Taiwan Lawmakers Defy Protesters, Still Look to Pass Bill
Taiwan’s opposition lawmakers will make a final push on Friday to pass a bill aimed at reining in new President Lai Ching-te’s administration, likely generating more large protests on the island at the heart of US-China tensions.
The two-day break is temporarily calming tensions in Taipei, where several thousand Lai supporters and others gathered outside the legislature on Tuesday evening to voice their anger over the amendments.
On Wednesday, only a handful of protesters remained outside parliament, though more are expected when lawmakers take up the bill again. Lai’s backers have erected tents and stocked up on water and supplies, apparently preparing for bigger protests.
Demonstrators say the amendments, which would expand the legislature’s oversight of the president, have been rushed because they skipped some review stages and could be used to undermine Lai’s government by bogging it down in probes.
Read More: Protest Erupts in Taiwan Over Plan to Curb New President’s Power
The confrontation comes just days after Lai was inaugurated and adds to the difficulties he’s facing leading the island that makes the bulk of the world’s most advanced chips. China, which has pledged to eventually bring the island under its control, has already signaled it will continue with the kind of economic, diplomatic and military pressure that former President Tsai Ing-wen dealt with for the past eight years.
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Stock investors have mostly shrugged off the unrest for now, focusing instead on Nvidia Corp.’s upcoming earnings release. The benchmark Taiex gauge rose 1.5% on Wednesday, extending its record. The Taiwan dollar rose 0.1% to 32.28 versus the greenback.
On Tuesday, lawmakers from the opposition Kuomintang and Taiwan People’s Party made progress on changes to the law that would allow for the creation of committees to investigate the government.
Those bodies could require the government, military and private entities to provide witness testimony and documents to assist in probes. Unlike in the US and some other presidential systems, Lai has no ability to veto the law if it passes the legislature.
Individuals or parties that don’t comply could be repeatedly fined as much as NT$100,000 ($3,100).
The opposition parties, which won a parliamentary majority in the January election that brought Lai to power, are also seeking changes to the law that would require officials to appear more frequently in the legislature to answer questions. Individuals could be subject to criminal punishment if they are found in contempt of the legislature.
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party has said the amendments are unconstitutional and are intended “to undermine the constitution and disrupt government.” The KMT has accused the DPP of blocking reform of the legislature and not engaging in serious debate.
KMT Chairman Eric Chu defended the changes his party is proposing at a press briefing on Wednesday, saying they were similar to reforms put forward by the DPP in recent years.
He also called for an end to demonstrations. “Don’t use people on the street to restrain the legislature, that era is over,” he said, an apparent reference to the Sunflower Movement of 2014.
Read More: Why Computer Chips Are the Weapon in a New Arms Race: QuickTake
Back then tens of thousands of activists, most of them students, disrupted the work of lawmakers for weeks. The dispute was over KMT plans to boost trade with China, and the demonstrations ultimately succeeded in forcing the party to drop the idea.
Chris Chiang, a veteran of the Sunflower demonstrations who was outside the legislature Tuesday night, said that “attending protests is an instinct.”
“We know when people gather and make us our voices heard, we can make a difference,” said the 30-year-old who works in digital marketing in Taipei.
Lai took office Monday with a weak mandate after winning just 40% of the vote in January’s election. The KMT won the most seats in the legislature and took control of the speaker’s role. Its partnership with the TPP gives it a majority in parliament.
Underscoring how contentious the opposition’s bill is, lawmakers scuffled in the legislature last week, leaving several with minor injuries.
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Why Protesters in Taiwan Are Angry With Lawmakers
Demonstrations are expected across Taiwan Friday in protest against a push by opposition lawmakers to pass a bill that would expand their powers and limit new President Lai Ching-te’s ability to govern in the most dangerous flashpoint in US-China ties.
