On September 5, former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je was arrested – for the second time. He had been briefly held during September 1-2 before a court ordered his release. Following the reversal of that decision, he was re-arrested three days later as part of an investigation into potential corruption, including allegations that he profiteered from public real estate projects.
His supporters don’t see it that way. Instead, they believe Ko is the victim of political persecution.
Demonstrators demanded his release outside the detention center in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District, where Ko was being held at the time. Conspicuous among the slogans that were chanted at the Tucheng facility by the protesters – mostly members of pro-unification groups – were references to a “Green Terror.”
The phrase, which became popular among Kuomintang (KMT) officials and supporters early in former President Tsai Ing-wen’s first term in office, is controversial. It plays on associations with the White Terror period in Taiwan, where tens of thousands of people were imprisoned, tortured, and murdered under the dictatorship of former Republic of China President Chiang Kai-shek of the KMT.
One of the earliest high-profile uses of the “Green Terror” term was by Sun Lih-chyun, head of the KMT’s Nationalist Policy Foundation think tank. Accusing Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party administration of stifling criticism by having unfavorable Facebook posts and comments reported and removed, Sun said the social media platform had “entered a period of ‘Green Terror’” since the DPP took office in 2016.
Pan-Blue internet users flooded the wall of Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms (then known as Facebook), repeating claims of a Green Terror campaign and warning him that – because it was unfolding in Chinese – he might not be aware of “a serious crackdown on dissent” that was occurring in Taiwan, in contrast to the “great freedom of speech and political opinion” that Americans enjoyed. Tsai had made combating “fake news” a priority and critics charged that she was using this as cover for a crusade against opponents.
The following year, “Green Terror” resurfaced as the slur of choice for the Tsai administration when Wang Ping-chung, a spokesperson with the pan-Blue New Party, was indicted as an accessory to espionage under the National Security Act (NSA). While Wang and his co-defendants were eventually acquitted of attempting to develop a Chinese spy network in Taiwan in early 2021, prosecutors highlighted documents written by Wang in which he vowed to “work under the guidance and assistance of the Chinese Communist Party to unite and integrate the forces working to achieve unification across the Taiwan Strait.”
Repeated references to a Green Terror in this case were particularly sensitive as the NSA had been introduced by the KMT in 1987, at the tail-end of Martial Law. The law was widely seen as an attempt to extend the authoritarian measures of the era, despite government lip service to democracy. At the time, the fledgling DPP remained officially illegal, and the NSA represented a potential obstacle to free speech and a genuine opposition.
Now, the DPP was being accused of hypocrisy in wielding against its adversaries the same law that it had once described as an outmoded tool of repression. Worse followed with amendments to the law in 2019, which pan-Blue critics decried as further evidence that the Green Terror was spreading. When Tsai threatened legal action that same year over repeated false claims that she had faked her doctoral degree, the catchphrase appeared again.
Now, following Ko’s arrest, the Green Terror mantra is being bandied about once more, and Beijing, which has occasionally made use of the phrase in the past, is getting in on the act. Speaking at a press briefing September 11, Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), said the DPP administration of President Lai Ching-te had “manipulated judicial and administrative processes [to] impose ‘Green Terror’ all over the island.”
It was not the first time the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had issued such a statement through the TAO, the office nominally tasked with overseeing relations with Taiwan. In June, for example, TAO spokesperson Zhu Fenglian used the term in reference to a report by the Taiwanese Liberty Times newspaper. The article had alleged that a correspondent for the Chinese state news outlet Xinhua News Agency, who was working on behalf of the TAO, was attempting to influence Taiwanese broadcast channels to run China-friendly content.
The DPP, said Zhu, was using the case to “create a climate of intimidation” and “propagate ‘Green Terror,’ misleading Taiwanese citizens and maligning China.”
However, the reaction to the Ko case has taken things to a new level, with Beijing now indicating that the DPP government is attempting to crush the so-called Blue-White alliance between the KMT and Ko’s TPP. In fact, the alliance, which had represented the only credible threat to the DPP ahead of the presidential elections in January 2024, had collapsed over disagreements over whether Ko or KMT candidate Hou Yu-ih would lead the ticket.
Yet Blue-White cooperation, geared at preventing the DPP having things all its way, remains in the cards. Earlier this month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu, whose party holds a narrow edge in Taiwan’s legislature, described partnership with the TPP as “a natural thing” that reflected the public desire to ensure the government was adequately “supervised.”
