Taiwan braces for fresh protests over controversial new law

Tens of thousands of Taiwan’s ruling party supporters are expected to rally outside the country’s parliament on Friday after the party rammed through a highly controversial bill that would criminalize contempt of the parliament.

The opposition Kuomintang (KMT) says the new law is badly needed to correct the power imbalance between Taiwan’s legislature and the highly powerful president.

But the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) claims it is an unconstitutional power grab and an attempt to exact revenge against the DPP government led by President Lai Ching-te.

The bill gives Taiwan’s parliament more power to question and investigate the executive branch, including issuing subpoenas to government officials and private citizens to force them to hand over classified documents to lawmakers.

It also introduces a “contempt of parliament” provision that would allow fines and up to a year in prison for any official who disrespects parliament — a last provision that has been heavily criticized by legal scholars as going far beyond what is accepted in other democracies.

When the bill was first introduced in May, massive protests erupted in the streets of Taipei, with tens of thousands of people surrounding Parliament for several days, but the protests subsided once the bill was sent to Premier Lai Ming’s office for approval.

Lai sent the bill back to parliament for reconsideration, and this time it was passed fairly quickly, with the support of a fragile coalition of the Kuomintang, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and independents.

But the DPP has called on supporters to gather, even if only as a symbolic show of opposition to the bill. The KMT held a counter-demonstration on Friday, drawing just a few hundred people, fewer than the DPP attracted last month.

But the protests reflect a deep political rift between DPP and KMT supporters in Taiwan.

For decades, China’s Nationalist Party (KMT) has ruled Taiwan with an iron fist, ruthlessly suppressing any calls for democracy or independence. Many of the DPP’s senior officials were jailed as extremists. The two parties are now competing for power through elections, but old suspicions are now fuelling parliamentary deadlock.

President Lai has been in office for only a month but, lacking a majority in an already divided parliament, his prospects for achieving anything substantial during his first term are dim.

In the streets outside Parliament there is genuine concern about what is happening inside, with thousands of DPP supporters apparently believing the Contempt of Parliament Bill is an attempted legislative coup.

“The process is very unfair and cuts out any real debate,” said Powei Chan, 33. “The bill itself is very dangerous and lacks clear definition. It’s basically a way for lawmakers to expand their power without the consent of the people.”

The fact that the lawmakers in question hold a majority in parliament is not enough for Chan.

Surrounding the National Assembly are people from all walks of Taiwanese society, from young to old, students, professionals and blue-collar workers. They sit motionless in rows on plastic chairs. On a makeshift stage, activists one after another take to the microphone to denounce what is happening inside the chamber.

When a fierce afternoon thunderstorm ripped through the city in May, organizers handed out plastic ponchos and those who were prepared piled high with umbrellas. No one left.

They are united by a strong Taiwanese identity and a deep distrust of the motives of the opposition Kuomintang.

“I think what’s happening in Taiwan right now is something the people should stand up against,” said a young woman named Eden Hsu. “Those who are trying to sell Taiwan out shouldn’t be allowed to think they can do anything unopposed.”

To whom will we sell Taiwan? To China.

“Many provisions in the bill appear to be influenced by the Chinese Communist Party,” she said. “The Chinese Communist Party plans to use domestic and foreign support to infiltrate Taiwan.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by activists in the streets and on stages. There’s a widely shared view among opponents of the bill that the KMT leadership is now firmly in Beijing’s pocket.

Pressed for evidence, protesters and activists alike point to the frequent visits to China by senior Kuomintang politicians, most notably Taiwan’s elderly former president, Ma Ying-jeou, who has visited China twice in the past six months and was personally welcomed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in April, who has steadfastly refused to engage in any dialogue with Lai or his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen.

One prominent DPP politician described Ma as Beijing’s “most important political asset” in Taiwan.

Other figures seen as “very close to Beijing” include Kuomintang Chairman Han Kuo-yu, often mockingly referred to by DPP supporters as “Korean Fish”, a homonym of his Chinese name.

“He’s not really blue. [the colour of the KMT party flag]”He’s a Red,” says one DPP politician. [(the colour of the communist party flag]. “

Another figure accused of being “red” is Fu Kunqi, the KMT official who led the passage of the “Contempt of the Legislature” bill. Fu is a powerful figure who has been convicted and imprisoned for insider trading and fraudulent divorce. He is also a frequent visitor to China.

All of this is fodder for rumors and insinuations, but not evidence of collusion between KMT officials and Beijing. Indeed, the KMT leadership has vociferously protested its own innocence and pointed to its long history of opposing the Chinese Communist Party.

“I have more reason to hate Beijing than the DPP,” says Alexander Huang, the KMT’s international affairs director. [of the bill] It’s just about making management more accountable.”

But when the KMT controlled the presidential office and the Legislature from 2008 to 2016, it resisted opposition demands to pass a very similar law, which the then-opposition Democratic Progressive Party was pushing.

The KMT has also suggested it may launch investigations into senior DPP officials if the bill is passed.

“For eight years, the DPP had an overwhelming majority. They could get whatever they wanted. They had an executive and legislative coalition and enjoyed Taiwan’s resources,” Huang said.

Pressed for evidence, Huang pointed to Taiwan’s COVID-19 vaccine program, where he claims the DPP government gave tens of millions of dollars to several pharmaceutical companies, none of which were able to develop an effective vaccine.

“The money is gone and there’s still no vaccine,” he said. “So is there something being hidden? Can we find out? The DPP says no.”

The DPP has denied all allegations of wrongdoing, and supporters say the allegations are baseless and a repeat of the charges made against its former leader, Chen Shui-bian. After leaving office in 2008, he was convicted of bribery.

They now fear the bill could be used to launch a series of investigations to cripple Lai’s administration.

Beyond political divisions, Taiwan faces a bigger threat from China, but many fear that its legislature and executive branch will try to undermine each other over the next four years.