The Great Recall Movement in Taiwan: A Historic Unprecedented Boots on the Ground Exercise in Democracy
Have you heard about the great recall movement that’s happening in Taiwan? What’s it all about?
24 lawmakers, or legislators from the Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang KMT party are being put up for a recall vote.
I don’t think the world has ever seen anything like this happen on a national level in a democracy- 24 lawmakers being recalled from office, and that number is likely to be even higher at the time that this episode gets released. It’s truly unprecedented!
This recall vote certainly didn’t happen overnight. It was through dedicated grassroots efforts, of the everyday people of Taiwan. Questions have been raised as to whether the recall efforts are a partisan politically motivated effort on the part of the Democratic Progressive Party to oust KMT legislators.
That’s what I wanted to get to the bottom of in this episode as I talked to some of the volunteers who have been boots on the ground in Taiwan’s recall effort.
As you’ll hear in this episode, what’s happening in Taiwan is a historic demonstration of the will of the people to exercise their rights in a democracy.
The island-wide effort in Taiwan to recall lawmakers has been going on since last year and I sat down to speak to three volunteers Carol, Acho and Eric about how this mass movement has successfully gone through two stages, first signatures from1% of eligible voters in a legislator’s district must be collected to initiate a recall. Then in the second stage signatures from 10% of eligible voters in a legislator’s district must be collected in order for a recall vote to proceed. The hard part is that the signatures on the 1% and 10% petitions cannot be the same.
On July 26 Taiwan’s Central Election Commission (CEC) will hold recall votes for now possibly even more than 24 KMT lawmakers.
Special thanks to Julien Oeuillet the Founding Editor of IPON (the Indo-Pacific Open News) for his help in making this interview possible.
Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:
What the recall movement that’s happening in Taiwan is about
Why and how Acho, Carol and Eric volunteer their time and energy in the effort to recall legislators
How the recall efforts are targeting pro-CCP Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang KMT legislators
How the recall is necessary so that Taiwan’s parliament/legislature can function normally
How the first volunteers for the recall met through a LINE group
How what happened after the Bluebird Movement protests motivated people to attempt to recall KMT legislators
How the Sunflower Movement compares to the recall movement
How they vetted volunteers from outside of Taiwan who wanted to help with the recall effort in Taiwan
How they dealt with people trying to infiltrate the recall volunteer groups
How the recall effort got started with 10 volunteers and has grown to 500 volunteers globally
How A-Mei one of the lead recall movement volunteers was targeted by the KMT who accused her and revealed her personal information and identity
How the Taiwanese people feel they are at risk of losing their country to pro-CCP KMT legislators
How the KMT has smeared and sued recall movement volunteers including Carol
How the KMT has broken up recall movement volunteer groups
How Carol has put her job on hold to be dedicated to being a leader of her recall movement volunteer group full-time
What Carol does as leader of her recall movement group
How Acho volunteers for the recall effort by editing and creating videos
How Eric volunteers for the recall effort by dealing with the media
The types of videos they produce to promote and create awareness of the recall effort
How the majority of recall volunteers are women (60% women, 40% men)
How over 100 recall volunteers are dedicated full-time to the effort
How the women recall volunteers have been confronted by people who don’t support the recall
The standard for collecting signatures for the recall
Why the KMT’s efforts to recall DPP have failed due to forgery or signatures of the deceased on their recall petitions
How the KMT is trying to paint the picture that the DPP are orchestrating the recall of KMT legislators
How the recall effort is a grassroots effort not about conflict between the DPP and KMT political parties
How there could be more than 24 KMT legislators put up for a recall vote
The demographics of the districts that Carol, Eric and Acho are volunteers in for the recall
How Acho and Eric balance volunteering for the recall effort with their day jobs
How KMT legislators have not offered any explanation of what was discussed in a closed door meeting in 2024 with Chinese officials
How public reaction to volunteers of the recall effort has changed over time
How the recall volunteers now need to focus on encouraging the public to vote on July 26
How Carol encouraged creativity and idea of the recall volunteers that she manages
How the sentiment of the recall volunteers is that we are all in this together
How if eight to 10 KMT legislators are recalled there will be a better balance in the legislative yuan
How Carol, Eric and Acho feel they are working selflessly for a common goal and that they are taking care of each other
How this experience with the recall effort has helped Acho to see how the people of Taiwan can be so united
How Carol has seen many recall volunteers evolving
How what is happening in Taiwan is important for Asia and other democracies in the world
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Taiwan’s Recall Movement: From the Streets, Not the Palace: https://ipontoday.com/taiwans-recall-movement-from-the-streets-not-the-palace/
Explainer: Mass slate of recall votes leaves KMT staring down disaster: https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202506210014
A great explainer video on how the recall mechanism in Taiwan works: https://youtu.be/9KDN8pFgKLc?si=nipvyMCFTEhnP1Vy
LINE messenger app: https://www.line.me/en/
Chinese Nationalist/ Kuomintang (KMT): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuomintang
Chinese Communist Party (CCP): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Communist_Party
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Progressive_Party
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_People%27s_Party
Sunflower Movement: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_Student_Movement
Link to Acho’s video that Carol mentioned during the interview: https://www.threads.com/@wanghongwei2025gg/post/DJIjEXlTzY1/media?xmt=AQF0PIXnyo0zw7SrGSTfBNxhLWLKCEmevq4O6xcl853ZOA
The X account about the recall effort: https://x.com/TWagainstCCP
President Lai Ching-te: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lai_Ching-te
https://english.president.gov.tw/Page/644
Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Hung-we
Pan-Blue Coalition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Blue_Coalition
Pan-Green Coalition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Green_Coalition
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Reliving the Sunflower Movement from Ground Zero: Jiho Chang Tells the Inside Story Ep 174: https://talkingtaiwan.com/reliving-the-sunflower-movement-from-ground-zero-jiho-chang-tells-the-inside-story-ep-174/
Eric Chang: On the Unfolding Situation at the Legislative Yuan during the Sunflower Movement Ep 231: https://talkingtaiwan.com/eric-chang-on-the-unfolding-situation-at-the-legislative-yuan-during-the-sunflower-movement-ep-231/
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Eric Chang on the Occupation of the Executive Yuan During the Sunflower Movement Ep 121: https://talkingtaiwan.com/eric-chang-on-the-occupation-of-the-executive-yuan-during-the-sunflower-movement-ep-121/
Julien Oeuillet The Voice of South Taiwan Shines a Spotlight on Kaohsiung Ep 315: https://talkingtaiwan.com/the-great-recall-movement-effort-in-taiwan-boots-on-the-ground-ep-316/
