US embassy cable - 05TAIPEI3580

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 TAIPEI 003580 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS AIT/W 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/29/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, TW, Domestic Politics 
SUBJECT: FACTIONS IN TAIWAN'S RULING DPP -- AN OVERVIEW 
 
Classified By: AIT Director Douglas Paal, Reason(s): 1.4 (B/D) 
 
1.  (C) Summary.  The ruling Democratic Progressive Party 
(DPP) comprises four factions.  This report gives an overview 
of the characteristics, functions and current status of each 
faction.  Information is drawn from published materials, 
internal DPP documents, and interviews with contacts both in 
and outside of the party.  End Summary. 
 
2.  (C) Since its founding in 1986, the ruling Democratic 
Progressive Party (DPP) has been riven with internal 
factions.  Inter-faction rivalry plays a central role in the 
formation of party policy and the selection of party leaders. 
 The four current DPP factions grew out of anti-KMT groups in 
the 1960's and 70's that worked to bring about political 
reform.  These groups, differing in backgrounds, ideologies, 
goals and strategies, gelled into today,s DPP factions.  The 
influence of factions in intraparty politcs is so significant 
that the DPP itself compiled an internal list with cell phone 
numbers of its Legislative Yuan (LY) members by factions, 
which AIT recently obtained (see par 9). 
 
DPP Factions:  Characteristics 
------------------------------ 
 
3.  (C) Factional boundaries, outside of the well-organized 
and disciplined New Tide faction, are imprecise and variable. 
 DPP activists can change their factional affiliations, or 
break away and form new factions.  While the variety and 
looseness of DPP factions makes it difficult to generalize, 
DPP factions do share the following characteristics: 
 
-- Personal Relationships.  Factions are based on personal 
friendships and loyalties, reinforced by the exchange of 
political favors and support.  Within the DPP, politicians 
and staffers have dense networks of friendship and know and 
work with people across faction lines.  Political aspirants 
decide which faction they will associate with by a faction's 
leadership, size, and ability to gain election for its 
members to party and government offices.  Joining a faction, 
however, is as often decided by personal relationships as by 
a carefully calculated political advantage. 
 
-- Inter-Generational.  DPP factions reflect successive 
generations, from political activists who entered the 
opposition movement before the party's 1986 founding to 
today's youths, who are a major object of DPP party and 
faction attention.  The DPP's founding largely 
institutionalized the earlier opposition factions, after 
which newcomers tended to choose among the existing factions 
rather than creating new ones. 
 
-- Formalized Structure.  DPP factions are generally open and 
publicly acknowledged, unlike the secretive and furtive 
factions of other Taiwan political parties.  DPP factions 
often have their own offices, officers and staffs, and even 
collect dues from their members. 
 
DPP Factions:  Functions 
------------------------ 
 
4.  (C) DPP factions play a central role in the selection of 
party officers, government positions(since DPP won the 
presidency in 2000), and legislative candidates: 
 
-- Party:  Factions vie to fill party and government 
positions.  They use a complex process of bargaining with 
each other and with party leaders to decide on nominations 
that satisfy as many party factions and members as possible. 
While the decision process usually reflects the size and 
resources of the various factions, small factions can gain 
positions via coalitions with larger factions. 
 
-- Government:  A primary responsibility of the DPP Chairman 
is to facilitate negotiations among factions for government 
positions.  A DPP chairman with one or more factions behind 
him will be more effective in orchestrating government 
appointments. 
 
-- LY:  Since serving as LY Caucus Convener or Whip in the LY 
gives legislators experience and public exposure, the 
factions have agreed to rotate these positions in order to 
minimize inter-factional competition and conflict.  The 
caucus elects a new slate of leaders in each legislative 
session, creating opportunities for all factions to occupy 
leadership positions. 
 
