TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Control Yuan nominee Chen Yung-hsing (陳永興) cautioned Tuesday against forcing the Control Yuan to shut down without constitutional amendments, warning that doing so could harm Taiwan’s human rights protections and oversight of civil servants.
During a legislative review of President Lai Ching-te’s (賴清德) nominees to the Control Yuan, Chen noted that calls to abolish the oversight body or freeze its budget had increased since Lai announced his nominees, per Liberty Times. He compared the proposal to shutting down a hospital because of poor-quality medical services.
DPP Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城) asked Chen about the possibility of the legislature freezing the Control Yuan’s budget, per CNA. Chen said paralyzing the institution would be unreasonable and unconstitutional.
Chen said abolishing the Control Yuan was not impossible but would require broad societal consensus. In the meantime, he said he would push for reforms, including establishing a Control Yuan spokesperson, inviting third parties to evaluate members’ performance, creating an internal performance evaluation mechanism, securing additional funding for investigative work, promoting human rights education among civil servants, and establishing teams within the Control Yuan to work on constitutional amendments, per UDN.
DPP lawmaker Lin Tai-hua (林岱樺) questioned the necessity of the Control Yuan’s National Human Rights Commission, noting that it can promote human rights policies but cannot implement them, per UDN. She also pointed to overlapping functions between the Control Yuan and internal oversight mechanisms under the Cabinet, including the Agency Against Corruption and government employee ethics units.
Chen said the commission was established in response to UN human rights conventions and should take on more responsibilities beyond advocacy. Regarding the overlapping functions, he suggested that the Cabinet agencies could be consolidated and that the legislature could place their powers under the Control Yuan.
Opposition lawmakers also questioned Chen about his personal political views. Citing Chen’s pro-independence background, KMT Legislator Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲) asked whether he could pledge loyalty to the ROC Constitution, per Liberty Times.
Chen said he could, adding that the ROC and Taiwan had combined to become a free and democratic state. He stressed that his duty would be to prevent China from taking over Taiwan.
