Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) was arrested last week in a dramatic series of events that has attracted widespread media coverage in Taiwan. This proves a stumbling block for the third party and its leader, Ko, who lost to both the Kuomintang (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the 2024 presidential elections.
The TPP has been implicated in a number of scandals in recent weeks. In particular, the party was found to have declared no campaign expenditures in the 2024 election cycle. This was highly unusual, seeing as the TPP reported NT$46.6 million in donations from individuals and NT$30.9 million in donations from businesses, as well as NT$37 million in personnel costs and NT$28.1 million in operational costs. For comparison, the KMT declared NT$23.3 million in campaign expenditures and the DPP NT$63.4 million.
The TPP later claimed that campaign expenditures were included in operational costs. Yet the party still found itself unable to account for some NT$19 million. The TPP has sometimes claimed that these difficulties stem from the large amount of individual donations it received.
Ko apologized and announced on August 29 that he would be taking a three-month leave as chair of the party to sort out the party’s financial issues. Likewise, as a disciplinary measure, TPP legislator Huang Shan-shan was suspended of her rights as a party member, which led to her being removed as deputy caucus whip and from the party’s standing committee, even if she will remain as a party legislator.
A day later, on the morning of August 30, Ko’s home was searched by prosecutors. This was in connection to corruption allegations regarding the Core Pacific City Mall, a shopping center in Taipei’s Songshan District that was demolished in 2019. Ko was accused of allowing the Core Pacific City Mall to expand its floor area ratio (the proportion of floor space to a building’s plot of land) from 392 percent to 840 percent, “the highest ever in city history,” according to a city councilor. The change helped the Core Pacific Group that owns the mall to make an extra NT$40 billion per year.
In preceding days, prosecutors were clearly closing in on Ko, with arrests of others implicated in the Core Pacific City Mall case, as well as the searches of their offices. Among those detained was Core Pacific Group chair Sheen Ching-jing, who alleged in a statement that officials from both the Ko and preceding Hau Lung-pin mayoral administrations had tried to solicit bribes in connection to the Core Pacific City Mall, although Sheen denied ever paying the requested bribes.
Others detained include former deputy mayor Pong Cheng-sheng, who served under Ko, and KMT city councilor Angela Ying, who was accused of acting as an intermediary between Ko and the Core Pacific Group. Ying has also come under scrutiny regarding her partner’s alleged links to organized crime.
Ko initially went voluntarily with prosecutors to be questioned, even as he denounced the search of his home as an attempt by the ruling DPP to target opposition parties. Ko’s wife Peggy Chen was also questioned.
It was after Ko refused to submit to overnight questioning and sought to leave that he was formally arrested. The next 72 hours proved a maelstrom in Taiwanese political reporting, as it was hotly speculated as to whether Ko would eventually be released on bail or not, while the TPP affirmed that it viewed Ko as innocent. Claims by media personality Clara Chou that Ko intended to travel to the United States on September 1 were spun as an attempt to evade the law, though the TPP denied that Ko had any such travel plans.
In the meantime, the TPP standing committee formed an emergency working group, seemingly led by TPP caucus leader Huang Kuo-chang, as Ko supporters took to gathering outside of the Taipei District Prosecutors Office where Ko was being held. The rally reportedly reached 500 people on Sunday night. High-profile Ko supporters, such as streamer and bodybuilder Holger Chen, also visited the site of the Taipei District Prosecutors Office.
The TPP increasingly began leaning into the narrative that Ko’s arrest was a form of political persecution, arguing that prosecutors were targeting unrelated matters to the Core Pacific City Mall including the TPP’s party finances. Prosecutors responded that they viewed the cases as possibly linked.
Ko was finally released with no bail requirement during the early morning hours of Sunday, with prosecutors deciding there was insufficient evidence against him. The court argued that prosecutors had failed to demonstrate that Ko was directly involved in the planning or knew the actions being taken were illegal. This was framed by TPP supporters gathered outside the Taipei District Prosecutors Office as a victory exonerating Ko.
By contrast, prosecutors continue to hold Pong incommunicado, with the court agreeing that he had played a major role in the case.
In spite of Ko’s release, allegations have continued to be leveled against the TPP leader, with former Taipei municipal committee member and chair of the Architectural Institute of Taiwan Tseng Guang-zong accusing Ko of lying about the Core Pacific City Mall project. Taipei municipal committee member Shao Hsiu-pei was also questioned by prosecutors and restricted from leaving the country.
The events of Ko’s arrest also show that, in spite of Huang Shan-shan taking the fall for the TPP’s campaign finance discrepancies, she continues to have a strong relationship with Ko. After Peggy Chen was released, Huang picked her up personally. Furthermore, after Ko himself was released, he first visited Huang’s home to rest before returning to his own house. Such actions convey that Huang still has a role in the TPP.
It is possible that Ko will face further charges down the line. Apart from the Core Pacific City Mall corruption allegations and the issue of the TPP’s party finances, Ko is accused of allowing the Shin Kong Group to purchase the two lots in the Shilin Beitou Technology Park despite having no investment plan. This could be political favoritism because his vice presidential candidate, Cynthia Wu, comes from the family that owns the Shin Kong Group.
Another project that has been flagged as suspicious is the First Vegetable and Fruit Market in Taipei’s Wanhua district, given the involvement of firms linked to the Core Pacific Group. Similarly, Ko has come under fire over apparently using election subsidies to purchase expensive office space near the Taiwanese legislature, whereas DPP candidate Lai Ching-te and KMT candidate Hou Yu-ih returned election subsidies to their respective parties or donated them to charity. Peggy Chen has also been accused of taking out a fraudulent loan in the name of their son to open a coffee shop located in the same building as the TPP’s headquarters, which would have been aimed toward Ko supporters. Furthermore, the TPP has come under fire for spending close to NT$900,000 on vehicle rentals while on trips in the United States.
Given the swirling accusation, it is unclear what comes next for Ko.
Ko is not the only high-profile politician having legal troubles. DPP heavyweight Cheng Wen-tsan – a rival of Lai Ching-te’s for the 2024 presidential nomination before his fall from grace – is facing up to 12 years in jail on corruption charges. In fact, Taiwan has seen a large wave of searches targeting both pan-Green and pan-Blue politicians. It is probable that prosecutors are conscious of the political optics and want to avoid accusation that they are favoring a particular party. Still, the TPP is likely to increasingly lean into the narrative that it simply faces political targeting by the DPP.