over the military–at a time in which the DPP appointed the first civilian Minister of National Defense in over a decade–this prompted concerns in that this was seen as another attempt by the KMT to increase legislative powers in a manner that strips away powers from other parts of government. The past years have already seen efforts by the KMT-controlled legislature to seize powers over budgeting from the executive branch of government, investigative powers that normally belong to the executive and judiciary branches, to freeze the Constitutional Court, and other means of expanding influence through the legislature.
It may be that the KMT views itself as unable to win presidential elections at present, resulting in the KMT seeking to strengthen the legislature as the only branch of government it is able to control at present. Still, when it comes to expanding legislative power, this proves dangerous given the pro-China slant of many KMT members at present.
Indeed, Chen is a retired admiral and has sought to tout his proposals as only aimed at Taiwan’s security. But one notes that other KMT legislators, such as Weng Hsiao-ling, have claimed that Taiwanese are Chinese and have doubled down on this claim when criticized. Weng 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. And, 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. In this sense, the KMT’s political orientation at present is self-evident.