The changes would tighten parliament’s oversight of Lai’s government by expanding lawmakers’ investigative abilities to summon people from a range of backgrounds, including the president, to answer their questions. Individuals could be subject to fines and criminal punishment if they are found in contempt of the legislature.
Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party has vowed to fight the proposed changes, saying they aim “to undermine the constitution and disrupt government.” The opposition Kuomintang, China’s preferred negotiating partner in the chipmaking hub, said the ruling party is standing in the way of badly needed reforms.
If the DPP is right, the amendments could become a tool for the opposition to tie Lai’s government down in battles with the legislature during his four years in office. It could also impair his ability to enact policies, such as upgrading the island’s military as the US has suggested.
If passed, the changes to the law would likely to go into effect soon given the KMT-led opposition controls the legislature. Outmanned, the DPP has resorted to other measures to block the bill’s passage, sparking tussles between lawmakers over the past week and likely leading to more pushing and shoving on the floor of the parliament once debate resumes Friday.
What is the opposition doing and why?
The opposition says that reform is needed to create a better balance of power between the president and the legislature. It also says the changes are in line with previous proposals by the DPP.
The KMT and its opposition partner, the Taiwan People’s Party, say the bill would create more transparency and make the government more accountable. Opposition lawmakers say that in the past officials have deliberately dodged their questions during regular appearances in the legislature, falling short in their duty to explain their actions and policies.
The opposition wants the legislature to have the power to require government officials, the military, private entities and private individuals to provide witness testimony and documents to assist in probes. Individuals or entities that don’t comply could be repeatedly fined as much as NT$100,000 ($3,100). Officials who refuse to answer questions could face penalties of as much as NT$200,000, and people found to have lied could face fines or up to a year in prison.
The law would also require the president to report to the chamber regularly and answer questions, something the opposition says will strengthen oversight of the island’s top leader.
Why is the ruling party unhappy with that?
The DPP and its supporters say the changes to the law amount to legislative overreach. They say the bill has been rushed though committees and their feedback ignored, an accusation the opposition denies.
One of the party’s chief concerns is that the bill could be weaponized to disrupt Lai’s government. The expansion of the legislature’s investigative powers opens the possibility of a single lawmaker being able to request all manner of sensitive or confidential information about the government’s operations, including military matters, according to the DPP.
That, combined with the possibility of jail time for officials found to have misled the legislature, could bog down the government in constant probes and possibly legal cases. Critics also worry it greatly increases the risk of confidential information being leaked.
Will this affect Taiwan’s relations with China?
Taiwan’s constitution dictates that cross-strait relations and national defense are the president’s responsibilities. The ability to question and request information from the president under threat of jail time for not answering could give the legislature greater oversight of relations with China. The opponents of the bill says this would infringe upon the president’s ability to manage cross-strait relations and is therefore unconstitutional.
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How could the president respond to the law?
He could ask the 15 justices of the Constitutional Court to rule on the constitutionality of the law. If the court declares the law unconstitutional, it would immediately become invalid. However, Lai can’t ask the court to intervene until the legislation formally becomes law. The court has a history of moving slowly, meaning Lai’s government would probably start facing probes in the legislature before the court is able to act.
He could also stall. Once passed, the legislature will send the law to the cabinet, which has the option to send it back to lawmakers to be reassessed in a process that could stretch to several weeks. Eventually, the cabinet will have to pass Lai the law to sign. He doesn’t have a veto but Taiwan politics could still find itself in an unprecedented situation should he refuse to sign the legislation. In the event of such an impasse, the Constitutional Court would likely be asked to rule on what should happen next. It hasn’t shied away from making difficult interpretations in the past, such as in 2017 when it ruled that laws must be changed to allow gay marriage.
Lai would also have the nuclear option: seeking to dissolve parliament. Under Taiwan law, DPP lawmakers could file a no-confidence motion against their own premier, relieving him of his duties. The outgoing premier can then turn around and ask the president to dismiss the legislature.
