Taiwan Politics Review – Lai's first 100 days

Significant developments over the past month: Politicians convicted in corruption cases, the Constitutional Court hears Legislative Yuan power expansion case, global parliamentarians meet in Taipei, and more…

By Ross Darrell Feingold


 

President Lai Ching-te’s first 100 days
President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) (Democratic Progressive Party, DPP) was sworn in on 20 May 2024 and is about to reach one hundred days in office. Among his achievements to date is making appointments for the cabinet and other politically appointed jobs such as those in the Presidential Office prior to his swearing in, establishing three policy committees under the Presidential Office on important issues (the National Climate Change Response Committee, National Whole-of-Society Resilience Committee and the Healthy Taiwan Promotion Committee) (see Taiwan Politics Review, 16 July 2024). In foreign affairs, Taiwan recently hosted the annual meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (對華政策跨國議會聯盟, IPAC) (see below).

According to a poll published by my-formosa.com (美麗島電子報) on 1 August 2024, satisfaction with Lai’s governance (執政滿意度) is 52%.

Analysis: Lai received only 40.05% of the vote in the election held on 13 January 2024. For 52% to be satisfied with his governance so far is an admirable achievement. The establishment of the three policy committees shows Lai’s willingness to directly expend his political capital on important policy issues. The IPAC meeting was a success in so far as it ensures that foreign parliamentarians firmly understand that going forward, Taiwan’s relationship with China will be determined by Lai and that the era of former President Tsai Ing-wen has concluded.

Minister of Transportation and Communications resigns
On 19 August 2024, Li Meng-yen (李孟諺), the Minister of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), resigned after revelations that day about a ten year extra martial affair. The allegations first appeared on the popular online forum PTT.  Li issued a statement to apologise and said his "past personal behaviour" had "impacted public confidence" in the MOTC. During the Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) administration, Li was appointed acting mayor of Tainan City when then-Mayor William Lai became premier in 2017, and Li subsequently served as Secretary-General of the Executive Yuan and Acting Spokesperson of the Executive Yuan.

Analysis: Li is the second senior political appointee in the Lai Administration to resign after Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) (see Taiwan Politics Review, 16 July 2024). Pundits pointed out that the difference between Li’s fate under the Lai administration, versus that of Victor Wang Pi-sheng (王必勝) under the Tsai administration. Wang, despite revelations of an extra marital affair in 2021, was promoted in 2022 to Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare and head of the Central Epidemic Command Center from his role as head of the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Hospital and Social Welfare Organizations Administration Commission.

Ko Wen-je campaign expenditures
On 12 August 2024, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) held a press conference together with TPP officials after questions arose about his losing presidential campaign’s expense reporting for the election held on 13 January 2024; a follow up press conference was held by party officials on 19 August 2024. The Control Yuan recently published the expense report (available in Mandarin). At the first press conference, Lee Wen-tsung (李文宗), the former chief financial officer of the TPP, apologised for the discrepancies in the TPP’s declaration of donations and expenses for the 2024 presidential campaign and said he assumed full responsibility. Questions arose after several vendors listed as payment recipients denied receiving funds or performing work for Ko’s presidential campaign. At the press conference, TPP officials blamed an external accountant hired by the campaign for making arbitrary expense entries, and the party officials pledged to revise the reports. On 14 August 2024, prosecutors searched the offices of one of the vendors, and arrested one company employee and the presidential campaign’s external accountant on charges of document forgery.

Separately, investigations are ongoing into Taipei City Government decisions during Ko’s mayoralty with regard to the Core Pacific City (京華城) shopping mall redevelopment and the Beitou Shilin Science Park (北投士林科技園區) project.

Analysis: TPP officials claimed that with over 180,000 small dollar donors, the accounting work required a lot of time and manpower, which possibly led to the discrepancies. Although that may be true, until the TPP accurately revises its reporting there will be a suspicion that some of these expenditures were listed to mask the possible misappropriation of campaign funds.

Constitutional Court hears Legislative Yuan authority expansion case
On 6 August 2024, the fifteen justices of the Constitutional Court heard oral arguments in the dispute over the Legislative Yuan’s expansion of its powers(see Taiwan Politics Review, 16 July 2024). The issues in dispute include whether the deliberations in the Legislative Yuan leading up to amendments' passage was constitutional, whether it is constitutional to require the president to address the Legislative Yuan, whether it’s constitutional for the Legislative Yuan to broaden its investigative powers, and whether it is constitutional to prohibit government officials from engaging in "reserve interpellation" (i.e., responding with a question to a legislator’s question). The Central News Agency summarised in English the constitutional versus unconstitutional arguments.