DPP Factions:  Current Status 
----------------------------- 
 
5.  (C) There are currently four factions within the DPP: 
New Tide, Justice Alliance, Welfare State, and Green 
Friendship Alliance.  According to New Tide Faction Office 
Director Tuan I-kang, all but 16 of the 89 DPP LY members 
have factional ties, as do all DPP county magistrates and 
city mayors.  New Tide has 26 LY members, Justice Alliance 
30, Welfare State 11 and Green Friendship Alliance 6.  At the 
local level, 5 New Tide members currently serve as county 
magistrates (Taipei County, Changhua County, Yilan County, 
Tainan County, and Kaohsiung County).  Justice Alliance has 4 
members running the governments in Chiayi County and in 
Chiayi, Tainan, and Kaohsiung Cities.  Welfare State and 
Green Friendship Alliance each have one member serving as 
county magistrate ) Pingtung and Nantou Counties, 
respectively. 
 
6.  (C) The four DPP factions are as follows: 
 
-- Justice Alliance and Welfare State Alliance were both 
founded by Kaohsiung Incident defense attorneys, including 
President Chen Shui-bian, Premier Frank Hsieh, and DPP 
Chairman Su Tseng-chang.  (Note: The Kaohsiung Incident took 
place in Kaohsiung on December 10, 1979, when a march by 
activists of the democratic movement organized around the 
"Formosa Monthly" turned violent, with more than 100 
oppositon leaders, including current Vice President Annette 
Lu, arrested and sentenced to prison. End Note).  Because of 
their "war buddies" ties, Justice Alliance and Welfare State 
have together attracted many of the DPP,s political stars. 
Justice Alliance, headed by President Chen Shui-bian, is 
generally seen as essentially a one-person faction.  Welfare 
State was founded by Premier Frank Hsieh and has strong 
support among DPP educated elites in both northern and 
southern Taiwan. 
 
-- New Tide faction was founded by opposition (non-KMT) 
student activists in the mid-1970's.  Members emphasize 
ideological purity and claim to pursue long-term goals for 
the DPP rather than short-term victories in local or national 
elections.  New Tide is the best organized, best financed, 
and most united faction in exercising its influence in the 
DPP, and it has an established core of theorists, 
strategists, and organizers.  Its influence continues to 
expand, with many of its leaders now serving in important 
government, legislative, and party positions.  New Tide 
members tell AIT that their faction focuses particularly on 
getting its members into number two and three positions in 
ministries and government agencies.  DPP Party Chairman Su 
Tseng-chang, originally a member of the Welfare State 
 
SIPDIS 
faction, has become an ally of the New Tide, apparently in 
his bid to succeed Chen as 2008 DPP presidential candidate. 
New Tide,s influence has become so pervasive that a proposal 
was made in last year,s DPP National Congress to abolish all 
party factions.  The supporters of the resolution explained 
that the proposal was intended to dismantle the New Tide 
faction, which, they claimed, not only dominated party 
resources but also government resources.  The proposal was 
rejected, but the Party Congress adopted a new internal 
regulation that requires party members serving in an official 
capacity to withdraw from party factions. 
 
-- The Green Friendship Alliance:  Founded in 2004, Green 
Friendship Alliance is the newest and smallest faction.  It 
is also the most loosely structured, and seems to be exerting 
the least influence in party politics. 
 
7.  (C) Comment:  Some contacts tell AIT that DPP factions 
are less important today in intra party politics because the 
DPP, as the ruling party, can use government resources to buy 
cooperation.  However, this argument ignores the fact that 
factions still compete for nominations at the local and 
national level and that the DPP factions often do not 
cooperate on important policy issues in the LY.  As long as 
the DPP remains a minority in the LY and as long as the issue 
of Chen Shui-bian,s succession within the DPP remains 
unresolved, DPP factional competition will likely continue 
and even intensify as the 2008 presidential election draws 
near. 
 
