In many ways, the upcoming recalls in Taiwan will be a contest between traditional politics and efforts to move beyond the clientelist and patronage-based style of politics that have long existed in Taiwan. We might examine why...
An unusual split became apparent in the KMT in preceding days. Namely, ahead of upcoming recalls, KMT chair Eric Chu stated that both the DPP and KMT should take a step back. Chu called for passing 10,000 NT in cash handouts to the public, as the KMT has called for, as well as refraining from blocking funding intended to provide for subsidies for Taipower and for national defense. The KMT would also seek to pass 410 billion NT in special funding, as proposed by the Executive Yuan, as a means to deal with shocks from the Trump administration’s threat of tariffs directed at Taiwan...
Earlier this month, on November 3rd, President Tsai Ing-wen called for an end to “black gold” politics in an appeal to voters to place their votes for the DPP’s county magistrate candidates in Yilan, Miaoli, and Nantou. This is significant, in that this reflects that the DPP has chosen an angle of attack that will focus on the KMT over issues of corruption...
The KMT continues to be dogged by allegations of corruption in the upcoming midterm elections. While this is nothing new for a party that was referred to as “black gold” during authoritarian times because of links between KMT members, organized crime, and political corruption, what proves of note is to what extent the pan-Green camp has focused political attacks on the KMT over the issue of corruption with a little over a month before the elections are to take place...
Yilan county magistrate Lin Zi-miao has come under further scrutiny for corruption charges, due to checks worth over 100 million NT received by Lin or her family members from former KMT legislator Yang Chi-hsiung...
Lin Zi-miao, the KMT magistrate of Yilan county, was detained by police and questioned for several hours last week as part of a corruption investigation. More than thirty were questioned as part of the investigation, with thirty locations raided by police...
The DPP currently faces controversy after a criminal case involving high-profile members of its Taipei party branch. The case eventually became larger enough that President Tsai Ing-wen, who is also chair of the DPP, called a meeting of the party’s local chapter heads, calling on the party to take stronger action to avoid elements of the party becoming mixed up with crime...
An insider trading scandal faced by Hualien county commissioner Fu Kun-chi would be yet another example of corruption from pan-Blue political actors...
The association of the KMT and organized crime does not seem set to fade anytime soon in the popular imagination, with membership drives in recent months which have been accused of allowing elements of organized crime into the party without due scrutiny...
