By Teng Pei-ju, CNA staff reporter
Taiwan is witnessing an unprecedented political showdown as recall motions, targeting the virtual removal of a major political party from the national legislature, unfold across the nation.
As of March 10, recall campaigns have been mounted against 34 of the opposition Kuomintang’s (KMT) 39 lawmakers eligible to be recalled under Taiwan’s Public Officials Election and Recall Act.
At the heart of the discord is the inability of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government and a Legislature controlled by an opposition coalition consisting of KMT (52), Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) (8) and independent (2) lawmakers to agree on anything.
Of that coalition, 13 KMT and all eight TPP lawmakers are “at-large” lawmakers, who are not subject to recall motions.
But how much of the recall campaign is driven by power politics, with the removal of at least six KMT lawmakers potentially paving the way for the DPP to secure a majority of at least 57 seats in the 113-seat Legislature, up from its 51 seats at present?
And to what extent is public discontent with opposition lawmakers a factor, particularly in response to their passage of some laws–such as those on legislative oversight–that were later ruled unconstitutional, as well as their decisions to cut and freeze part of the DPP government’s budget request?
‘Trojan horse’
One of the main campaigners, tech mogul Robert Tsao (曹興誠) has branded the nationwide recall campaign as a battle against “pro-China lawmakers who seek to sell out Taiwan.”
Tsao, the founder of Taiwanese chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) who has recently advocated strong anti-Beijing sentiments, claim KMT and TPP lawmakers serve as “a Trojan horse,” pushing through legislation that is undermining Taiwan’s security.
Tsao and his fellow campaigners have said they are acting on their own initiative, motivated by their disapproval of opposition lawmakers’ disruptive legislation that they fear will upset Taiwan’s constitutional order and defense capabilities.
While acknowledging the agency of civil society groups over the past few weeks, Su Tzu-chiao (蘇子喬), a political science professor at Soochow University, said the driving force behind this recall effort was the DPP.
The DPP is trying to leverage public discontent over opposition-endorsed legislation, including its challenges to the DPP’s budget, to spur the campaign, Su said in a recent interview with CNA.
The recall initiatives did not proliferate until DPP legislative caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) publicly called for “mass recalls” of KMT lawmakers in early January, according to National Taipei University political science professor Liu Jia-wei (劉嘉薇).
Ker has also claimed that President Lai Ching-te (賴清德), who concurrently serves as DPP’s chairman, would ultimately make his position clear over the issue, Liu told CNA.
She was referring to Ker’s comments during an interview in mid-February, during which the veteran lawmaker suggested “the biggest star should take the stage [when the campaign] reaches the climax.”
The idea of a recall campaign even pre-dates the stalemate between the executive and legislative branches, as Ker first floated the idea of launching a recall campaign against the opposition shortly after the presidential and legislative elections in 2024, Su said.
The Jan. 13 elections saw the DPP secure the presidency for a third consecutive four-year term but lose the comfortable majorities it had in the Legislature from 2016 to 2024.
Despite Ker’s comments, other DPP officials have consistently denied any party involvement in orchestrating the recall movement, and Lai has never publicly unambiguously rendered his support for the campaign.
Pushing Public Discourse
Yet, with the recall campaign in full swing, the DPP in mid-March kicked off a series of roadshows featuring Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and other Cabinet officials who launched a barrage of criticism against the opposition’s restraints on government spending.
The opposition cut roughly NT$207.6 billion (US$6.32 billion) from the NT$3.1 trillion 2025 budget request, (though the actual amount cut is uncertain because there were overlapping cuts) and froze another NT$138.1 billion, pending action by executive agencies.
Under the plan, which was signed into law by Lai on March 21, the government would still have a bigger budget than it did in 2024.
While DPP Secretary-General Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) has sought to draw a line between the roadshows and recall campaigning, Ker characterized the two events as “two sides of the same coin.”
The DPP’s first event in Taichung on March 15 included six booths set up by civil society groups to gather signatures for the second stage of the recall petitions, blurring the line Lin tried to draw.
Recall vote impact
Of concern to some is the impact the recalls could have on Taiwanese society.
Liu expressed concerns over what she described as the “lack of legitimacy” of the recall movement, noting campaigners had not provided plausible arguments for why all the targeted KMT lawmakers should be removed from the Legislature.
Former DPP Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), now a senior advisor to the president, has warned that political camps leveling recall threats against each other would create a “vicious cycle” detrimental to Taiwan’s development.
The KMT has tried to fight back with initiatives aimed at ousting about 16 DPP lawmakers, but none of them has gathered much momentum.
What the polls say
Limited polling on the recall movement is unclear about how voters feel about it.
Polls show that the public disapproves of the budget cuts endorsed by the opposition, but such opposition does not necessarily translate into support for recall initiatives.
The Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation (TPOF) released the results of a survey on March 14 in which 53 percent of respondents considered the budget cuts inappropriate, compared to 27.5 percent who found the legislative measures appropriate.
The anger has been particularly manifest in the cultural sector, with more than 700 writers issuing a joint statement calling out the cutting of NT$1.1 billion from the Ministry of Culture’s proposed budget of NT$29 billion.
The opposition froze another NT$3.4 billion that can be reinstated. The Culture Ministry’s budget in 2024 was NT$25.9 billion.
The statement said that such action undermined the implementation and continuation of the country’s cultural policy and that the harm could be irreversible.
At the same time, over 100 filmmakers and crew members have joined forces to create a series of videos in support of the recall campaign.
“If a legislator fails to represent the will of the people, they are unfit for the position and should not remain in office,” said Kurt Lu ( efforts to recall KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁), whose constituency is in the county.), the filmmaker who directed the first video.
While public discontent exists, My-Formosa polls published on Feb. 24 revealed that nearly 57 percent of respondents viewed the recall movement “more disadvantageous than beneficial” to Taiwan, with only 32 percent saying otherwise.
Campaigners have to get the signatures of at least 10 percent of eligible voters in a constituency in the second stage of the process after having gotten the 1 percent necessary in the first stage for recall votes to be held.
So how many lawmakers will ultimately be subject to recall votes remains unknown.
The actual votes would be held within 20 to 60 days after the Central Election Commission confirms that the 10 percent threshold was met.
To date, only three elected municipal-level officials have been recalled — former Kaohsiung Mayor and current Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT in 2020, DPP-backed lawmaker Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) in 2021 and DPP Taoyuan City Councilor Wang Hao-yu (王浩宇).
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