TAICHUNG (Taiwan News) — Two political rallies took place on Sunday (July 16) that could not have contrasted more: the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) convention, which saw DPP big shots take the stage to praise the achievements and accomplishments of their ruling administration, and the “Fairness and Justice to Save Taiwan” (公平正義救台灣) rally, where, just across town, non-DPP political actors excoriated the ruling party for corruption and incompetence.
In the chilly, heavily air-conditioned ballroom of the Grand Hotel in Taipei, the DPP passed a new measure barring the party from putting forth candidates with corruption and various other criminal records. The DPP declared “United in Democracy, Standing for Taiwan” (民主團結挺台灣) as the party’s rallying cry.
Mostly, however, the event was to rally the troops as the party gears up to intensify their campaigning in the fall. All the top politicians wore identical green baseball jackets emblazoned with the short version of their rallying cry “Standing for Taiwan" in Chinese, since it sounds like Chinese (挺台灣, tǐng tái wān) and fits the baseball theme “Team Taiwan.”
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and DPP presidential candidate Vice President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) were at great pains to praise each other effusively and appear sincere, in an attempt to make it seem like there is no longer animosity from the brutal primary war fought between them in 2019. I have no idea if they really have mended all their fences, but they sure went out of their way to ensure everyone thinks they have.
Like all DPP events and Lai campaign activities, the convention was slick, professional, minutely choreographed, and utterly predictable. As usual, the DPP’s event left nothing to chance and underscored Lai is Tsai 2.0, leaving little of interest for a columnist like myself to write about.
Lower turnout than predicted
The rally on Ketagalan Boulevard was far less scripted, complicated, and exciting. The organizers included former Sunflower Movement luminary and New Power Party (NPP) Chair Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), heavily tattooed bodybuilder, gym magnate, and famed Youtube commentator Holger Chen (陳之漢 aka 館長), and other colorful, interesting characters.
The two official themes of the event were the housing affordability crisis and judicial reform, though speakers also referenced many other issues, such as widespread fraud, low-security penal arrangements for serious criminals, and complaints they had about the current administration. They predicted 100,000 people would show up, but estimates of the actual crowd size in the media ranged from 15,000 to 30,000.
Despite Holger Chen’s taunt that Lai Ching-te “didn’t dare” participate in the rally, I am fairly certain they chose the date precisely because they knew no one significant from the DPP would be able to attend because of their own party convention. It would have been awkward if they had, considering that criticizing the Tsai administration was the whole point of the rally.
Both the rally's official themes are genuinely serious issues. Judicial reform is something Tsai campaigned on in 2015, but her administration has only made relatively small changes. The biggest reform is the introduction of citizen judges in a relatively small number of cases, but there is considerably more to reform in the judiciary, which is not widely trusted by the public.
High property prices
On the other issue, Taiwan has some of the highest property prices in the world, especially when compared to salaries. Activist Roy Ngerng (鄞義林) has done some excellent work showing just how bad the situation is when looked at both domestically and in an international context (part one, part two).
This issue has continued to worsen for decades now, and neither the DPP nor the Kuomintang (KMT) have done much to address the problem. Almost all lawmakers of all parties have a significant amount of their wealth stored in real estate investments, and President Tsai’s father made his fortune in real estate speculation.
That is not a recipe for bold change. The government is introducing a “House hoarding tax 2.0” plan that it will submit to the legislature in September for debate.
The plan would introduce higher tax rates on non-owner-occupied properties. It is hoped that the tax will put more homes on the market and induce more property owners to rent out their currently empty real estate investment homes, of which Taiwan has a vast number.
Experts are mixed on whether either of those outcomes will happen. Higher taxes will surely be passed on to renters, so in the end, it is possible it will only make housing less affordable rather than more affordable. It is a gamble.
Housing unaffordability is a complicated subject that involves economic and cultural forces, the central government, and local governments. Some of the event speakers are hardly blameless themselves, including former Taipei mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and current mayor of New Taipei and KMT presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), as both failed to meet targets for social housing among other things.
Ironically, it was recently discovered that co-organizer Huang Kuo-chang was profiting from an illegal, unregistered parking lot, and his house is partially illegally on government-owned land. He is angling to become Minister of Justice, and Ko has stated he would appoint him to the post if elected.
So was the rally a success? It depends on for whom and from what perspective. Many in the press have portrayed it as not very successful for the organizers due to low turnout. It has been reported that over 70% of the crowd was male and over 80% under the age of forty.
It “turned into a Ko rally”
For Ko, the rally was a success. In a rare case of agreeing with the deep blue China Times, they ran a headline that stated in part that it “turned into a Ko rally.” By all accounts and watching the rally on television, it was clear he got the best response by far.
Taiwan News reporter Jono Thomson, who attended the rally, said Ko “seemed to be the star of the show, and Holger Chen brought him on stage with the most enthusiasm.” NPP Chair Claire Wang (王婉諭) spoke with passion and was getting a good response, but when she turned to attacking Ko Wen-je, she attracted boos and calls for her to get off the stage.
There were a few brave souls who showed up with anti-Ko signs, including a picture passed around on Facebook of one youthful-appearing woman holding up a sign with a list of Ko’s previous sexist and misogynistic comments. Overall, however, the crowd was on Ko’s side.
Foxconn founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) was initially greeted with mild enthusiasm, but as Thomson noted, “He didn’t seem to hold their attention as well as some of the other speakers. He also seemed to stumble over his lines a few times, and referenced his notes on and off throughout the speech.” Mirror Media is now reporting that he is actively recruiting personnel for an upcoming presidential run.
The KMT’s Hou got a very poor reception and received quite a few boos from the audience. Thomson added, “The crowd seemed to get tired of his own self-promotion, rather than the other speakers who got the crowd going with broad references to social injustices, housing equality, lack of opportunities for young people, etc.”
Hou clearly did not read the audience very well, and in a cringe-worthy move, tried to get the crowd to chant his name,“Hou Yu-ih! Hou Yu-ih! Hou Yu-ih!” like his supporters would at a campaign rally. The crowd refused, leaving Hou hanging... like his campaign.
Courtney Donovan Smith (石東文) is a regular contributing columnist for Taiwan News, the central Taiwan correspondent for ICRT FM100 Radio News, co-publisher of Compass Magazine, co-founder of Taiwan Report (report.tw) and former chair of the Taichung American Chamber of Commerce. For more columns by the author, click here. Follow him on Twitter: @donovan_smith.
