Taiwanese legislature to vote on Control Yuan nominations
Taiwan’s unicameral parliament, the Legislative Yuan, will vote today on President Tsai Ing-wen’s nominations for the Control Yuan, the island’s 29-member agency tasked with monitoring the other four branches of government.
Legislators were originally expected to approve Tsai’s nominations on June 14. However, an altercation between ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and pro-Beijing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers devolved into a physical fight that delayed proceedings after KMT members prevented Control Yuan presidential nominee Chen Chu, one of President Tsai’s senior aides, from entering the assembly hall. The fight was the second in two weeks, following another KMT occupation of parliament in late June.
The KMT caucus argues that if Chen were elected Control Yuan president, she would gain unjust influence over impeachment cases raised during her tenure as Kaohsiung mayor and presidential secretary-general. Chen, a human rights activist once jailed under KMT authoritarian rule for pro-democracy protesting, would likely support President Tsai’s movements to curb Beijing’s influence in government.
Chen remains likely to be confirmed by a DPP-majority legislature, after the KMT suffered significant losses to the DPP in Taiwan’s January elections. Expect her confirmation to deepen divisions in Taiwan’s major parties over the issue of Chinese influence, setting the stage for further conflict.
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