It’s not only the TAO that signals China’s backing for the “Green Terror” narrative. The demonstrations outside the detention center earlier this month featured members of pro-unification parties. And one of Taiwan’s most infamous unification supporters, Chang An-lo, also spoke of “Green Terror” in an interview with The Diplomat.
Chang An-lo poses next to a statue of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping at CUPP headquarters in Zhonghe, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Photo by James Baron.
For a man associated with kidnapping, drug smuggling, and extortion, Chang An-lo cuts a mild-mannered, avuncular figure. Dressed in his favored black Tang suit, he could pass for one of the elderly tai chi instructors leading morning exercises in parks across Taiwan.
Yet Chang, also known as “the White Wolf,” was once the head of Taiwan’s notorious Bamboo Union gang in California. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1986 on drug and racketeering charges.
Chang used his jail time productively, apparently adding at least two bachelor’s degrees in sociology and psychology to one he had received in history from Taiwan’s prestigious Tamkang University. Since founding the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) during a 17-year exile in Shenzhen, he has repeatedly denied criminal activity and insisted that he spends his time reading and writing.
He has a habit of drawing on historical events and movements. In our discussion of Ko’s arrest, Chang compared it to both McCarthyism and the case of Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement (AIM) activist, who was a fellow inmate during Chang’s spell in Kansas’ Leavenworth prison.
He compared the demonstrations outside the detention center in Tucheng District to AIM protests in front of Leavenworth while Peltier was held there. “The [targeting by the FBI] of the American Indian Movement was a political case,” Chang said. “And so is this. But in America they have freedom of speech.”
As for the demonstrators demanding Ko’s release, “They should protest,” said Chang. “The case is clearly politically motivated.”
For his part, the White Wolf does not see Ko as particularly China-friendly. “He does not support union with China but wants to make friends on all sides,” said Chang. Nevertheless, he believes comparisons between the Ko investigation and the crackdown on dissent that occurred under Martial Law period are valid.
“It is indeed a Green Terror, because so far there is no evidence, and they are using the courts to persecute him and their enemies,” he said.
Insisting that the politicization of the legal system by the DPP is nothing new, Chang cited “countless” examples of alleged harassment of his pro-unification affiliates on their return from “business trips” to China. The CUPP and like-minded groups have frequently been accused of operating under the auspices of the CCP’s China’s United Front Work Department (UFWD), which seeks to gain influence over politicians, media, academics, and business figures outside China.
While denying such connections, Chiang said the government’s treatment of CUPP members reveals double standards.
“When our people come back from visiting mainland China, the investigation bureau [under Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice] arrests them,” he said. “But when their [pro-DPP] people go there, for investment and a lot of benefits, nothing happens. It’s still going on now – a lot of trouble for our people.”
Yet, Chang’s own personal run-ins with the law don’t exactly support his claims of a weaponized judiciary. In 2019, Chang and other CUPP members, including his son Chang Wei, were charged with receiving illicit political donations, embezzlement, tax evasion, and forging financial documents. Some of the funds in question were traced to China, though Chang denied CCP involvement.
Contradicting Chang’s claims of political persecution, the indictment was eventually dropped, as were other charges for breaches of the NSA and Assembly and Parade Act related to CUPP gatherings that were alleged to be celebrations of the PRC’s national day.
In fact, regardless of which party has been in power, multiple cases against Chang and the CUPP have been dropped since his return to Taiwan in 2013. These have included intimidation and violence against Taiwanese student activists, Hong Kong lawmakers visiting Taiwan, and even President Lai during his time as mayor of Tainan. The authorities, whether Green or Blue, have received criticism from the press and the public for failing to pursue these cases.
Political analysts have also pour scorned on the notion that DPP governments have been more aggressive in pursuing cases against individuals on the other side of the political spectrum.
“It’s rather like Trump accusing the U.S. legal system of conducting a witch hunt,” said one former Taiwanese government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We all know that’s not the case.”
Dismissing the idea of a “Green Terror” as “baseless,” Chen Ming-chi, an associate professor at the Institute of Sociology at Tsing-Hua University, traced the origin of the trope to “Blue camp influencers” on social media.
“It’s a malicious attack on the impartiality of our legal system,” said Chen. “We won that through a very difficult and painful democratization process, so I think [such a claim] is unfair and dangerous.”
