Taiwan Reviews Legal Change Making Martial Law Harder to Declare

(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan’s legislators are set to review a proposed legal change that would make it more difficult for the president to declare martial law, with lawmakers from the opposition Kuomintang advocating the amendment after the shock emergency declaration in South Korea earlier this month.

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Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu announced Friday that lawmakers would discuss the change, which would require Taiwan’s president to get the legislature to ratify martial law within 24 hours of declaring it. The law currently gives the president a month to do so, and has not been amended for 75 years.

The proposal, put forward by the KMT, will be reviewed by the legislature’s foreign affairs and defense committee.

While the Democratic Progressive Party’s Lai Ching-te won Taiwan’s presidency in elections in January, his party lost its majority in the legislature. That’s allowed the KMT and Taiwan People’s Party to work together to push through legislation aimed at curbing presidential powers, moves that have fueled political tensions and even led to widespread demonstrations.

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