Taiwan’s Constitutional Court Strikes Out Many of Legislature’s Controversial New Powers – The Diplomat

On October 25, after weeks of speculation, Taiwan’s Constitutional Court knocked down most of the extended legislative powers sought by the Kuomintang (KMT) earlier this year.

The protests — later dubbed the “Bluebird Movement” — broke out in May against an alleged power-seeking by the KMT, which recently seized control of Taiwan’s legislature. the protests, which grew up to 100,000 participants in one week, were the largest set of demonstrations Taiwan has seen in a decade since the 2014 Sunflower Movement.

The Tsai administration is largely seen as having come to power in 2016 on the political momentum following the Sunflower Movement.

The demonstrations erupted over fears that the new powers would allow private individuals, government officials, corporate executives, military personnel and others to be targeted and persecuted by the KMT under the auspices of legislative inquiry through investigative committees.

Fines of up to NT$200,000 or a year in prison would be imposed as criminal charges against people who failed to answer legislative questions or answered falsely. Charges could also be imposed for “contempt of the legislature” or the vaguely defined term of “reverse survey”, civil society groups have expressed concern that these allegations will be used to target opponents of the pan-blue camp.

The Constitutional Court ruling will dissolve investigative commissions that were set up under the new powers by the KMT, even though the legislature is allowed to set up commissions to look into matters within its legal jurisdiction. The decision will also not allow fines or jail time for people who do not answer or give false answers to testimony when questioned in the legislature, although the Constitutional Court has said that government officials would be held liable for false statements.

The two investigative committees that have been set up so far target the approval process for Mirror TV, the first new television station approved for broadcast in over a decade, and the Tsai administration’s egg imports to ease summer egg shortages .

KMT has framed Mirror TV approval as an attempt by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to speed up the approval of a television network that politically favored it. This appears to be an attempt at political revenge because the National Communications Commission did not renew the broadcasting license for CtiTV, one of many stations owned by Tsai Eng-meng’s Want Want Group. Media outlets owned by the Want Want Group, such as CtiTV and the China Times, have faced allegations of funding from the Chinese government and have been accused of allowing China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to have a direct say in editorial decisions.

The egg import case focuses on the Tsai administration’s efforts to mitigate the increase in the cost of eggs as a result of the shortage in the summer of 2023. With rising egg prices with NT$3 per cattythe Tsai administration has taken steps to boost egg imports from abroad. But controversy erupted as one supplier, Ultra Source, allegedly was allowed to import 88 million eggs, despite only having $500,000 in total capital, suggesting possible corruption. The public was also upset after 54 million eggs, or 37 percent of all imported eggs, were destroyed to avoid affecting market mechanisms after the recovery of egg supplies. The KMT also claimed that the egg shortage only occurred due to mismanagement by the Tsai administration.

As part of the renewal of legislative powers, the KMT also proposed asking President Lai Ching-te to deliver a State of the Nation Address to the legislature, followed by a question-and-answer session. This was criticized by legal scholars as an extension of legislative power over the executive, defying the separation of powers, although the KMT framed the speech as intended to strengthen legislative oversight of the executive. Although the Constitutional Court decision does not require Lai to make this address, Lai said he is willing to do it anyway.

The controversy over legislative power will not end with the ruling. With the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) moving to block the 2025 national budget, including Taiwan’s defense budget, Premier Cho Jung-tai of the DPP he suggested that Taiwan’s Executive Yuan, the executive branch of the government, can seek an interpretation from the Constitutional Court on the actions of the pan-blue camp.

Under the constitution, the executive yuan has the right to propose budget expenditures, while the legislature only has review powers over budget expenditures. However, the KMT and TPP sought to block the budget altogether. If the Executive Yuan sought a constitutional interpretation, it would defend its power to propose budgets from the legislature.

Meanwhile, the KMT may try to block the capacity of the Constitutional Court to interfere in its attempts to expand legislative influence. Indeed, another bill currently being proposed by KMT lawmaker Weng Hsiao-ling would restrict the Constitutional Court’s ability to issue majority judgments with less than a full bench of judges. In particular, seven judges are scheduled to retire at the end of October.

If the bill is approved and the KMT then moves to block any of the replacement judges proposed by the DPP, this would effectively prevent the Constitutional Court from issuing majority decisions. In public comments, Weng stated that the KMT aims to freeze the Constitutional Court as long as the party does not approve the appointments proposed by the Lai administration.

In general, whether it is the legislative powers that the Constitutional Court struck down last Friday or the 2025 national budget, the KMT is accused of trying to remove powers from the executive and judicial branches of government and reallocate such powers to the legislature – the only branch of government in which he currently has a majority.

In a related move, the KMT did proposed to revive the Special Investigations Division (SID), a now-disbanded branch of law enforcement. The SID has previously been used to investigate corruption among lawmakers, but has often been accused of acting to investigate KMT enemies. In particular, the KMT proposal would place the SID under the direct jurisdiction of the legislature, rather than the Ministry of Justice.

The party appears to prefer reshaping the balance of power between the branches of government based on its current control of the legislature. The decision of the Constitutional Court is not likely to end the conflict.

However, the KMT may overestimate the amount of public support for its actions. The party currently holds only a slim majority in the legislature thanks to the support of its ally, the TPP, and the party has now lost three consecutive presidential elections. As such, the KMT does not have a popular mandate to make sweeping, potentially permanent changes to Taiwan’s system of government.