TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s opposition-dominated legislature on Tuesday passed amendments seen as favoring China and weakening the power of the island’s president, sparking protests by thousands.
Reforms pushed by the opposition Kuomintang and its allies would give parliament more power to control the budget, including defense spending, which the Kuomintang has blocked as what many see as a concession to China.
It is unclear whether the bills will become law. The Executive Yuan, the executive branch headed by the prime minister, can veto the bills or refer them to the president, who must promulgate them as law within 10 days. If the Executive Yuan or the president do not comply, the bills do not become law.
Thousands of people gathered outside Parliament to protest the changes, with banners supporting both sides of the debate hanging in the chamber and shouting and shoving taking place inside.
The Kuomintang (KMT) officially supports unification with China, a country that separated from Taiwan in a civil war in 1949. In January’s elections, the KMT took control of the legislature with a one-seat majority, and the president is Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party, who supports Taiwan’s de facto independence from China and is disliked by Beijing.
“Now is the time for the people to stand up and let lawmakers know that the laws they are trying to enact are not what we want,” said protester Huang Hongwei. “That’s why so many people are out in the streets protesting. We used to trust lawmakers, but they didn’t follow through on what they promised, and now the people are angry.”
DPP lawmakers have accused the KMT and minority Taiwan People’s Party lawmakers of undermining Taiwan’s democracy by expanding legislative oversight of the executive, which they say creates a “black box” of what the KMT calls reforms.
“There has been no discussion on this bill at all and it’s a poorly drafted bill,” said Wan Li, a protester in Kaohsiung city. “Without detailed discussion, this incomplete bill will cause great harm to Taiwan.”
The National Party controls the legislature, but its speaker and TPP ally are elected on party lists and are not accountable to actual voters.
Taiwan was under martial law for 40 years under the Kuomintang government, and although the party has lost three consecutive presidential elections, it still wields power at the local level through a close network of business and social stakeholders. Pro-China business groups also control a large share of Taiwan’s media market, and the younger generation turns to social media for information.
Despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, China sends aircraft and ships near Taiwan on a daily basis as part of a campaign aimed at weakening a unified opposition on the island, which is strongly backed by the United States, and weakening its defenses.
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Associated Press videographer Johnson Lai contributed to this report.
