OPINION:
China is beginning its campaign to conquer Taiwan and influence the global democratic order, not yet through missiles but through legal manipulation, economic coercion and political infiltration. Although Taiwan’s internal struggles may seem distant from Washington, the recall election Saturday will have major repercussions for the future of Taiwan’s independent sovereignty and for U.S.-Taiwanese relations.
Nearly one-third of Taiwan’s districts will head to the polls for an unprecedented political event: the simultaneous recall vote of 24 sitting legislators from the main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT). Last year, Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the presidency. Still, it lost its parliamentary majority, allowing the KMT and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) to pass legislation detrimental to Taiwan’s independent sovereignty.
Civic groups that initiated the recall, allowed under the Taiwanese Constitution after the first year of a representative taking office, argue that the parliament under KMT and TPP majority has made moves inching closer to China, mainly by passing legislation that cuts the island’s defense budget and through frequent communication and travel to the mainland. China maintains Taiwan as its territory, although it is governed separately.
Known locally as the “Great Recall,” this movement is neither fringe nor partisan. The DPP did not initiate it to strengthen President Lai Ching-te. Instead, it is a citizen-led, volunteer-driven response to a perceived breakdown in constitutional balance and a growing concern that Taiwan’s legislature is being used to systematically weaken democratic institutions from within.
This is not political theater. It is constitutional self-defense. Taiwan’s constitution provides a recall mechanism that allows voters to remove elected officials through a two-stage petition and a final voting process. In the first phase, citizens must collect signatures from at least 1% of eligible district voters. In the second phase, within 60 days, they must collect signatures from 10%. Only then can a recall vote be triggered. To succeed, at least 25% of registered voters must vote “yes.”
Although this mechanism is not new, it has rarely been used at scale. The Great Recall began to respond to escalating concerns about Taiwan’s legislative direction. After the KMT and TPP opposition coalition secured a parliamentary majority in early 2024, they swiftly passed a series of deeply controversial laws.
These included: expanding legislative power at the expense of judicial oversight, weakening Taiwan’s constitutional court, undermining one of its key institutional safeguards, passing sweeping cuts to the national defense budget despite rising threats across the Taiwan Strait, and publicly engaging with senior Chinese Communist Party officials, raising alarm over foreign influence on domestic governance.
When mass protests failed to halt these changes, citizens turned to a lawful, constitutional remedy: recall. What began as an effort to remove a handful of controversial legislators quickly evolved into a nationwide campaign.
The logic was simple: If the legislature would not protect Taiwan’s democratic checks and balances, the people would. The DPP has largely kept its distance from the movement. In its place, a decentralized network of ordinary citizens, civil society leaders and unpaid volunteers has emerged.
In just two months, more than 1 million signatures were gathered, an organizational feat unmatched by any political party in Taiwan, even during presidential elections. Thirty-seven KMT legislators were targeted initially. As of this month, 24 have qualified for recall votes.
The movement’s scale and speed are unprecedented in Taiwan’s political history and perhaps across modern democracies. In every district, citizens have canvassed neighborhoods, organized campaigns and gathered signatures without institutional support. They are unified only by a shared belief that Taiwan’s democracy is at risk of being hollowed out from within.
The movement’s core concern is not partisan; it is structural. Citizens point to a pattern of bloc voting. Legislators consistently vote in unison to dismantle institutional safeguards, block judicial oversight and enable legislation seemingly aligned with Beijing’s interests.
Many traditional KMT voters have joined the Great Recall to stay true to the party’s founding anti-Chinese Communist Party values and to reject the current legislative behavior that appears to serve foreign influence over national interest.
From afar, a mass recall effort may appear chaotic or destabilizing. In Taiwan, however, it is something rare and essential: a living, self-correcting democracy. This movement is legal, constitutional and peaceful. It represents a population unwilling to let its institutions erode silently. It reminds us that democracy is not only about elections but also about accountability, responsiveness and civic vigilance.
In an era when democratic backsliding has become the norm, Taiwan offers a counterexample: citizens using the tools of democracy, not violence, to challenge power that no longer represents the public interest.
The Great Recall is a moment of reckoning, offering a valuable window into how a front-line democracy defends itself from foreign threats and from internal decay. In watching this Great Recall in Taiwan, we are reminded that democracy survives not on autopilot but through the determination of its people. Democracy endures not because we can put it on autopilot but because people like the Taiwanese refuse to give up.
• Orina Chang is the founder and CEO of Chang Development Co. ZiVA Wealth Chang Development Co. is a cross-border investment firm supporting democracy. ZiVA Wealth is a financial literacy platform focused on empowering women.
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