Ko Wen-je’s Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) has been hit by successive scandals as of late, though it is still unclear how this affects the future viability of the party. It is possible that the scandals undercut future presidential ambitions by Ko, or this could glance off of the party in light of Ko’s fervent support base.
The TPP was formed as part of moves by Ko, then the mayor of Taipei, to build political support for a future presidential run. The party brands itself as beyond the traditional pan-Blue and pan-Green political divisions that have long characterized Taiwanese politics, but has increasingly been seen as a light blue political party. The TPP’s elected representatives often have pan-Blue backgrounds and the party contemplated a joint presidential run with the KMT. The TPP also aligned itself with the KMT regarding controversial efforts to expand legislative powers that led to the outbreak of the Bluebird Movement protests in May.
The first scandal involves corruption allegations tied to several real estate properties during Ko’s eight-year stint as mayor of Taipei. Ko is accused of increasing the floor size ratio of the now dismantled Core Pacific City Mall from 392 percent to 840 percent. According to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors who have accused Ko of wrongdoing, this would have allowed the mall to make an extra 40 billion Taiwanese dollars per year.
Likewise, Ko is accused of allowing Shin Kong Life Insurance to acquire the T17 and T18 lots of the Beitou Shilin Technology Park in spite of Shin Kong lacking an investment plan for the two lots. This is seen as potentially a bid by Ko to cozy up to the Shin Kong Life Insurance Group. Cynthia Wu, the daughter of Shin Kong Group leader, Eugene Wu, served as Ko’s vice presidential candidate in his 2024 presidential run. Allegations are that documentation regarding the Beitou Shilin Technology Park may have been falsified.
In April, DPP city councilors established a task force in the Taipei city council to investigate allegations of wrongdoing, which current Mayor Chiang Wan-an of the KMT will need to report to. Former Taipei Deputy Mayor Pong Cheng-sheng has been banned from leaving the country, as well as banned from changing his residence as the investigation proceeds. As Pong is accused of potential wrongdoing in connection with both cases, it is possible that scandal regarding the Core Pacific City Mall and Beitou Shilin Technology Park will not affect Ko.
The second and likely more significant scandal pertains to the TPP’s campaign financing during its 2024 presidential campaign. Two companies, the OCT Entertainment Company and the Neo Creative Marketing Production Company, have reportedly not been paid by the TPP for their services during the election.
Mu Ke Public Relations Marketing Limited, a company that is closely linked with Ko’s political career, has also come under scrutiny. Mu Ke claims to have been founded to promote Ko’s political ideals and is owned by Lee Wen-chuan, the younger sister of the Ko campaign’s former chief financial officer, Lee Wen-tsung,
Controversy regarding Mu Ke centers on a concert held by the Ko campaign and whether it was an activity held for commercial purposes or for fundraising. The Ko campaign currently claims that the event was always planned as a commercial activity, though the expensive pricing for the event has drawn a great deal of public scrutiny. Adult tickets were NT$8,800 (around US$275) and tickets for individuals with disabilities were NT$4,400. Mu Ke was paid NT$3,140,802 for organizing the event.
Perhaps in an effort to avoid the scandal spreading, Mu Ke has since announced that it will liquidate all assets and dissolve.
The TPP has claimed that such issues regarding expensing companies stem from difficulties by the party keeping track of the large number of small donations during the campaign. The party has admitted errors in its records, for a total of NT$18.17 million in miresported expenses, but denied that any money was misappropriated. The TPP, as well as Ko himself, have apologized for financial mismanagement.
“We outsourced all the recordkeeping duties, but some people cut corners and did not log every single record of our expenditure, and in the end just logged a large sum of expenditure, and this is why there are errors,” Ko said in a press conference addressing the issue.
The TPP blamed an external accountant named Tuanmu Cheng for the errors. Jing Hua Certified Public Accountant Firm, the firm employing Cheng, hit back, asking investigators to “prove the accountant innocent.”
The Control Yuan, the oversight body that is one of Taiwan’s five branches of government and which requires financial documentation from political parties ahead of elections, has stated that it will investigate the case. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office and Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau has searched the homes of Lee Wen-tsung and Lee Wen-chuan, OCT Entertainment and Neo Creative Marketing owner Tai Li-ling, as well as the offices of the Jing Hua firm.
In a sign that the scandal could potentially implicate the internal dynamics of the party, former Taipei deputy mayor and current legislator Huang Shan-shan – a former New Party and People First Party politician who served as the TPP’s 2022 Taipei mayoral candidate – has resigned from the party’s central standing committee. It is thought that the three major political forces within the TPP are currently Huang and her allies, former New Power Party chair and TPP caucus leader Huang Kuo-chang, and Ko himself.
In another blow to the party, Hsinchu mayor Ann Kao of the TPP was removed from office and sentenced to seven years and four months in jail in late July. Kao, along with several members of her office, were accused of embezzling funds meant to pay for hiring legislative assistants. Kao is accused of embezzling NT$460,030.
Kao has claimed that the sentence is disproportionate to similar cases in past years. Nevertheless, the TPP did not lean heavily into defending her, and she has resigned from the party. Kao was originally an executive at Terry Gou’s Yonglin Foundation. A close confidante of Gou’s, she entered the TPP at a time when Ko was courting the FoxConn founder as a potential running mate in future presidential elections.
No by-election will be held to replace Kao, as she had less than two years remaining in her term as mayor. Hsinchu deputy mayor Chiu Chen-yuan will serve as mayor until the central government appoints a replacement.
It is to be seen how the TPP fares going forward, as the current controversies mark the first major internal scandal seen by the third party. The TPP and Ko’s brand as an independent have benefited from the perception that he is free from entrenched political corruption, in contrast to the KMT and DPP, which frequently see politicians implicated in scandals. With that in mind, the scandal could prove a pitfall for the party, or simply a tempest in a teacup – much depends on TPP’s ability to handle controversy.
