Taiwan faces moment of truth over opposition’s legislative threat to Lai

Taiwan’s political showdown could come to a head Tuesday as opposition parties attempt to pass legislation that would undermine new President Lai Ching-te, despite a fresh chorus of calls from domestic legal scholars and international experts to drop their power struggle.

The main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and its smaller partner the Taiwan People’s Party, which together control a majority in the Legislative Yuan, have been pushing that would give parliament sweeping investigative powers and hand them control of possibly billions of dollars in infrastructure funds. This poses a direct challenge to the Democratic Progressive Party’s Lai, who only took office last week after winning the presidential election in January.