Having served as vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council – the TAO’s counterpart in Taiwan – Chen is familiar with attempts by the UFWD and affiliated groups in Taiwan to sow discord and division on the island.
He points out that high-profile DPP figures have hardly been exempt from legal proceedings, citing the case of former Vice Premier Cheng Wen-tsan, who is currently the subject of a bribery investigation dating to his time as mayor of the northern city of Taoyuan.
If anything, Chen argues, the Tsai administration was much more cautious than the previous government of former KMT President Ma Ying-jeou. Under Ma, Chen noted, a special prosecution team was formed, which “forcefully” prosecuted cases against DPP officials. In a column for the Taipei Times in June, long-time journalist and Taiwan watcher Michael Turton highlighted the extent of this campaign, which included the imprisonment of Ma’s predecessor Chen Shui-bian as “the centerpiece.”
In contrast, on assuming power, Tsai did not order any such investigations. Noting the situation in South Korea, where “almost every former president has been put in jail,” Chen argued that Tsai wanted “to stop that sort of cycle,” as it was not a good look for newly democratized countries.
“Not only is there no ‘Green Terror’,” said Chen. “But by abandoning these prosecutions, Tsai sent a strong message to civil society that she didn’t seek revenge.”
Instead, Chen sees the emergence of the Green Terror theme as closely linked to the establishment of the Transitional Justice Commission. From 2018 to 2022, the commission tasked with investigating rights abuses that occurred under the KMT between 1945 and 1992.
“In pursuit of transitional justice, there was a lot of talk about the White Terror,” said Chen. This, he believes, made former KMT officials and stalwarts self-conscious about the party’s role in past wrongdoing. “So, they tried to twist the whole rhetoric into their favor,” said Chen.
While most people do not genuinely believe in the threat of a Green Terror, Chen said a “significant minority” have latched onto it as a convenient outlet for their grievances. Chief among these, said Chen, are groups such as former civil servants who are unhappy with pension reforms carried out during Tsai’s first term. China and its proxies, said Chen, are attempting to leverage such disaffection to “polarize” Taiwanese society.
Responding by email to inquiries about the TAO’s recent statement, the MAC noted that “the Chinese government often makes arbitrary comments about Taiwan’s judicial matters and spreads disinformation through local collaborators.” These actions, the commission said, were “part of a cognitive warfare strategy aimed at smearing Taiwan’s government, creating societal divisions, and stirring unrest.” To combat this, Taiwan’s authorities were “working to strengthen national security and the resilience of Taiwan’s democracy to counter Chinese infiltration.”
For those that suffered under the White Terror, the twisting of terminology has stirred traumatic memories. Fred Chin was an exchange student from Malaysia when he was arrested in 1971 on trumped-up charges of participating in the bombing of a U.S. government office in the southern city of Tainan.
Following days of brutal torture, Chin “confessed” to the crime and subsequently spent 12 years in prison. On his release, he spent almost three years homeless on the streets of Taipei. To this day, he has never received an official apology from KMT officials or representatives.
Like others who suffered under the dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek and his son and successor Chiang Ching-kuo, Chin balked at the way this dark history has been twisted for political ends.
“I personally think it is rather ridiculous and improper for them to use [the term] ‘Green Terror,’ as it is entirely different from what happened to us during the White Terror period,” said Chin, who now leads tours of the Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park, a museum housed in the grounds of the very prison where he was first held and tortured.
“Under the totalitarian grip of the KMT regime, people were put in custody or even to death for doing nothing wrong, based on false confessions. So, yes, it is offensive or even humiliating us, and the KMT and CCP, especially, have no position in saying this.”
Chang An-lo is intimately familiar with the KMT’s excesses, but from the other side: While in the United States, his testimony before the President’s Commission on Organized Crime, an investigative body established by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, revealed the extent of the authoritarian KMT government’s collusion with organized crime. In particular, Chang exposed KMT involvement in the murder of dissident journalist Henry Liu at his San Francisco home. Liu had been shot dead by Bamboo Union operatives in October 1984.
Speaking from CUPP headquarters in Zhonghe, New Taipei City, the White Wolf dismissed concerns that the use of the term “Green Terror” is an insult to those who suffered under. “I don’t care about that,” he said.
Returning to the example of the McCarthyite witch hunts in the United States, Chang conveniently ignored the period’s association with baseless scaremongering and miscarriages of justice.
“During the White Terror, most of those people arrested were certainly Communists,” he said. “Sure, some were innocent, but so what? These things happen.”