The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is the source of the "farce" of fighting in Taiwan's legislature

Taiwan's legislature often has "farces" and bloodshed in fights, and it is a household name on the island, and it has even long been "famous overseas." In the 90s of the 20 th century, the brawl incident in Taiwan's legislature began to attract the attention of the European and American media and scholars, and some media described it as "democracy with 'Taiwan characteristics'". In 1995, the brawl of Taiwan's legislature won the "Funny Nobel Peace Prize" "by strength", and was satirized and obtained "international certification". In 1996, CBS's program "60 Minutes" broadcast a fiery and bloody scene of a fight in Taiwan's legislature, and was called the world's "most brutal 'parliament'". Recently, the Chinese Kuomintang (hereinafter referred to as the "Kuomintang"), the Taiwan People's Party (hereinafter referred to as the "People's Party") and the Democratic Progressive Party (hereinafter referred to as the "Democratic Progressive Party") have once again engaged in a major fight in order to discuss the "reform bill," which has aroused great concern among public opinion on the island. As mentioned above, the "farce" of fighting in Taiwan's legislature has a long history, which began to occur as early as the 80s of the 20th century, and later became more and more intense, not only with a wide variety of "weapons" for fighting, such as shoes, chairs, water balloons, and even pig intestines; The forms of fighting are also varied, such as men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles, and even mixed men's and women's doubles, which are dazzling. The main reason for this is that the DPP has developed from the streets to fists, and later from heads to fists. From the street to the fist. According to the "historical replay" of the island's media, the earliest "farce" of the fight in Taiwan's legislature occurred more than 30 years ago in 1987, when 32-year-old Zhu Gaozheng, then a representative of the Democratic Progressive Party, used judo moves to knock away 64-year-old Zhou Shufu, a representative of the Kuomintang people's opinion. This was seen as the first violent incident in Taiwan's legislature, but it was not widely known at the time. A year later, in 1988, Zhu Gaozheng jumped on the rostrum and beat Liu Kuocai, then deputy head of the legislature, because he was dissatisfied with the budget review, and then the two had a fierce scuffle. The incident is believed to have set a precedent for a fight in the Taiwanese legislature. Since then, violent incidents have occurred in the legislature from time to time, and Zhu Gaozheng's style of "violently asking about politics" and his formulation and practice of "promoting the development of democracy" can only be achieved by taking extreme measures, have gradually become the mainstream communication method of Taiwan's legislature and even local councils. According to the analysis of public opinion on the island, this is mainly because the DPP is a relatively grassroots political party, and in the early days of its founding, in order to resist the rule of the Kuomintang authorities, it was relatively good at organizing people to hold street protests, and there were frequent violent incidents with the police who maintained order, and it was accustomed to using "force" to solve problems. Later, through elections on the island, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) successively elected party members as deputies to the people's will and entered Taiwan's legislature. However, at that time, because the KMT's public opinion representatives accounted for the majority in the legislature, the DPP's public opinion representatives began to try to bring the "tradition" of fighting into the legislature and resist the KMT's "legislation" through fighting. As a result, the DPP can be said to have developed from the streets to its fists. From the head back to the fist. Since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) "punched" its fist into Taiwan's legislature, the KMT's deputies have gradually learned to "retaliate with a tooth for a tooth" and "treat others the way they do." On May 5, 1993, there were two fights between KMT deputies after they were insulted by DPP deputies. In the eight years from the beginning of 2016 to the beginning of 2024, because the Tsai Ing-wen administration of the Democratic Progressive Party not only won the election of the leader of the Taiwan region, but also won more than half of the seats in the election of the legislature's representatives, achieving "full governance" or "full governance", therefore, in the Taiwan legislature that relies on "counting heads" when voting, the DPP no longer needs to use its fists to confront the Kuomintang, but uses the advantage of people to do whatever it wants, and takes the opportunity to pass the "anti-infiltration law" and other evil laws. As a result, Kuomintang public opinion deputies, who were relatively poor at using their fists, sometimes had to express their protests in a passive way by leaving their seats when voting in the legislature. Of course, in the past eight years, although there has been a marked decline in the number of fights in Taiwan's legislature, they have not been absent. In July 2020, when the legislature voted on the personnel bill of Taiwan's supervisory body, the blue and green parties staged a physical altercation. In November 2020, Taiwan's mainstream public opinion opposed the DPP authorities' import of US lean pork, and KMT representatives protested against the DPP authorities in the legislature with pork offal to protest against the DPP authorities in order to reflect the mainstream public opinion. In September 2021, a representative of the Democratic Party (KMT) resisted Su Zhenchang's policy address in the legislature because he was dissatisfied with the DPP authorities' shirking of responsibility for the ineffective epidemic prevention and control, and a physical conflict broke out with the DPP representative. It is precisely because the DPP's performance in governing the island is becoming less and less able to win the support of the broad masses of the people, so in the election of the leader of the Taiwan region at the beginning of this year, although Lai Ching-te was elected, he only won 40 percent of the support; in particular, in the election of representatives of the people's will, the DPP also lost to the KMT, becoming the second largest party in the legislature, and can no longer use more than half of the head to do whatever it wants. According to the results of a poll conducted by public opinion organizations on the island, 58 percent of Taiwan's adults over the age of 20 are in favor of the "reform bill" proposed by the Kuomintang and the People's Party, while only 29 percent disapprove of it. Because the "reform bill" discussed this time is likely to move the "cheese" of many important people in the DPP, for this reason, the DPP has once again picked up its original "tradition" and has no choice but to continue to use its fists to express its "indignation" at the loss of power, and has also mobilized tens of thousands of people to take to the streets to protest. However, as long as the DPP has power, it has disregarded democracy, and in the end it not only lost the vote of the legislature, but also lost the will of the people in Taiwan. It can be seen from this that the DPP is the root cause of the "farce" of fighting in Taiwan's legislature. In this regard, Kuomintang Chairman Zhu Lilun condemned the DPP's indiscriminate use of violence and sabotage, saying that it could not recognize the new public opinion. Ko Wenzhe, chairman of the People's Party, also accused the DPP of violently blocking the "reform bill" with an arrogant attitude, and the party's eight representatives of the people's opinion will definitely stick to it to the end. Taiwan's media commented that the DPP's public opinion representatives used physical clashes to block the reform of the legislature, which lacked legitimacy. This conflict is likely not only to be the first "all-out military action" of the current people's representatives, but also a microcosm of Taiwan's legislature in the next four years. We have to sigh, when will the "farce" of the Taiwan legislature be able to fight?

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The author, Chen Shiliang, is a special researcher at the Center for the Study of Cross-Strait Relations and secretary-general of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at East China Normal University

Editor in charge: Huang Yang