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Lawrence Chung

Taiwanese politician Ko Wen-je’s career and the future of the opposition party he founded are in jeopardy after he became embroiled in a corruption probe last week.
Ko – a former Taipei mayor and leader of the Taiwan People’s Party who finished third in the presidential race in January – was detained on August 31 after investigators raided his home and office.
Prosecutors said he was questioned over his alleged role in a property development during his time as the city’s mayor from 2014 to 2022.
The Taipei District Court ordered his release on Monday, saying there was insufficient evidence to continue holding him. But he was again detained on Thursday after the High Court overturned that decision, citing testimonies from other defendants suggesting Ko was “actively involved” in the case.
The case involves alleged favours and payments from businesspeople and politicians that prosecutors say helped the property developer – who has also been arrested – gain more than NT$20 billion (US$623.6 million) in profits.

Ko has denied any wrongdoing in the case. In a statement after he was detained on Thursday, the TPP said the High Court ruling had failed to provide evidence showing Ko had taken bribes in exchange for the Taipei government approving the property project.
“Ko Wen-je has been subjected to unfair judicial treatment. They conducted a marathon interrogation, questioning him on matters unrelated to the case, in a bid to fabricate charges against him,” the TPP statement said.
It said the High Court “failed to provide evidence of any bribery agreement, nor was there any sign of the rumoured illegal financial transactions”.
TPP officials have also accused the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party government, led by William Lai Ching-te, of political persecution – an allegation rejected by both prosecutors and the DPP.
Ko’s arrest is the latest setback for the TPP, which Ko founded five years ago to be a third force in Taiwanese politics. Questions have also been raised over the party’s finances, including campaign expenses.
After apologising to his supporters last week for the TPP’s mishandling of campaign expenses – the party admitted it had either not reported expenses or misreported them – Ko took a three-month leave of absence from the party chairmanship so that an internal investigation can be carried out.


All this has been damaging both for Ko and the TPP, with analysts saying it could undermine their chances in the 2026 local government elections and the 2028 presidential poll.
“These scandals can be seen as the political bankruptcy of both Ko and his TPP,” said Huang Huei-hua, head of research at the Taiwan International Strategic Study Society, a think tank in Taipei.
Huang cited the latest opinion poll by online news outlet My Formosa, released late last month, which showed plunging support for Ko and the TPP, with nearly 70 per cent of the public saying they no longer trusted him.
“These controversies have caused Ko’s reputation to plummet, leading to a loss of prestige and a crisis of trust,” Huang said. “If he is found guilty of corruption, it is foreseeable that Ko will have little chance of making a political comeback.”
If Ko does fall from grace and his party loses support, it could struggle to retain its 5 per cent of the vote for seats in Taiwan’s legislature in the 2028 elections, according to Huang.
“If it fails to cross the 3 per cent threshold, the TPP could fizzle out like the New Power Party,” she said, referring to the threshold for vote share in a legislative poll that allows a political party to receive election subsidies.
The hardline pro-independence NPP lost all of its legislative seats in January’s election.
Ko and the TPP meanwhile garnered significant support from young people and neutral voters fed up with the two major parties. And while the TPP has just eight seats in the legislature it holds the balance of power because neither the ruling DPP or the Kuomintang have a majority.
Huang said the TPP could be expected to continue aligning with the KMT to counter the DPP. “But if Ko steps down, a leaderless, anarchic state might emerge, threatening KMT-TPP cooperation in the legislature.”
She said it was “difficult to be optimistic” about the TPP’s future. “The political landscape in Taiwan has always been a DPP-KMT showdown, leaving little space for smaller parties to survive,” she added.
Tso Chen-dong, a political science professor at National Taiwan University in Taipei, noted that “it remains to be determined whether any money has actually flowed into Ko’s personal pocket”.
He also said that if the TPP was to become a major third party in Taiwan, it must move away from being under the control and influence of one person.
Ho Chih-yung, a professor of general education at National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu, also noted Ko was “innocent until proven guilty”.
He said the recent scandals had allowed the DPP government to divert public attention from alleged graft and misconduct involving its own officials.
“But it’s also been able to regain support from young people and neutral voters who had previously turned to Ko and the TPP due to their growing discontent with both the KMT and the DPP,” Ho said.
Former DPP vice-premier Cheng Wen-tsan was detained in July on suspicion of corruption, and in August Li Meng-yen resigned as transport minister because of an extramarital affair.


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Taiwan People’s Party leader Ko Wen-je has denied any wrongdoing in the case. Photo: CNA

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Taiwan People’s Party Ko Wen-je pictured outside his house on Friday. Photo: CNA


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Former presidential candidate has been detained as part of a corruption probe into a property development when he was Taipei mayor


Former presidential candidate has been detained as part of a corruption probe into a property development when he was Taipei mayor.


Taiwan election 2024