TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Around 10,000 protesters rallied at Ketagalan Boulevard (凱達格蘭大道) in Taipei on Sunday (March 30) to denounce a guilty verdict against former Taiwan People's Party (TPP, 民眾黨) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who was sentenced last week to 17 years in prison for corruption. The Taipei District Court (台北地方法院) also stripped Ko of his civil rights for six years in connection with the Core Pacific City scandal (京華城案), a land development case.
More than 20 legislators from the Kuomintang (KMT, 國民黨), Taiwan's main opposition party, joined the demonstration, signaling a potential alliance between the two opposition parties ahead of elections in 2026 and 2028. Media personality Jaw Shau-kong (趙少康) called for cooperation between the "blue and white camps," referring to the KMT and TPP, he said.
Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), the current TPP chairman, said the protest aimed to seek justice for Ko and urged supporters to vote out the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP, 民進黨) in 2028. Ko, appearing before the crowd, encouraged people to join the TPP, saying: "If you want to take down Ko Wen-je, there are still tens of thousands of supporters behind him."
DPP Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) pushed back against criticism of his party, noting that KMT Councilor Chung Siao-ping (鍾小平) originally reported the scandal, with Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) providing evidence. Lin called the attempts to shift blame onto the DPP "unreasonable." Separately, Mayor Chiang urged the judiciary to base its actions on facts, warning against creating a perception of political persecution among the public, he said.