The vote-buying allegations in Hualien are escalating — bad news for the Kuomintang, and useful ammunition for the Democratic Progressive Party.

• KMT caucus convener Fu Kun-chi questioned "how much money" a former Financial Times journalist had taken, and said that anyone who knows of vote-buying but fails to report it is an accomplice to it.
• The row began when Kathrin Hille, a former Taiwan-based correspondent, said in a television interview that in Hualien "all the votes are bought." The Hualien District Prosecutors Office has opened a case based on press clippings.
• DPP spokesperson Wu Cheng hit back, noting that Fu Kun-chi himself has final convictions under the Securities and Exchange Act and other laws, yet is turning around to accuse a journalist.
• Hualien has a substantial record of vote-buying investigations: in 2022 prosecutors searched more than 70 locations and summoned over a hundred people, with some detained.
• Separately, an American journalist said that while working for a KMT local faction in Changhua in the past, he saw stacks of cash with his own eyes, which those present said was to be used for buying votes.

Outlook: With the Hualien county magistrate election approaching, prosecutorial investigations and mutual accusations between the blue and green camps are likely to keep intensifying.