Why Lawmakers Are Brawling and People Are Protesting in Taiwan

Opposition lawmakers in Taiwan pushed through measures on Tuesday that could challenge the powers of the new president, Lai Ching-te, defying tens of thousands of his supporters who poured into the streets in recent days in protest.

The legislation proposed by Mr. Lai’s opponents gained passage only a little over a week after he took office, highlighting the challenges he will face in pursuing his agenda without a legislative majority. In elections in January, the opposition Nationalist Party and Taiwan People’s Party together secured more seats in the 113-seat legislature than Mr. Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party.

The bill backed by the two opposition parties would expand the legislature’s powers to investigate the administration. Mr. Lai’s supporters have accused the opposition of overreach and of serving the interests of the Chinese Communist Party, which claims Taiwan as its territory. Nationalist and Taiwan People’s Party legislators have rejected those accusations, and Mr. Lai’s officials have not offered proof of allegations that Beijing orchestrated the legislation.

Debates in the legislature have been heated. Politicians jostled and fought, and members of Mr. Lai’s party covered the floor and walls of the chamber with protest placards.

The legislative changes would give lawmakers more power to question senior government officials and demand internal documents. The amendments would also authorize lawmakers to punish officials found in contempt, which could include refusing to answer questions or hand over documents.

The amendments, and the divisions they have exposed, could limit Mr. Lai’s ability to push through big initiatives on domestic issues and may undermine efforts to keep broad cross-party unity on defense priorities.

“I really think this also sets the tone for what we should expect to see in the future, which is a lot of chaos,” said Lev Nachman, a political science professor at National Chengchi University in Taipei. “There are real geopolitical implications to what these new laws could potentially bring to Taiwan and Taiwan’s role in the region,” he said, citing as an example debates over funding for the island’s military.

Mr. Lai’s party emphasizes Taiwan’s separate identity while the Nationalist Party, which fled from mainland China to Taiwan in 1949, argues that the island should try to avoid conflict by expanding trade and other ties with China. The Taiwan People’s Party has generally argued for a more pragmatic approach to Beijing.

Despite the denials of the Nationalist Party of being influenced by Beijing, many demonstrators who have gathered outside the legislature were not persuaded.

“I cherish my way of life, and I do not want to stand on the same side as the Chinese Communist regime,” said Zhan Fang-yu, 24, a scriptwriter in Taipei who supports formal independence for Taiwan. “I feel like protests like this are not just a fight against the bill, but also an ideological fight.”

Opposition politicians have accused Mr. Lai’s party of trying to hide possible corruption and mismanagement and whipping up unfounded public fears about interference from Beijing. They have also noted that the Democratic Progressive Party, when it was the opposition, supported proposals to give the legislature more oversight.

“We once again strongly appeal to the Democratic Progressive Party government to return power to the people, for the sake of reform of the legislature, so that sunlight can shine into the legislature,” Fu Kun-chi, a lawmaker for the Nationalist Party who has led the drive for the changes, told journalists on Monday.

Mr. Lai and other Democratic Progressive Party politicians have accused the Nationalists of ignoring democratic procedures to push through the legislation, and some law experts have raised similar concerns. Mr. Lai won the presidency with just over 40 percent of the vote in Taiwan’s first-past-the-post polling system, and the Nationalist Party has argued that he lacks mainstream support, although its candidate gained an even lower 33.5 percent of the vote.

“I believe that more and more Taiwanese people are aware that, if the bill has been passed, that will be a great danger to our national security,” said Puma Shen, a member of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

Mr. Lai could refuse to sign the changes into law, and experts have said that Taiwan’s Constitutional Court could rule that at least some of the legislature’s expanded powers were unconstitutional.

The discord points to the trouble Mr. Lai may face in trying to push through domestic priorities, such as changes in health insurance and pensions, issues for which he needs a majority in the legislature to approve new laws.

As president, Mr. Lai controls overall military policy, but the opposition lawmakers could challenge or hold up some budget proposals that affect the armed forces. In particular, special military spending bills, which Taiwan’s government has used to pay for big outlays on weapons, may be much harder to pass in the face of intense scrutiny from Nationalist and Taiwan People’s Party lawmakers, who have often accused the government of squandering money.

Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican visiting Taipei this week as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he would be concerned if the Nationalist Party started blocking Mr. Lai’s proposals pertaining to Taiwan’s defense. He had previously suggested that the Nationalist Party was too close to China, a charge its leaders strongly reject.

“That really is concerning if they start having a rift,” Mr. McCaul said in an interview.

Catie Edmondson contributed reporting in Taipei.