appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Lawrence Chung

Taiwan’s plan to dissolve the pro-Beijing Chinese Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) has sparked controversy over whether the independence-leaning authorities are using security concerns to suppress political dissent.
The island’s interior ministry is seeking a Constitutional Court order to declare the CUPP unconstitutional and dissolve it, marking the first such action against a political party in Taiwan’s history.
“The CUPP has long been linked to organised crime, including cross-border offences,” Interior Minister Liu Shyh-fang said at a briefing last week .
“Core party members have also repeatedly been implicated in alleged violations of the National Security Act, the Anti-Infiltration Act, election laws, the Organised Crime Prevention Act and other legislation.”

In a statement, the ministry said the CUPP’s objectives and activities endangered the existence of the Republic of China – the island’s official name – and Taiwan’s free and democratic constitutional order.
It cited three main reasons: alleged cooperation with the Communist Party to build espionage networks and interfere in elections using mainland Chinese funding; involvement in cross-border repression, including attacks on overseas political dissidents visiting Taiwan; and organised crime involving numerous party officials and members.
Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau Commissioner Chiu Shao-chou said police had investigated 141 CUPP officials and members in 98 cases since 2010, involving allegations ranging from attempted murder and extortion to fraud and drug offences.
Beijing, however, accused the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of using the case to suppress political opponents because of its “Taiwan independence nature”.
“Supporting the reunification of the motherland and opposing Taiwan independence separatism and foreign interference are in line with the broader interests of the Chinese nation and the course of history,” the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Chen Binhua said on Wednesday.
“Advocating cross-strait reunification is reasonable, lawful, just and legitimate.”


Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve reunification. Most countries – including the United States, Taiwan’s main international backer – do not recognise the self-ruled island as an independent state. However, Washington is opposed to any attempt to take it by force.
Founded in 2005 by Chang An-lo – a former Bamboo Union triad leader known as “White Wolf” – the CUPP advocates peaceful cross-strait reunification under Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula and the one-China principle.
The move has divided Taiwan’s politicians.
Fan Yun, secretary general of the DPP legislative caucus, said the freedom to form political parties was a cornerstone of democracy but was not without limits.
“A democracy cannot accept an organisation that wears the cloak of democracy while seeking to harm or destroy the democratic system, or even work for a hostile external force,” she said, referring to Beijing.
Fan cited Germany’s concept of “militant democracy” and South Korea’s dissolution of a party accused of working for North Korea, arguing that democratic systems must be able to defend themselves against organisations exploiting political freedoms to undermine democracy.
Constitutional law scholar Weng Hsiao-ling, a legislator from Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), accused the DPP government of violating freedom of association and the spirit of the constitution.
She argued that individual members should be punished for breaking the law rather than an entire party being dissolved because of its political platform.
“If a party is deemed unconstitutional merely because its political views differ from those of the DPP government, then it is the interior minister’s actions that violate the constitution,” Weng said, warning that the KMT could be the next target.
Meanwhile, the CUPP’s Chang rejected the allegations, saying the party was being singled out for political reasons. He also argued that wrongdoing by individual members should not be attributed to the party and accused the DPP of abusing its power.
“The DPP government has brought the Republic of China to the brink of war. If people lose their lives and property, that is what truly threatens its continued existence,” he said.

Chang said the CUPP would contest the case while collecting evidence to seek the DPP’s dissolution under the same legal standards. He also defended the party’s exchanges with mainland China as necessary to build trust and avoid conflict.
Hung Pu-chao, deputy director of the Centre for Mainland China and Regional Development Research at Tunghai University in Taichung, said dissolving the CUPP could disrupt Beijing’s network of local collaborators but warned that mainland China could simply cultivate replacement organisations.
Chang Yuan-hsiang, a political science professor at Soochow University in Taipei, took the opposite view, arguing “the DPP’s political need to dissolve the CUPP outweighed any genuine security imperative”.
The CUPP won just 17,423 votes, or 0.1 per cent, in the 2024 legislative party-list election, while only 1.3 per cent of respondents in long-running surveys by National Chengchi University’s Election Study Centre in Taipei supported reunification as soon as possible, he noted.


Chang Yuan-hsiang argued that the DPP was using the case to reassure its hardline pro-independence base and provoke a strong reaction from Beijing, reinforcing accusations that the CUPP acted as a mainland Chinese proxy.
He also warned that dissolving a party over the alleged conduct of individual members risked violating the constitutional principle of proportionality and creating a chilling effect on political speech.
“The DPP once campaigned for complete freedom of expression and forced the KMT [then the government] to lift restrictions on political parties and newspapers and end martial law,” Chang said. “Decades later, the DPP has become what it once hated most.”


China seeks German help to stave off EU trade sanctions days before Xi-Trump summit

How are China’s Type 052D destroyers shifting the balance in the western Pacific?

Shadow of Xi summit hangs over Trump’s high-stakes talks with Japan’s Takaichi

Top US Senate Democrat Jeanne Shaheen warns Trump not to waver on Taiwan ahead of Xi meet

Taiwan

Taiwan’s push to dissolve pro-Beijing party triggers political censorship debate

Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau Commissioner Chiu Shao-chou says police have investigated 141 CUPP officials and members in 98 cases since 2010. Photo: AFP

Taiwan Interior Minister Liu Shyh-fang. Photo: Handout

CUPP founder Chang An-lo is also known by his nickname “White Wolf”. Photo: AFP

China’s military goal is to stand neck and neck with the US: retired PLA colonel Zhou Bo

Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen

Zhou Bo is a senior fellow at Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy. Photo: Handout

Chinese aircraft carrier the Liaoning takes part in a 2018 military drill in the western Pacific Ocean. Photo: Reuters

Philippine Navy and China Coast Guard personnel clash near a grounded Philippine warship at Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea on July 20. Photo: via Reuters

Taiwan’s opposition TPP launches historic first trip to mainland China

Lee Wei-hwa (centre) poses with other members of the TPP delegation as they kick off a four-day visit to Shanghai on July 14, 2026. Photo: CNA

How Taiwan is preparing for a PLA sea blockade in its biggest war games

A US-made Taiwanese tank fires during the 2024 Han Kuang military exercises in Taiwan. Photo: AFP / Taiwanese Ministry of National Defence

Will Philippine Sea be the main battlefield for PLA carriers in a Taiwan war?

By putting carrier groups in the Philippine Sea, China can intercept enemy ships and deter potential actors from even entering the region, analysts say. Photo: Handout

China competition looms large in 2027 US defence bill

The South China Sea remains a central focus of US military planning as Washington expands efforts to counter China. Photo: US Navy

US President Donald Trump (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a state dinner in Beijing in May. Photo: AP

Chinese-made humanoid robots are among the technologies targeted in the latest US defence bill. Photo: Xinhua

News

China

Politics

Politicians divided over proposal to ban Chinese Unification Promotion Party after ministry says it jeopardises free and democratic constitutional order


Politicians divided over proposal to ban Chinese Unification Promotion Party after ministry says it jeopardises free and democratic constitutional order.


Kuomintang

Taiwan Affairs Office

Chen Binhua

Taiwan’s push to dissolve pro-Beijing party triggers political censorship debate

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Politicians divided over proposal to ban Chinese Unification Promotion Party after ministry says it jeopardises free and democratic constitutional order

Politicians divided over proposal to ban Chinese Unification Promotion Party after ministry says it jeopardises free and democratic constitutional order