Taiwan’s Blue-White Coalition Launches Presidential Impeachment: “Stop Lai Ching-te From Becoming Yuan Shikai”

On the 19th, Taiwan's Legislative Yuan Blue-White coalition announced the impeachment of President Lai Ching-te, comparing him to Yuan Shikai, who once proclaimed himself emperor.

According to Taiwanese media reports, on that day, the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People's Party caucuses in the Legislative Yuan gathered all opposition legislators to hold a press conference entitled “Impeach the Unconstitutional President, Oppose Imperial Rule, Oppose Autocracy, Oppose Dictatorship” in front of the Legislative Yuan chamber, announcing their proposal to impeach Lai Ching-te.

At the scene, they displayed a giant full text of the impeachment document, as well as an image with Lai Ching-te's face photoshopped into Yuan Shikai.

The impeachment document stated that Lai Ching-te, regarding the “Fiscal Revenue and Expenditure Division Act,” which had passed three readings in the Legislative Yuan and failed to be revised by the Executive Yuan, cooperated by having the Premier refuse to countersign, thus refusing to promulgate the law as required by the ROC Constitution, which is unconstitutional and a dereliction of duty. Based on the Additional Articles of the ROC Constitution and the Law Governing the Execution of Legislative Yuan Powers, this impeachment case against Lai Ching-te is submitted.

The impeachment document reads: “How similar this scene is to China 110 years ago, when then Provisional President Yuan Shikai, under the pretext of ‘stabilizing the country and avoiding civil unrest,’ gradually hollowed out parliament, dissolved political parties, persecuted dissenters, and ultimately abolished elections and seized civil rights. Yuan Shikai even used ‘the national situation is not fit for democracy’ as an excuse to declare himself emperor. History has repeatedly proven that anyone who weakens the parliament in the name of ‘national need’ will eventually trample on the people in the name of ‘order and stability.’ The death of democracy often does not fall beneath the tanks, but disappears in one ‘seemingly legal, actually autocratic’ political power grab after another. In order to safeguard the constitutional system of the ROC, to resist imperialism, to oppose dictatorship and the expansion of autocratic power, and in accordance with Article 4, Paragraph 7 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China, we hereby submit an impeachment case against President Lai Ching-te.”

Taiwan People's Party caucus leader Huang Kuo-chang said: “We want to stop Lai Ching-te from becoming Yuan Shikai.”

High Threshold for Presidential Impeachment

To impeach the president, more than half of all Legislative Yuan members must propose, and more than two-thirds of all members must pass the resolution, which is then referred to the Constitutional Court of the Judicial Yuan for review. If the Constitutional Court rules to uphold the impeachment, the impeached individual must be removed from office. For the impeachment to be upheld in the Constitutional Court, at least two-thirds of the current Justices (at least 9 votes) must agree. However, there are currently only 8 Justices in Taiwan.

In response, on the 19th, Presidential Office spokesperson Kuo Ya-hui said that this in itself is sufficient proof that, under the constitution, the Legislative Yuan has the means to check and balance both the Premier and the President, and that there is no so-called abuse of administrative power. As long as actions are in accordance with the constitutional system, respect will be given.