Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: bajiong1994/Threads
OUTRAGE HAS BROKEN out after online clips began to circulate of a protester against the Harvest Festival in Hualien who was removed by police, despite only silently holding up a sign.
In particular, the Harvest Festival is among the most important annual events for many Indigenous communities in Taiwan. The protester in question, who was wearing Amis traditional clothing, identified himself as also being Amis.
Specifically, however, the man’s protest was against the commodification of Indigenous culture in the Harvest Festival for consumption by tourists. This was criticized as an act that occurred under the political rule of Hualien legislator Fu Kun-chi and his wife, Hualien County Magistrate Hsu Cheng-wei.
The circumstances and pretext by which the man was removed from the Harvest Festival were further angering. Namely, the man was carrying a knife, which is a part of traditional Amis clothing. The man was questioned by police over carrying this knife and as to whether he was genuinely Indigenous and, in this way, having the legal cultural rights to carry the knife without it being considered a weapon. That the man’s arrest took place in this way seemed to drive home the point of Indigenous cultural events being commodified at the hands of the KMT political dynasty represented by Fu and Hsu.
Video of the incident
Fu is one of the most notoriously corrupt politicians in the KMT. In particular, allegations of corruption and insider trading have dogged Fu for over fifteen years. Insider trading charges against Fu date back to 2005, with Fu accused of manipulating the stock prices of Hold-Key Electric Wire & Cable Company Limited after being offered 20 million shares by Hold-Key’s general manager, Yang Kai-ti, and deputy general manager, Yu Su-yuan.
Both hoped to inflate the value of Hold-Key stocks because the company had recently won a lucrative contract from state-run electricity company Taipower. Fu’s actions subsequently led to the tripling of Hold-Key’s stock value. The court case led to a 54-month sentence, which was reduced to a 42-month sentence in the second ruling, and then later to a 16-month sentence that was reduced to an 8-month sentence after the case made its way to the Supreme Court.
Another major scandal broke out regarding Fu in December 2018, with the revelation that Fu spent 5.46 million NTD to bribe journalists for positive political coverage. Fu was accused of misappropriating county funds and rewarding them to reporters from media outlets for positive press. 25 reporters from 14 news outlets were involved, including major newspapers and television networks, both pan-Blue and pan-Green, as well as both privately and publicly funded. These include the United Daily News, Formosa TV, Sanlih Television, Next TV, CTiTV, Taiwan Indigenous TV, and Hakka TV.
Most infamously, when Fu was to be jailed on corruption charges as Hualien county commissioner, he divorced his wife, Hsu Chen-wei, and named her deputy county commissioner. This way, she could continue ruling Hualien in his stead while he was in jail.
Though Fu was kicked out of the KMT at the time for political corruption, he has since been welcomed back to the party because of his ability to win elections. This, too, was not without controversy, with Fu accused of vote buying in the KMT central committee election.
Now having risen to the position of KMT legislative caucus, Fu is sometimes viewed as the architect of the KMT’s aggressive strategies to maximize legislative power while minimizing the power of other branches of government in past years. This has included slashing 1/3rd of the government’s operating budget, freezing the Constitutional Court, and seeking to grant the legislature powers of investigation that normally belong to the executive and judiciary branches of government. Fu has, likewise, been accused of failing to repair Hualien’s infrastructure in spite of the earthquakes and landslides it has experienced in past years during typhoons.
As for where the KMT stands on Indigenous issues, one notes that despite the fact that Indigenous peoples are a demographic traditionally considered to vote for the KMT, the KMT has at present moved to defund the Council of Indigenous Affairs. This seems to be a vindictive move, aimed at paralyzing the institution with the view that it has become taken over by the DPP.
But this perhaps illustrates the KMT’s views when it comes to Taiwanese Indigenous, even when on other occasions, it is happy to commodify Indigenous culture for the sake of tourism. Such issues may be fronted increasingly in the future, with the passage of the ethnic unity law by China, and in light of the fact that Taiwanese Indigenous would be considered ethnic minorities within China’s framework. It is to be seen if the KMT also leans into or echoes this framing, with current party chair Cheng Li-wun having echoed much of Xi’s language on the pressing need to oppose Taiwanese independence after a meeting with him in Beijing in April.