If Lai did this, the political costs would likely be astronomical. Not only would he be sacrificing his own premier, he’d anger voters across the island for booting from office the lawmakers they elected just this past January.
What is the impact on markets?
It’s rare for domestic political confrontations to make a ripple. The benchmark Taiex remained stable during the Sunflower Movement back in 2014, during which protesters opposing a trade deal with China stormed and occupied parliament for several weeks during those demonstrations.
So far, this week’s protests have done little to stir investor concerns: the stock market hit new record highs in the two days following Tuesday’s initial protests, and the Taiwan dollar’s moves have been muted.
Still, any escalation of tensions could change things. Investors could also get worried if opposition legislators start demanding a bigger say in setting electricity prices — an issue that’s usually handled by the president’s ministers.
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China's second day of war games around Taiwan tests ability to 'seize power'
A Taiwan Air Force Mirage 2000-5 aircraft prepares to land at Hsinchu Air Base in Hsinchu.
China's military carried out a second day of war games around Taiwan on Friday, with drills to test their ability to "seize power" and control key areas, exercises it has said were launched to punish Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te.
The two days of drills in the Taiwan Strait and around groups of Taiwan-controlled islands near the Chinese coast started just three days after Lai took office. Taiwan has condemned China's actions.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and denounces Lai as a "separatist", decried his inauguration speech on Monday, in which he urged Beijing to stop its threats and said the two sides of the strait were "not subordinate to each other".
The Eastern Theatre Command of the People's Liberation Army said in a brief statement that its forces on Friday continued with their drills, dubbed "Joint Sword - 2024A".
The exercises are to "test the ability to jointly seize power, launch joint attacks and occupy key areas", it said.
China has never ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.
The command showed an animated video on Friday on its WeChat social media account of missiles being launched at Taiwan from the ground, air and sea, which then slam into the cities of Taipei, Kaohsiung and Hualien in balls of flame.
"Sacred weapons to kill independence," read words in red, written in the traditional Chinese characters Taiwan uses, at the end of animation.
Taiwan's armed forces have mobilised to monitor and shadow Chinese forces.
Taiwan's defence ministry on Friday published pictures of F-16s, armed with live missiles, patrolling the skies.
It also showed pictures of Chinese coast guard vessels, which are taking part in the drills, and Chinese Jiangdao-class corvettes, though it did not say exactly where the images were taken.
The ministry said that as of 6 a.m. (2200GMT) on Friday, it had detected 49 Chinese military aircraft, 19 navy and seven coast guard ships. Of the aircraft, 28 crossed the strait's median line, which once served as an unofficial barrier though China says it does not recognise it.
The closest Chinese aircraft got to Taiwan's coast was 40 nautical miles (74 km) from the northern city, and navy base, of Keelung, according to a map the ministry provided.
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TALKS REBUFFED
Lai has repeatedly offered talks with China but has been rebuffed. He says only Taiwan's people can decide their future, and rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims.
Taiwan is well used to China's military threats, and the latest drills have caused no undue alarm on the island, with life carrying on as normal.
On China's highly regulated Weibo social media site, "Eastern Theatre" was the top searched item, with most of the comments supporting the drills. Another hot topic was "the return of Taiwan".
The defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong's communists, who founded the People's Republic of China.
The Republic of China remains Taiwan's official name, though only 12 countries formally recognise it diplomatically, mostly small, developing nations like Palau and Guatemala.
In a Friday commentary, the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, the People's Daily, said it was a shared belief among Chinese people that the territory of the nation cannot be divided, the country cannot be thrown into chaos and its people cannot be separated.
The recent actions of the "leader of the Taiwan region" will only accelerate the "destruction" of pro-independence forces in Taiwan, it wrote.
China is willing to create "broad space for peaceful reunification", but will never leave any room Taiwan "separatist activities", the newspaper added.
Analysts, regional diplomats and senior Taiwan officials noted that so far the scale of the drills were smaller than the similar exercises in 2022 and were widely anticipated by Taiwanese and foreign officials, but they still raised the risk of accidents or miscalculations.
