A small political party in the Republic of China called the Chinese Unification Promotion Party may be on the chopping block. Proponents of a ban say that the party’s agenda is not the reason.
ROC politicians are divided over the proposal (South China Morning Post, August 8, 2026).
The island’s interior ministry is seeking a Constitutional Court order to declare the CUPP unconstitutional and dissolve it, marking the first such action against a political party in Taiwan’s history.
“The CUPP has long been linked to organised crime, including cross-border offences,” Interior Minister Liu Shyh-fang [shown above] said at a briefing last week.
“Core party members have also repeatedly been implicated in alleged violations of the National Security Act, the Anti-Infiltration Act, election laws, the Organised Crime Prevention Act and other legislation.”…
[The ministry] cited three main reasons [for concluding that the CUPP endangers the Republic of China]: alleged cooperation with the Communist Party to build espionage networks and interfere in elections using mainland Chinese funding; involvement in cross-border repression, including attacks on overseas political dissidents visiting Taiwan; and organised crime involving numerous party officials and members.
Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau Commissioner Chiu Shao-chou said police had investigated 141 CUPP officials and members in 98 cases since 2010, involving allegations ranging from attempted murder and extortion to fraud and drug offences.
The Chinese Communist Party pretends that the controversy is solely about the CUPP’s advocacy of reunification (on Beijing’s terms), not any criminal activity. Chen Binhua of the Taiwan Affairs Office salutes the party’s support for “re”-unification and its opposition to “Taiwan independence separatism…. Advocating cross-strait reunification is reasonable, lawful, just and legitimate.”
Kuomintang lawmaker Weng Hsiao-ling argues that the only appropriate action is to punish individual party members when they break the law, not to also dissolve the party. “If a party is deemed unconstitutional merely because its political views differ from those of the DPP government, then it is the interior minister’s actions that violate the constitution.”
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party probably does not regard the Chinese Unification Promotion Party as much of a threat at the ballot box. In the 2024 legislative elections, the latter won only a tenth of one percent of the vote.
