Chance Hsu is assistant director of international affairs for the Kuomintang (KMT).
In recent months, Taiwan has witnessed an alarming rise in extreme populist politics characterized by large-scale recall initiatives, under which 26 opposition lawmakers from the Kuomintang (KMT) are facing a second election within 20 months. While recall elections are legitimate tools within the constitutional design for ensuring accountability, the current recall campaigns in Taiwan have deviated sharply from their democratic intent, morphing into instruments of political vendetta. These developments threaten to deeply undermine Taiwan’s democratic fabric and potentially destabilize the broader region.
