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Hilton Yip

While South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol has attracted notoriety for his stunning failed bid to impose martial law, there is another democracy in the region where the ruling party has been behaving with audacity.
On December 20, Taiwan’s legislature became the scene of intense clashes between the ruling and opposition legislators, involving wrestling, kicking and the throwing of water. Legislators from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had broken into the building overnight and barricaded the doors with furniture to prevent the opposition from entering.
Meanwhile, protesters supporting the DPP tried to storm the building. As farcical as it all was, the scuffle is a worrying sign that Taiwan’s democracy may be backsliding.
While punch-ups in the legislature are practically a tradition going back decades, this year’s clashes – including those in May, July and one other time this month – have been significantly more violent and disruptive. And, unusually, they were almost always provoked by action taken by the ruling political party. That the ruling party is resorting to antics normally reserved for the opposition is both ironic and worrying.
The ruling DPP is doing this because it has been reduced to a legislative minority against the opposition coalition of the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). As such, the DPP is unable to get its way in the legislature or prevent the opposition coalition, which holds the majority, from passing bills and amendments.


The May 17 scuffle in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan occurred because the DPP wanted to prevent the opposition from passing a package of bills to widen the powers of the legislature, especially in its oversight of the president, among others, requiring the president to answer questions directly from legislators.
The package was still passed a month later and this led Taiwan’s leader William Lai Ching-te to request a constitutional review on the grounds of an overreach. In October, the constitutional court ruled that almost all of the proposed reforms were unconstitutional.
The latest December 20 clash, however, centred around the DPP’s attempt to prevent the opposition from passing amendments that, among others, would allocate more funding to local governments and raise the threshold of votes needed to recall an elected official.
Absolutely none of the violence is justified: in a normal and mature democracy, legislators should not be brawling in the chamber to try and block legislative business. The DPP has tried to justify its actions by making wild claims about how the opposition is trying to create a “parliamentary dictatorship”.
In the lead-up to and even after this latest bout of fighting, instead of trying to tone down tensions, the DPP and its supporters have spouted ridiculous rhetoric such as accusing the opposition of trying to do Beijing’s bidding.
Meanwhile, a group of protesters has emerged, calling themselves the Bluebird Movement. The movement has been presented as being of the grass roots and unaffiliated with the DPP, but only seems to oppose the opposition while fully backing the ruling party.
The Bluebird Movement first appeared in May near the legislature, and on December 20, again gathered outside while the Yuan was in session. Protesters even tried to surge into the building and were stopped by the police.

In South Korea, the ruling People Power Party has also lost its majority in the legislature, leaving President Yoon unable to get his bills passed and contributing to his decision to declare martial law.
Remarkably, soon after Yoon’s martial law announcement, a supportive social media post appeared on an account run by Taiwan’s DPP, suggesting a parallel between Taiwan’s political situation and South Korea’s. The post was quickly taken down but not before many had read it. Lai and the DPP had to do damage control by coming out and asserting that they would not enact martial law.
The DPP’s actions raise several worrying questions. How can a ruling party repeatedly instigate violence in the Yuan simply to block legislative bills it does not agree with, then justify this by making spurious accusations to vilify the opposition-dominated legislature? Is it right for a ruling party to encourage or even support protesters in agitating against the opposition and trying to storm the legislative building? This is a truly remarkable case of a ruling party obstructing the very democracy it claims to be proud of.
As we step into 2025, one can only hope, even if there is a real chance of the political turmoil escalating, that this year’s violent legislative clashes will not be repeated. As it is, Taiwan’s democracy has suffered a terrible blow this year.


This article has been corrected to reflect that the constitutional court ruling was made in October, not November.


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While scuffles in the legislature are practically a tradition going back decades, this year’s clashes have been more violent and disruptive


While scuffles in the legislature are practically a tradition going back decades, this year’s clashes have been more violent and disruptive.


Yoon Suk-yeol

South Korea

Taiwan election 2024

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Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Taiwan’s latest legislative punch-ups suggest democracy is in retreat

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}While scuffles in the legislature are practically a tradition going back decades, this year’s clashes have been more violent and disruptive

While scuffles in the legislature are practically a tradition going back decades, this year’s clashes have been more violent and disruptive