Premier Bullies Mainland Spouse Legislator, Undermining Parliament
United Daily News Report, February 27, 2026
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislator-at-large Li Chen-hsiu has faced repeated obstacles from the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) and the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) since taking office because of her status as a mainland Chinese spouse. Recently, while answering questions in the Legislative Yuan, Premier Cho Jung-tai referred to her merely as “Ms. Li,” ordered all executive agencies not to provide her with information, and even implied that he would not accept her questioning. This not only deprives mainland spouses of their right to political participation, but also shows contempt for legislative authority.
Under the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, mainland residents who have established household registration in Taiwan for 10 years are eligible to run for public office. Ms. Li has lived in Taiwan for over three decades and has held a national identification card for more than two decades, and therefore legally possesses the right to participate in politics. Yet the MOI and MAC suddenly invoked the Nationality Act and determined that the timing of Ms. Li’s renunciation of her mainland household registration occurred in 2025, which amounts to deliberate obstruction and arbitrary interpretation of the law.
In 2023, Ms. Li was registered as an at-large legislative candidate for the TPP. After being elected, she received her certificate of election from the Central Election Commission and completed her inauguration in the Legislative Yuan under the oath administered by the grand justices. All procedures were duly completed. However, Premier Cho publicly excluded her during questioning by calling her “Ms. Li,” effectively refusing to recognize her status as a legislator and subjecting a mainland-spouse legislator to cold-shoulder treatment—hardly befitting the stature of a premier.
When confronted head-on by former TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je, Premier Cho escalated matters by ordering all ministries not to provide Legislator Li with information. In fact, this is not the first time Premier Cho has acted in this way; last year he also required ministries to obtain his approval before providing information to Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Weng Hsiao-ling. Executive power is meant to be supervised by the legislative branch and accountable to the Legislative Yuan. Yet the premier has overextended executive authority by unilaterally deciding who may or may not receive information, demonstrating contempt for legislative power and raising constitutional concerns.
At a time when President Lai Ching-te, during a Lunar New Year tea gathering with the heads of the five branches of government, called for “turning swords into jade and silk” and expressed willingness to deliver a national address at the Legislative Yuan, Premier Cho suddenly led ministries in an all-out confrontation against Legislator Li. If this is not ethnic discrimination against mainland spouses, then it may be the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) attempt to use questions of mainland-spouse loyalty to highlight a national security crisis, escalate the “resist China to protect Taiwan” narrative, and warm up for the 2026 local elections.
Placing political maneuvering above the law not only leaves the public at a loss but also harms Taiwan’s democracy. The Constitution clearly stipulates that the Executive Yuan is responsible to and subject to oversight by the Legislative Yuan. Yet the Lai administration and the Executive Yuan, driven by political ideology, refuse to provide Legislator Li with the information necessary for legislative oversight and selectively choose whether to accept or reject questioning from legislators. This is not merely an attack on a single legislator; it infringes upon the legislature’s oversight authority and seriously undermines Taiwan’s constitutional democracy.