Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Ma Ying-Jeou/Facebook
THE MA YING-JEOU FOUNDATION has seen internal discord spill out into the public eye as of late, with questions about whether the spat reflects splits within the KMT.
Controversy revolves around former Ma Ying-jeou Foundation CEOs Hsiao Hsu-tsen and Wang Kuang-tzu, who have since left the foundation by the end of February. Reportedly, both are under investigation for supposed financial irregularities, as well as trips to China during which they met with Taiwanese businessmen living in China. Tai Hsia-ling has now been appointed CEO of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation.
Hsiao and Wang both worked with Ma, dating back to his presidential administration. However, Ma has now expressed regret over the situation and stated that relevant evidence will be submitted to the authorities.
Previously, Ma tasked former National Security Bureau secretary-general King Pu-tsung, as well as foundation board member Kao Hua-chu, with investigating the irregularities in the foundation. Kao later left the board over disagreeing with how King, traditionally seen as Ma’s political enforcer and his trusted right-hand man, was conducting the investigation. Later on, three board members, Hsueh Hsiang-chuan, Li Te-wei, and Yin Chi-ming, were tasked with continuing the investigation.
Hsiao has hit back at Ma, suggesting that Ma is getting older and may not remember clearly the financial dealings of the authorities. Otherwise, Hsiao claimed to be acting to defend Ma. Hsiao has seen some criticisms since his comments that he may have publicized Ma’s current medical condition.
Some interpret backlash against Hsiao has due to comments by him alleging that Raymond Greene, the director of the American Institute of Taiwan, ranked no higher than a section chief, and so comments by Greene urging the passage of defense spending were unimportant. Such comments were seen as indicating the hardening position of the KMT against defense spending and purchases of arms from the US.
KMT chair Cheng Li-wun, who appointed Hsiao as a deputy secretary-general of the KMT, defended Hsiao even as, in public comments, she played down that his statements on Greene were meant as an attack on US-Taiwan relations. Cheng also claimed that Hsiao was being targeted by someone close to Ma.
Since the end of his presidential administration, Ma has become visibly more hardline in his political views. Ma has alleged that Taiwan has seen democratic backsliding under the Lai administration, such that Taiwan is no longer a liberal democracy.
Ma has visited China numerous times for what were framed as student delegations. During these trips, Ma meets with Chinese government officials, such as Taiwan Affairs Office director Song Tao. Ma also met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2024, for the second time since their November 2015 meeting in Singapore when Ma was still president. Clearly, the attempt by Ma was to circumvent the Lai administration, to conduct cross-strait diplomacy that went around Taiwan’s elected government.
Cheng’s upcoming trip to China later this month to meet with Xi would, in many ways, be following in Ma’s footsteps. Cheng is following the diplomatic precedent of a meeting between the KMT and CCP party chairs set by Ma’s 2015 summit with Xi, as well as that of his more recent 2024 trip, in routing around Taiwan’s democratically elected government to meet with Xi.
Even so, it is possible that Ma hopes to distance himself from Cheng, whose tenure as chair of the KMT has been anything but controversial due to her public statements perceived as starkly pro-unification. The KMT appears to be increasingly split between those who have committed to such a stance and those who wish to carve out a more moderate stance. Taichung mayor Lu Shiow-yen, for example, frequently seen as a frontrunner for the KMT’s presidential candidate in 2028 elections, has taken a stance in support of passing higher defense spending for Taiwan. It is possible that Ma’s spat with Hsiao is linked to where he sits in this divide in the KMT, if there is more to charges of financial irregularities against Hsiao than meets the eye.