KMT Shields Chiang Wan-an’s Son While Staying Silent Over Cheng Li-wen Slap, Commentator Says

The Kuomintang is defending Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s son while saying little about party chair Cheng Li-wen after a fellow party member raised a hand toward her, commentator Wu Ching-yih argues. She says the contrast exposes an “old-fashioned, domineering, privilege-first” culture of power.

In a Facebook post, Wu said the party’s priority in recent days had not been answering whether Chiang properly avoided a conflict of interest. Instead, she said, it had tried to move him out of the headlines by turning a question about public authority into a story about protecting a child.

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The Kuomintang’s real aim is to save Chiang Wan-an.

The original question, she wrote, was straightforward. Taipei’s Department of Education offered only 25 places in a student exchange program, and the mayor’s son participated. The issue was how the selection process ensured fairness and whether Chiang fully recused himself. Wu said the party shifted the focus by repeating that children should not be bullied and that politicians’ children were not guilty by association.

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Do not bully minors.

Chiang appeared before the Taipei City Council on September 4 and was asked whether he had completed a self-check form for conflict-of-interest recusal. Wu said he repeatedly emphasized that he had followed the education department’s form and disclosed the father-son relationship and related information. In her view, disclosure and complete recusal are separate matters. The standard for officials handling public resources, she said, should be whether residents can believe another applicant would have received exactly the same treatment.

Wu compared the response with earlier cases involving political families. She cited Chou Mei-ching’s decision to resign from a foundation board after Ma Ying-jeou became president, despite Ma’s statement that her bank position did not involve external decision-making. She also recalled Ma’s account of his daughter Ma Wei-chung giving up admission to National Taiwan University after questions arose over her selection, then studying in the United States.

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The biggest culprit.

Wu said the party had once treated voluntary avoidance of conflicts as political self-discipline. She contrasted that with its reaction to an incident involving Cheng Li-wen. Fan Chen-tsung publicly berated Cheng, calling her the “biggest culprit” if Hsinchu County performed poorly, and made a gesture toward her face that prompted her to dodge. Wu said the party would likely have called it humiliation, bullying and gender disrespect had it happened to a female leader from another party. Instead, she said, the response was far weaker than the defense mounted for Chiang’s son.

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Old-fashioned, domineering, privilege-first power culture.