They said Beijing was sending a finely calibrated warning that Chinese forces could attempt a swift blockade if it wanted to bring Lai to heel.
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What Europe needs to know about William Lai, Taiwan's new president
Taiwan, the self-ruling, high-tech island that has become a flashpoint in the deepening rivalry between China and the West, has entered a new political chapter.
Lai Ching-te, also known as William Lai, was this week inaugurated as president, succeeding Tsai Ing-wen, whose steady, soft-spoken leadership in the past eight years has been credited with redefining Taipei's approach to Beijing.
Having served as vice-president during Tsai's second mandate, Lai has fashioned himself as an enabler of continuity, rather than a disruptor who comes to shake things up at a precarious time of growing geopolitical tensions in the region and beyond.
"The future of cross-strait relations will have a decisive impact on the world," the 64-year-old said after being sworn in, speaking in front of thousands of his fellow citizens.
Here's what Europe needs to know about William Lai.
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He used to be a doctor
Born in 1959 to a mining family, Lai studied medicine in Taiwan and obtained a Master's Degree in public health from Harvard University. He entered politics in the mid-1990s as a representative of the city of Tainan with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the centre-left party that led the charge to install political reforms based on Western liberalism – much to Beijing's dismay.
From there, his trajectory moved upwards: from national legislator to mayor of Tainan to then prime minister and later vice-president. In January this year, Lai won the elections with a plurality of 40%, marking the first time the victorious candidate failed to secure at least 50% of votes. Still, his triumph gave the DPP its third consecutive presidential tenure, albeit without a parliamentary majority.
By sheer coincidence, one of Lai's most immediate diplomatic objectives relates to his erstwhile field: medicine. His executive is bent on securing Taiwan's participation – as an observer – in the upcoming World Health Assembly (WHA) to be held in late May.
For eight years, Taiwan took part in this annual forum under the name "Chinese Taipei." But Beijing argued this breached Resolution 2758 of the United Nations General Assembly, which switched diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China (RoC) to the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the only lawful representative of China.
This reading is disputed by Taipei, which says its participation can take many forms without undermining the PRC's standing. Countries like Germany, France, the UK, Canada and the US have backed Taiwan's comeback. Brussels is also on board.
"In general, Taiwan should be included in specialised multilateral fora where statehood is not a requirement and where its technical competence and capacities bring an added value in areas related to the EU and global interests," an EU spokesperson told Euronews.
He prefers the status quo
Lai is a long-time member of the DPP, which defends that Taiwan is culturally and politically separate from China and actively promotes the development of a Taiwanese identity.
In 2017, Lai made headlines when he described himself as a "pragmatic worker for Taiwan independence," a phrase that resurfaced during his presidential bid. Beijing slammed him as an "instigator of war" and "troublemaker through and through," orchestrating a massive interference campaign to sway voters and derail the DPP's electoral ambitions.
Lai has since toned down his stance, echoing his predecessor's line that there is no need to declare Taiwan independent because Taiwan is de facto independent. He has vowed to uphold Tsai's so-called "four commitments," which include a commitment that the RoC and the PRC should never be subordinate to each other.
During his inaugural speech, Lai offered China a chance to resume formal dialogue, interrupted since 2016, on the basis of "parity and dignity" and stressed the status quo in the Taiwan Strait should be maintained through peaceful means.
"So long as China refuses to renounce the use of force against Taiwan, all of us in Taiwan ought to understand, that even if we accept the entirety of China's position and give up our sovereignty, China's ambition to annex Taiwan will not simply disappear," he said.
"We stand strongly against any kind of unilateral change of the status quo of Taiwan, in particular by the use of force," von der Leyen said.
Beijing, though, is unfazed by Lai's pitch. "Let me stress that 'Taiwan independence' leads nowhere. No matter what banner or pretext the separatists use, 'Taiwan independence' is doomed to failure," Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of China's foreign ministry, said after the inauguration. "China will and must achieve reunification."