Under the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (available in English and Mandarin), judgment must be rendered within three months after the conclusion of oral arguments, though this can be extended by two months if the justices decided to do so. The approval of at least eight justices is required for any of the legal changes in dispute to be annulled.

Although how the justices will rule is only a guess at this point, on the issue of whether the president must deliver an address to the Legislative Yuan, the justices suggested the Legislative Yuan reconcile with the Presidential Office on this, given that the parties agreed in court there is no penalty for the president’s non-compliance.

Analysis: There is precedent for the Constitutional Court to tell litigants “you figure it out”. For example, in 2017 the Constitutional Court ruled that the inability of same-sex couples to marry was unconstitutional, but the court gave the Legislative Yuan two years to either revise the Civil Code or to pass a specific law to comply with the ruling, failing which the Civil Code would be interpreted to permit same-sex marriage.

Politicians accused, convicted of corruption
On 21 July 2024, Taipei City Councillor Chen Chung-wen (陳重文, Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), Taipei 1st Constituency) was indicted for corruption after being accused of fraudulently obtaining NT$3.21 million from a city government contract.

This was followed by the conviction at trial of Hsinchu City Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安, TPP), and Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒, KMT, Taichung 2nd Constituency), which coincidentally both occurred on 26 July 2024. Kao received a seven year sentence for alleged mis-use of public funds during her tenure as a legislator between 2020 and 2022, and Yen received a seven years and 10 months sentence on similar charges. Kao was immediately suspended from her position, with Deputy Mayor Andy Chiu (邱臣遠), also a former TPP legislator, taking over as interim mayor, while, owing to differences in the applicable laws to a municipal government head and a legislator, Yen can remain in office during his appeal. The Ministry of the Interior issued press releases (in Mandarin only) explaining the different outcomes for Kao and Yen, and the Central News Agency attempted to explain it in English.

On 15 August 2024, Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥) was indicated for allegedly trading political favours for sex while serving as a political appointee in the Tainan City government between 2012 and 2013 under then-Mayor and now President Lai. During the Tsai Administration Chen served as Deputy Minister of the Interior, deputy head of the Central Epidemic Command Center during the pandemic, as a cabinet spokesman.

Analysis: After senior DPP politician and then-Chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation Cheng Wen-tsan was detained in a corruption investigation(see Taiwan Politics Review, 16 July 2024), the KMT and TPP briefly could use as a talking point allegations that the DPP has corrupt politicians. Following the most recent developments for KMT and TPP politicians, the DPP was able to enjoy a brief moment of schadenfreude (幸災樂禍), at least until Chen Tsung-yen was indicted. These developments serve as a reminder that corruption in Taiwan is not unique to specific political parties.

Appeals in Taiwan can take many years to resolve and might exceed Kao and Yen’s term of office. By way of example, a former Taipei City Councillor recently entered prison after exhausting all appeals in a stock manipulation case for which he was first indicted in 2001.

DPP holds party congress
On 21 July 2024, the DPP held its bi-annual party congress. With a theme of “Democratic Taiwan, United in Progress” in his speech Lai emphasised strengthening Taiwan’s national identity, enhancing Taiwan’s democratic system of governance, and protecting freedom and human rights. The congress elected the DPP’s central standing committee members, central executive committee members and central evaluation committee members. According to media reports, politicians considered part of the “Lai faction” won six out of the ten central executive committee seats.

Analysis: There was much media coverage of how the central executive committee vote apportioned seats among the party’s various factions. Regardless, and consistent with precedent, the elected president now is firmly in control of the party apparatus.

Europe relations in focus
On 19 July 2024, after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was re-elected by the European Parliament, President William Lai issued a congratulatory post on X and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also issued a statement to congratulate von der Leyen (available in English and in Mandarin). In her election manifesto (available in English), von der Leyen wrote about collective efforts with Japan, Korea, New Zealand and Australia to “deploy the full range of our combined statecraft to deter China from unilaterally changing the status quo by military means, particularly over Taiwan”. China criticised von der Leyen for “playing with fire” over the Taiwan issue.

On 22 July 2024, President Lai conferred on Filip Grzegorzewski, the outgoing head of the European Economic and Trade Office, the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon. President Lai posted about the award on X (available in English). Earlier on 16 April 2024, the European External Action Service announced that Lutz Gullner, head of the European External Action Service’s Communication, Task Forces and Information Analysis division, will succeed Grzegorzewski. Gullner posted on X that he is looking forward to his new role (available in English).