With the Tsai administration announcing that Taiwan would be open to imports of ractopamine-treated meat, it is unsurprising that this has led to backlash in Taiwan. The issue is likely to lead to contestation between central and local governments in Taiwan...
An abortive alliance between Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je, former KMT majority speaker Wang Jinpyng, and FoxConn CEO Terry Gou seems to have sputtered out, following comments by Ko in which he denigrated the other two before a planned meeting that was to take place last Sunday. Although unlikely, talk is also on the rise of the KMT potentially replacing Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu as its presidential candidate in 2020 elections, with the KMT demonstrating some unusual splits regarding Han...
The "September Political Struggle" between former president Ma Ying-Jeou and former majority speaker Wang Jinpyng is again back in the news, with Wang and Ma publicly trading barbs after the release of a new book by Ma detailing his presidential administration and defending past actions. The reemergence of these tensions perhaps points to the major splits within the KMT at present...
With mayorship of all of Taiwan’s six special municipalities up for the vote in 2018 local elections, the DPP looks like it may have a tough time holding onto its current political dominance in four out of the six municipalities. Some take the view that DPP losses in these municipalities will allow the KMT to rebuild momentum, which is why DPP losses could be worrying...
Strange, laughable efforts by the KMT to win over youth voters continue, with a spate of high-profile KMT politicians attempting to appeal to young people through hip hop...
Efforts to pursue transitional justice under the Tsai administration have met with scandal over comments made during a meeting by Chang Tien-chin, the deputy chair of the Transitional Justice Commission understood as a proposal to manipulate public opinion to benefit the DPP in upcoming 2018 local elections later this year. The ensuing backlash led to Chang's resignation. It remains to be seen how efforts to pursue transitional justice under the Tsai administration will be affected by the scandal...
Two recent incidents prove examples of murky KMT politics at the local level, with KMT politicians in both urban and rural areas implicated in scandals regarding real estate. This can be observed both with a scandal regarding a dorm complex owned by KMT mayoral candidate Hou You-yi and the sentencing of former Yunlin County commissioner Chang Jung-wei by the Supreme Court...
The KMT has probably learned little from its authoritarian past with the choice of Hou You-yi as its mayoral candidate for New Taipei City, given Hou's actions during the authoritarian period. However, the DPP has also attempted to recruit Hou in the past...