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He wants to bring investment back
Taiwan has over the years gained what is arguably one of the most sought-after competitive edges: semiconductors, the tiny chips that power billions of electronic devices, from rudimentary microwaves to AI-powered weapons.
The quasi-monopoly is so valuable that it has been dubbed the "Silicon Shield," meaning China could be deterred from invading simply out of fear of triggering an irreparable disruption of global supply chains and suffering untold economic havoc.
In his speech, Lai extolled this powerful leverage and said "humanity's well-being and prosperity" depended upon the island's manufacturing output.
The EU is determined to expand its homegrown semiconductor industry and achieve what Brussels calls "strategic autonomy." Under the European Chips Act, the bloc plans to mobilise at least €43 billion in public and private investment to secure a 20% market share by 2030. In order to be successful, these transactions need to involve established actors in the field that have acquired hard-to-replicate expertise.
The initiative has borne some fruits. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest supplier of chips, will invest nearly €3.5 billion to build a plant in Dresden, Germany, expected to be operational in 2027. Meanwhile, ProLogium, a Taiwanese firm that manufactures advanced batteries for electric vehicles, will pour €5.2 billion into a new factory in Dunkirk, France. (Both blueprints entail hefty state aid.)
Lai has said Taiwan must "seize the business opportunities that come as a result of geopolitical changes," name-checking semiconductors, AI and next-generation communications as prime examples. Remarkably, he then added his government would work to "welcome Taiwanese businesses abroad to come back and invest in Taiwan."
The president also said his executive would "endeavor to sign bilateral investment agreements with other democracies." The idea of an EU-Taiwan investment agreement was endorsed last year by the European Parliament and floated by Lai during his campaign. But the European Commission has so far rebuffed the project, fearing doing so would divide member states and unleash Beijing's wrath.
China came close to signing a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) with the bloc before the project was indefinitely frozen due to heightened tensions.
He sides with the West
As of today, Taiwan maintains official diplomatic relations with only 11 countries, most of which are small islands, and the Holy See. By contrast, the EU, the US, the UK, Canada and the majority of the international community abide by the "One China" principle and recognise the PRC as the sole government of the nation named China.
Lai made no pretense of trying to enlarge this already-meager number: for the past decade, Beijing has ramped up its outreach activities to convince other countries to cut ties with Taipei. The last one to flip was Nauru in January 2024.
Instead, the new president is betting on Taiwan's model of liberal democracy as the best asset to move away from China's shadow and align with Western allies, who are enraged by Beijing's latest actions, including its "no-limits" friendship with Russia.
Taipei has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine, a country invaded by its large neighbour, and imposed sanctions to deprive the Kremlin of high-end products. By contrast, Beijing is accused of helping Moscow to get hold of blacklisted items.
"By standing side-by-side with other democratic countries, we can form a peaceful global community that can demonstrate the strength of deterrence and prevent war, achieving our goal of peace through strength," Lai said after being sworn in.
International engagement will be a top priority for his administration, despite his lack of foreign policy credentials. His choice of vice-president, Hsiao Bi-khim, was Taipei's envoy to Washington while his foreign affairs minister, Lin Chia-lung, previously worked to enhance links with Asia and Oceania.
For the EU, these intentions presage deeper cooperation on matters such as renewable energy, security, research, data protection, disaster management and human rights, even if these talks will always fall short of diplomatic recognition.
Both sides annually hold trade and investment consultations (recently upgraded to the status of "dialogue") to discuss technology and supply chain issues, particularly on semiconductors. This must-have item has made Taiwan one of the bloc's most important trading partners. Last year, the EU imported €47.3 billion in goods (23% of which were integrated circuits and electronic components) while it exported €30.5 billion, resulting in a deficit of €16.8 billion – in Taiwan's favour.
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