Hualien: A public vote aimed at removing the main opposition Kuomintang’s (KMT) legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi from office failed to secure enough support on Saturday. The people of Hualien “have shown through unity and justice” that “fairness still exists in Taiwan,” said Fu, a KMT heavyweight who has led the party’s caucus in Taiwan’s national legislature since January 2024, as he celebrated his win before supporters in Hualien County.

According to Focus Taiwan, Fu stated that over the past year, he had been the target of an intense “political takedown” perpetrated by informal civic groups leading recall efforts both in and beyond Hualien, as well as by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The DPP has denied direct involvement in the recall initiatives targeting 31 out of 39 directly elected lawmakers from the KMT but has come out in full support of the efforts in recent months.

Fu expressed hopes for Taiwan’s return to stability and prosperity, urging that “the society must not be further divided.” Following the recall vote on Saturday, Lee Mei-ling, the lead petitioner of the recall campaign against Fu, remarked on the campaign’s role in sparking a democratic awakening in Hualien. She highlighted concerns over monopolized public discourse and uneven distribution of resources, and while the recall was not successful, she expected continued civic engagement in local development and policy oversight.

The Hualien lawmaker was among the first KMT lawmakers to declare he had survived the recall, even as the vote count was still ongoing. With all votes counted, 65,300 were cast against Fu’s recall, compared to 48,969 in favor, as reported by the Central Election Commission. Under Taiwanese law, for a recall to pass in Fu’s constituency, votes favoring recall had to outnumber those against and represent at least one-quarter of 191,367 eligible voters — a minimum of 47,842 votes. The votes in favor met the threshold, but Fu successfully mobilized his support base to cast a higher number of opposing ballots.

Fu also called on President Lai Ching-te, who concurrently serves as the DPP’s chair, to acknowledge the recall outcome and initiate open dialogue with the opposition, as Taiwan grapples with economic volatility and strained cross-Taiwan Strait relations. While 23 other recall motions targeting KMT lawmakers were held across Taiwan on Saturday, all of them failing, the vote against Fu was seen by some observers as a litmus test for the broader recall movement.

For weeks, the DPP and others involved in the nationwide recall efforts intensified their campaign against Fu, whom they viewed as the architect of controversial legislation that they argued could pose national security risks to Taiwan amid its increasingly fraught relations with China. Campaigners were particularly vocal in their criticism of Fu, accusing him of advancing Beijing’s political interests in Taiwan’s Legislature after he met with Chinese Politburo member Wang Huning in Beijing in April 2024.

Despite those efforts, the failure to remove Fu from office was perhaps unsurprising, reflecting the enduring political influence he and his family wield in the eastern county of Taiwan. The 63-year-old is a five-term legislator from Hualien over the past two decades. Prior to being re-elected to the Legislature in 2020, Fu served nearly nine years as Hualien County magistrate, winning over 55 percent of the vote in two elections, even while facing multiple prosecutions. He was convicted of stock manipulation in 2018 and subsequently removed from office. He served approximately 10 months in prison before being released on parole. During that time, however, Fu’s wife, Hsu Chen-wei, won the local government election in November 2018 and succeeded him in office later that year. Hsu is now serving her second term.