Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have worked in cahoots to try and force through legislative reform bills. So far, the contents are questionable — the legislation is not only of exceptionally poor quality, but also ignores basic constitutionality.

The “state of the nation address” motion alone reveals that the proponents have lost all sense of constitutional awareness.

The Legislative Yuan on Tuesday last week completed the second reading of Article 15-1 of the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法). It came to light that the KMT and the TPP had not only revised the original articles, but had also added two new ones, including making the state of the nation address into a “compulsory duty.” These amendments seem to have been “cooked up” and passed in the shadows, a shockingly unconstitutional move.

President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday told visiting US lawmakers that Taipei would work with Washington to counter “authoritarian expansionism,” days after China staged major military drills around Taiwan.

Lai has been labeled by Beijing as a “traitor” and “saboteur of peace and stability” since he vowed to defend the nation’s sovereignty and democracy in his inaugural speech on Monday last week.

Three days after he was sworn into office, warships and fighter jets encircled Taiwan in drills China said were “punishment” for Lai’s “confession of Taiwan independence” and a test of its ability to seize control of the nation.