Taiwanese authorities have proposed outlawing a small political party dedicated to unification with mainland China, citing concerns about infiltration and organised crime.
Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior announced on Thursday that it would formally request that the constitutional court dissolve the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP), marking the first attempt to disband a Taiwanese political party in decades.
According to the ministry’s statement, the 30,000-member CUPP has engaged in “systematic and organised criminal activities”. It said key members had “repeatedly” violated various laws, “posing serious threats to national security, social stability, and electoral integrity”.
While in the past both the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) have suggested the CUPP is affiliated with gangs, the current administration seeks to definitively end its legitimacy as a political entity.
The ministry announced in November it would gather evidence to seek the formal disbanding of the CUPP.
It reported eight specific cases involving 11 people and noted that as many as 134 CUPP members were suspected of breaching various laws from 2010 to 2024. They were suspected of illegal activities ranging from obstruction of justice to human trafficking and murder.
Prosecutors in November charged CUPP members Chang Meng-chung and his wife, Hung Wen-ting, for allegedly accepting NT$74 million (US$2.26 million) from the Communist Party of China to create propaganda to influence Taiwan’s elections.
CUPP leader Chang An-lo, better known as “White Wolf”, is a former gang leader and a key member of the Bamboo Union, one of Taiwan’s biggest gangs, fuelling suspicions about the party’s connection to organised crime.
Chang fled to the mainland in the late 1990s after being charged with multiple crimes in Taiwan.
He returned to the island in 2013 and turned himself in. When he was arrested at the airport upon landing in Taipei, he held up a book he wrote. Its cover advocated for Taiwan’s peaceful reunification with mainland China under the “one country, two systems” policy.
He was released on bail soon after his return and charges were eventually dropped following an investigation.
Chang has since rebranded himself as a Beijing-friendly political activist, leading the CUPP to support the KMT and organising rallies across the pan-blue opposition camp.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the United States, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.
In the Thursday statement, the ministry said it “respects” the political stance of the CUPP, but did not permit “significant overlaps between the main leadership of the party’s central and local branches and gang affiliations”.
The ministry said that although the CUPP had no representation in any legislature on the island and lacked administrative power, the party used its political platform to promote organised crime and “instil public fear”.
The ministry also asserted its authority to pursue the party’s dissolution for “endangering the Republic of China’s sovereignty and democratic structure”, it said, using Taiwan’s official name for itself.
The proposal comes amid rising concerns about the entanglement of organised crime and politics, along with growing tensions between Taipei and Beijing, which has rolled out a string of measures to win Taiwanese hearts and minds.
Chang, 76, has attributed his political views to his love for the Chinese nation as well as influences from the Bamboo Union.
Chang was born in mainland China but moved to Taiwan soon after the 1949 Communist takeover. He joined the Bamboo Union in his teens.
He founded the CUPP in 2005 during his 17 years in exile in mainland China.
In 2018, Chang’s home and the CUPP offices were raided by investigators on suspicions they had received funding from mainland China, but no one was charged.
