Taiwan Politics Review – Legislative Yuan powers

Significant developments over the past month: New cabinet’s priorities, Legislative Yuan attempt to expand its powers is challenged by the Executive Yuan, a military academy anniversary, Europe relations in focus, and more…

By Ross Darrell Feingold
 

New cabinet priority issues
On 20 May, new Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) announced priority issues for the new Cabinet. Cho said the cabinet will focus on cracking down on fraud, as well as crimes involving corruption, illegal arms possession and drugs. On energy issues, Cho showed continuity with the former administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) when he said that government will not abandon its goal of creating a “nuclear-free homeland.”

Analysis: A new administration again comes with reiterated pledges to fight drugs and fraud. In 2016 after Tsai took office, newly appointed Premier Lin Chuan pledged that “strengthening law enforcement and fighting drugs and crime” are a priority for the new government. Subsequently, the Tsai administration proposed several measures to combat illicit drugs. Unfortunately, Internet or mobile phone based fraudsters, who often work from overseas locations, are sufficiently tech-savvy that they remain a step ahead of law enforcement despite the best efforts of Taiwan’s law enforcement agencies.

With regard to energy, CNBC recently published an article titled Taiwan’s energy crunch could ‘throw a wrench’ into the global semiconductor industry. Needless to say, foreign media coverage of Taiwan’s potential energy shortages will attract the attention of relevant government agencies, and the Lai Administration will likely make greater efforts to reassure the public and industry that Taiwan has sufficient energy supply even without nuclear power. The daily power consumption curve by energy type is published by Taipower in English and Mandarin.

Legislative Yuan expands its authority but Executive Yuan vetoes the legislation
On 28 May the Legislative Yuan passed bills to increase the Legislature's oversight over the government -- a package supported by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) but opposed by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The package includes measures to expand the legislature's investigative and hearing powers (including over the private sector), adds a "contempt of the legislature" by government officials offense to the Criminal Code, and "invites" the president to give an annual state of the nation address and take questions from legislators.

Protests against the legislation attracted thousands of participants and was named the “Bluebird Movement” (青鳥運動) after Qingdao East Road (青島東路) where the protestors congregated.

The Presidential Office said the “reform bills fail to reflect public expectations”, and the Executive Yuan vetoed the legislation after obtaining President Lai’s approval to do so. Under the Constitution, if the Executive Yuan finds a bill passed by the Legislative Yuan difficult to execute, it can, with presidential approval, request the Legislature's reconsideration within 10 days of receiving the bill.

Foreigners also opined on the legislation, with a joint letter signed by a former director of the American Institute in Taiwan’s Taipei office and other foreign scholars and media figures. A US-based democracy advocacy organisation’s leadership published a commentary critical of the legislation.

An explainer of Taiwan’s veto process, as well as the process to seek a Constitutional Court interpretation, is available in English and Mandarin. Within 15 days of receiving the cabinet's request to reconsider the legislation, the Legislature Yuan is required to vote on whether to uphold the passage of the bill. This requires the consent of more than half of all sitting legislators, or a minimum of 57 votes in the current Legislative Yuan, to uphold the bill. The Legislative Yuan “re-vote” is scheduled for 21 June.

Separately, legislators can seek a Constitutional Court interpretation, during which the court can “stay” (i.e., freeze) the newly passed laws for six months pending the court’s decision.

Analysis: Taiwan’s version of a veto is codified in Article 3 of the “Additional Articles” to the Constitution (available in English and Mandarin). Use of this process is rare; a list of past instances when the Executive Yuan returned a bill to the Legislative Yuan is available in English.

Despite the protestors outside the Legislative Yuan, according to a Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation (TPOF) poll released on 28 May, 57.5% support creation of a "contempt of parliament" crime (available in Mandarin) for government officials, and only 29.2% opposite it. A subsequent TPOF poll released on 17 June showed 51.9% supported the Executive Yuan’s decision to return the laws to the Legislative Yuan.

For business leaders, obligations to respond to the Legislative Yuan’s new powers of investigation (including information requests) or to hold hearings (which witnesses must attend when called) should be carefully reviewed.

Local government allocations, the next partisan fight
Amid the ongoing dispute over expansion of the Legislative Yuan’s powers, another partisan fight is looming over possible revisions to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (available in English and Mandarin). Last year during the election campaign, the TPP had pledged to pursue “amendments to expand the distribution of funds to local governments, and ensure that they are allocated at a uniform rate to all cities and counties”. Under the current allocation system, almost two-thirds of the tax revenue allocated to local governments go to Taiwan's six special municipalities, with the remaining one-third split between 16 other cities and counties. According to media reports, the KMT and TPP have proposed 20 different versions of amendments to the act with a goal of increasing the amount of money provided to local governments. The law was last revised in 1999.

Analysis: A statutory requirement to allocate more money from tax collections to local governments might help the KMT continue its recent local election success. In the 2022 local election, of the 22 local government units whose head is directly elected, the KMT won 14 seats, the DPP won five seats, and the TPP won one seat, with independents winning two.