China rallies for opposition as Taiwan gears up for mass parliamentary recall

By Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard

TAIPEI (Reuters) -As Taiwan gears up for a recall vote that could reshape its parliament, opposition lawmakers being challenged at the ballot box are getting two unusual supporters: Chinese officials and state media outlets rallying to their cause.

While President Lai Ching-te won the election last year, his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost its legislative majority. The opposition has flexed its muscles since then to pass laws the government has opposed and impose budget cuts, complicating efforts to boost defence spending in particular.

The political drama has been happening against a backdrop of China ramping up its own military and diplomatic pressure campaign against Taiwan to assert territorial claims Lai and his government resolutely reject. Lai has offered talks with Beijing many times, but been rebuffed.

Civic groups formally started the recall campaign earlier this year, and on Saturday voters will decide on the fate of 24 lawmakers from Taiwan's largest opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), around one-fifth of all lawmakers.

The recall groups say theirs is an "anti-communist" movement, accusing the KMT of selling out Taiwan by sending lawmakers to China, not supporting defence spending, and bringing chaos to parliament. The KMT rejects those accusations, denouncing Lai's "dictatorship" and "green terror" - the DPP's party colour.

China has not sat quietly on the sidelines, to the KMT's unease, ever wary of being "painted red" by its opponents.

In June, two senior Chinese officials overseeing Taiwan policy denounced the recalls as a "political scheme" of Lai's.

Lai is "engaging in dictatorship under the guise of democracy" and "using every means possible to suppress the opposition," China's Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian told a news briefing in June.

Taiwanese tycoon Robert Tsao, one of the most prominent recall campaigners, said such comments would only support their cause.

"It shows they (the KMT) are together with the communist party. It helps us," he told reporters at a campaign event on Monday.

'OUR BUSINESS'

The KMT says it neither asked for nor wants China's support, can't control what China says, and that it is not pro-Beijing.

"We feel the same way as all the people of Taiwan - this is our business. It is the two parties, the DPP and the KMT, fighting for public support, for public recognition. It has nothing to do with the mainland," party spokesperson Crystal Yang told Reuters.

Chinese state media outlets and their affiliated social media accounts published some 425 articles or videos describing the recall campaign as "dictatorship" or "green terror" in the first half of 2025, according to Taiwan research organisation IORG, which analyses Chinese state media.

In an April commentary, China's ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily said Lai was "presumptuously abusing the recall system to crack down on the opposition party, attempting to establish a 'green dictatorship.'"

Pointing to the similarity between China and the KMT's arguments against the recalls, Wu Szu-yao, secretary general of the DPP's legislative caucus, said Beijing is "offering ammunition" to the KMT to sway voters.

"China is really concerned that the mass recall will be successful and win the support of Taiwan's public," she said.

China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment.

The KMT says its China engagement is vital given Beijing's refusal to talk to Lai, who it says is a "separatist", and to advocate for Taiwan's interests, such as promoting agricultural exports.

"This is an unfair criticism," Tony Lin, chair of the KMT's Culture and Communication Committee, said, referring to the accusations they are pro-Beijing. "What we have always stressed is that we are pro-communication."

The KMT hopes people will turn out to also express their dissatisfaction with Lai, whom they say is incompetent and has stoked tensions with China.

"The DPP uses its overwhelming propaganda network to bring up a sense of fear (about China) in Taiwan society," said Huang Kwei-bo, a professor of diplomacy at Taipei's National Chengchi University and a former KMT deputy secretary general.

(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Lincoln Feast)