Impeachment calls intensify in Taiwan as Lai Ching-te's actions spark public outrage

Lai Ching-te, leader of China's Taiwan region, has aroused public outrage for his "Taiwan independence" stance, ignorance of the livelihood and public opinion of residents on the island, and unprincipled appeasement of foreign forces since he took office in May 2024.

On Friday, an impeachment motion against Lai, submitted by lawmakers from the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) party and the Taiwan People's Party, was approved by the island's legislature.

As per the procedure, the legislature is expected to hold a vote on the impeachment on May 19, 2026.

The two parties announced the plan to impeach Lai at a press conference on December 19, following Lai's statement expressing support for Cho Jung-tai, chief of the island's executive body, in refusing to countersign amendments to a government revenue allocation law passed by the legislature earlier.

At the press conference, Fu Kun-chi, KMT's caucus convener in the legislature, said at the press conference that since Lai took the office of Taiwan's leader in May last year, he had been selling out the island's interests and trampling on democracy.

In recent days, the movement to impeach Lai has gained massive momentum in Taiwan, according to Riyue Tantian, a social media account affiliated with China Media Group.

An online petition calling for Lai's impeachment launched on the island has already garnered participation from more than 8 million residents, causing the website to crash multiple times due to traffic overload, Riyue Tantian reported.

Tsai Cheng-yuan, a former lawmaker and a political commentator in the Taiwan region, was quoted by Riyue Tantian as saying that public opinion is now very clear, with the number of online petitions reaching a record high, confirming the legitimacy and reasonableness of "impeaching Lai."

As for the impeachment move, Cheng Li-wun, chairperson of the KMT party, said the political situation on the island has been trapped in an endless cycle of infighting with no way out since Lai took office and stressed that the public used their votes to tell the Lai authorities to focus on real issues instead of engaging in further conflict, citing the failure of the recall vote campaign targeting opposition Kuomintang legislators in Taiwan in July.

Just days back, the region's opposition parties blocked a 1.25-trillion New Taiwan dollar (about $40 billion) military procurement plan proposed by Lai for the fourth time.

Chang Ching, a research fellow from the Taiwan-based Society for Strategic Studies, was quoted by Riyue Tantian as saying that residents in Taiwan have expressed resentment over the endless military spending.

Even with such a large amount of military procurement, it is impossible to form a "deterrence" against the Chinese mainland, Chang said.

In late November, the economic department on the island said a tariff deal with the U.S. has not yet been finalized. KMT legislator Lai Shyh-bao was subsequently quoted by Riyue Tantian as saying that the Taiwan region has almost no ability to defend itself in tariff negotiations with the U.S.

Noting the delay in tariff negotiations and spending billions of dollars on weapon purchases, the legislator said all those have seen no concrete results yet. He added that the authorities led by Lai are not just "kneeling to the U.S." but even "licking the U.S."