8.  (C) In fact, a surge in factional infighting appears to 
have already begun in the run up to the year-end county 
magistrate/city chief elections, which observers see as the 
bellwether for assessing the political climate prior to the 
2008 presidential race.  Incumbent Nantou County Magistrate 
and Green Friendship Alliance member Lin Tsung-nan, for 
example, quit the DPP on August 18 to seek reelection in 
December as an independent, after having lost in an 
intraparty primary to a Justice Alliance member.  Acting 
Kaohsiung Mayor and Justice Alliance member Chen Chi-mai, 
moreover, publicly criticized DPP LY Caucus Leader and New 
Tide member Lai Ching-de for accusing him of mismanaging 
imports of foreign laborers into Taiwan in the wake of the 
violent protest of Thai laborers in Kaoshiung earlier this 
month.  Chen charged that Lai's criticism had an ulterior 
motive -- to absolve fellow New Tide member Chen Chu, 
Chairwoman of the Council for Labor Affairs, of all 
responsibility for the riot in order to bolster her candidacy 
for Kaohsiung Mayor against Chen himself next year.  One 
Justice Alliance member defined to the media the difference 
in "styles" between New Tide and Justice Alliance:  for New 
Tide, "if you are not my friend, you are not my enemy"; for 
Justice Alliance, "if you are not my enemy, you are my 
friend."  It appears that a line is being drawn in the 
political sand between these two factions.  Whether the DPP 
as a party will be strengthened or weakened by these internal 
factions will depend on how well President Chen and other 
party leaders manage these conflicts in the months to come. 
End comment. 
 
DPP Factions 
------------ 
 
9. (C) The official DPP list (classified "internal") of DPP 
faction members in the LY is as follows: 
 
New Tide (26):  Hsiao Bi-khim; Lee Kun-tse; Lee Wen-chung; 
Lin Shu-fen; Shen Fa-Hui; Perng Shaw-jin; Lin Wuei-chou; Kuo 
Chun-ming; Tsai-Chi-chang; Wang Shih-hsun; Wei Ming-ku; Chiu 
Chuang-chin; Lin Su-shan; Cheng Kuo-chung; Yeh Yi-ching; Lai 
Ching-te; Lin Tai-hua; Yen Wen-chung; Pan eng-an; Wang Tuoh; 
Chen Chin-de; Hong Chi-chang; Lin Cho-shui; Tien chiu-chin; 
Huang Sue-ying; Lu Tien-lin. 
 
Welfare State (11):  Kao Chien-chih; Hsu Kuo-yung; Wang 
Shi-cheng; Ker Chen-ming; Chai Tong-rong; Lee Chun-yee; Lin 
Yun-sheng; Cheng Tsao-min; Chang Chuan-tien; You Ching; Chang 
Chun-hsiung. 
 
Justice Alliance (30):  Lin Chung-mo; Kuo Julian-liang; Lan 
Mei-chin; Chuang Suo-hang; Chen Chin-jun; Wu Ping-jui; Chau 
Lai-wang; Chen Tsiao-long; Jao Jung-ching; Kuo Jung-chung; 
Lee Chen-nan; Tu Wen-ching; Hsieh Hsin-ni; Lee Ming-hsien; 
Charles C. Chiang; Tsai Chi-fang; Chang Hwa-kuan; Hou 
Shui-seng; Huang Wei-cher; Yu Jan-daw; Chen Chi-yu; Lu 
Po-chi; Chen ying; Tsai Huang-liang; Gao Jyh-Peng; Chang 
Ching-hui; Chen Shui-hui; Chen Min-jen; Winston Dang; Peng 
Tien Fu. 
 
Green Friendship Alliance (6):  Cheng Yun-peng; Lin 
Chin-hsing; Wu Fu-quei; Lin Yu-sheng; Hsu Chi-ming; Hsueh 
Ling. 
 
Others (16):  Kuo Wen-chen; Wang Shu-hui; Huang Chien-hui; 
Huang Chao-hui; Hsieh Ming-yuan; Tang Huo-shen; Chen 
Hsien-chung; Lin Kuo-ching; Wang Sing-nan; Tang Bi-A; Wang 
Jung-chang; Wang To-far; Tsai Ing-wen; Chiu Yeong-jen; Kuan 
Bi-ling; Sandy Yen. 
PAAL