Screenshot from Mnews’ YouTube Channel. A volunteer of the citizen-led recall campaign. Fair use.

Taiwan has been in a political standoff since the inauguration of President Lai Ching-Te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in May 2024. Since then, Ching-Te's administration has been consistently blocked by lawmakers of the opposition parties, including the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who occupy a majority of seats in the Legislative Yuan and hence have the power to veto motions, bills, and budgets.

The standoff has escalated into a political crisis in January after the KMT led a pro-China alliance in the Legislature to pass unprecedented 6.6 percent budget cuts, equally TWD 207.5 billion or approximately USD 6.3 billion, with 3,000 slashed items that have severely undermined the operations of the ministries of National Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Digital Affairs. 

Amid China’s aggressive military threats and information warfare against Taiwan, the budget cuts were perceived as a betrayal of Taiwan’s national interests. The political crisis, hence, triggered a wave of citizen-led recall petitions targeting lawmakers in the KMT-led opposition coalition. 

China considers Taiwan an integral part of its territories, although the Republic of China (Taiwan) has been politically autonomous since the KMT settled on the main island in 1949 after being defeated by the Communist Party of China in the Chinese Civil War.

Currently, among the 113 seats in the Legislature, the DPP holds only 51 seats, while the opposition coalition, comprised of the KMT (52), TPP (8), and other independents (2), has a total of 62 seats. Meanwhile, 41 of the district-level elected seats are eligible for a recall motion under Taiwan’s Public Officials Election and Recall Act. 

The recall process is structured into three stages. The recall campaigners need to collect signatures from one percent of the constituency voters in the first petition stage, and 10 percent in the second petition stage, before entering the final vote, which requires a minimum of 25 percent of the constituency voter turnout with a majority of votes supporting the motion to pass a recall.

Although it only takes 10 successful recalls to give DPP control of the majority of seats in the legislature, the citizen-led mass movement aims to oust more than 30 opposition lawmakers. This implies that the campaign must cover more than 30 electoral districts across the country, and the duration of a recall motion to be passed can take months.

At first, the KMT-led coalition also wanted to make use of the recall system to disqualify DPP lawmakers. In the first stage, the pro-China alliance managed to collect enough signatures to recall 17 DPP lawmakers, while the citizen campaign successfully put 35 KMT lawmakers on the recall list. However, as of May 28, no DPP lawmaker recall motion has passed the 10 percent threshold of the second stage petition. On the other hand, the citizen-led recall campaigns have thus far collected enough signatures to send 31 KMT lawmakers to local election commissions for review. The recall vote will be held in late July or in August for those petitions that passed the review.

A few months back, most political observers said it would be almost impossible to recall the KMT lawmakers en masse, as each motion would require a district-based campaign team to collect signatures from registered voters. In addition, the pro-China alliance has very strong grassroots networks based on kinship, business, religion, political affiliation, and ideological similarities. Yet, to many people's surprise, the citizen campaigns have managed to establish 35 voluntary teams and pushed 31 recall motions to the voting stage.

Veteran political news journalist, Yaita Akio, explained on his Facebook page that the main drive behind the citizen campaign is related to public perception of KMT-led “opposition”: 

第一是「背叛」，第二是「自私」，第三是「懶惰」。

所謂「背叛」就是，選民覺得這些立委對國家「不忠誠」。比如說，拒絕參加自己國家總統的就職典禮，卻跑去中國聆聽中國政要訓話。中國是台灣最大的假想敵，天天想的就是要吞併台灣、奪走台灣的自由和民主。但這些在野黨立委毫無敵我意識，經常站在中國的立場上批評台灣。所以，很多選民都認為，如果再讓這些立委把持台灣的立法院，台灣的安全可能受到威脅。

所謂「自私」就是，掌握立法院多數之後，推出的法案大部分都是為了自己，而不是為了公益。比如說，擴大立法院權限的自肥法案、提高罷免門檻的選罷法修正案，以及最近推動的中配取得身分證年限6改4，其實也是為了增加在野黨的選票…

所謂「懶惰」就是，做事太不敬業。比如說削減預算，本來就是在野黨的職責。只要認真研究，削減的每一筆預算都拿出正當理由、有完整論述，選民絕對不會生氣，反而會給在野黨鼓掌。但是，他們實在太不認真，胡亂刪砍，故意不讓政府做事。

The first is ‘betrayal,’ the second is ‘selfishness,’ and the third is ‘laziness.’

‘Betrayal’ means that voters feel that these legislators are ‘disloyal’ to their country. For example, they refused to attend the inauguration ceremony of their own country's president but went to China to listen to lectures by Chinese dignitaries. China is Taiwan's greatest imaginary enemy, with its desire to annex Taiwan and take away Taiwan's freedom and democracy. However, these opposition party legislators do not have any sense of friend or foe. They often criticize Taiwan from China's standpoint. Therefore, many voters believe that Taiwan's security may be threatened if these legislators are allowed to control Taiwan's Legislative Yuan.

‘Selfishness’ means that, after taking control of the majority in the Legislative Yuan, most of the bills introduced are for their interest, not for the public good. For example, the self-enrichment bill to expand the power of the Legislature, the amendment to the Public Officials Elections and Recall Act to raise the threshold of recall, and the recent proposal to change the residency requirement for spouses from mainland China from six to four years to obtain an ID card are aimed at increasing the votes of the opposition party…

‘Laziness’ means that they have no work ethic. For example, it is the duty of the opposition party to cut the budget. If every budget cut were justified and fully justified and is backed by research and argument, voters would not be angry and would applaud the opposition. However, they were lazy. They made deletions and cuts indiscriminately, deliberately not allowing the government to do anything…

Joshu Wang, a volunteer who participated in the citizen campaigns, said that the successful mass recall movement indicates the resilience of Taiwan’s civil society and democratic culture:

公民社會是真真實實的存在。公民社會不僅只是少數特別有政治參與熱忱、明確政治主張的NGO，也不是只有在台北，更不是只在凱道。我們的公民社會寓居於全台灣35個選區的每條大街小巷，每個捷運站、區公所、菜市場、公園、媽祖廟，從台北到花東，從桃園到中彰投…。這些公民不屬於任何政黨，除了愛護台灣、守護民主，沒有特定政治意識形態。他們自發、積極、有組織能力，能長期作戰。他們沒有名字，寧願戴上口罩，但一旦國家需要，他們可以衝鋒陷陣。這不得不說是台灣民主化之後三十多年來累積的公民教育的豐碩成果。

Our civil society does exist. Civil society is not just a handful of NGOs with a passion for political participation and a clear political agenda, it is not just in Taipei, and it is not just in the Ketagalan Boulevard [a major protest site]. Our civil society resides in every street and alley, every MRT station, district office, food market, park, and Mazu Temple in the 35 constituencies of Taiwan, from Taipei to Hualien and Taidong, from Taoyuan to Taizhong Changhua and Nantou…. These citizens do not belong to any political party and have no specific political ideology other than a love for Taiwan and a commitment to protecting democracy. They are self-motivated, active, organized, and capable of fighting for a long time. They have no names and prefer to wear masks, but when the country needs them, they are ready to fight. This is the fruit of the civic education that has been accumulated over the past three decades of Taiwan's democratization.