The China Post
Date: November 29, 2016
By: Stephanie Chao

TAIPEI, Taiwan — President Tsai Ing-wen’s weekly policy coordination meeting, which she began holding at the beginning of October, lasts into the evening hours each Monday. The meeting has been widely regarded as an attempt by the Tsai administration to shore up support for the overnment, as well to make policy-making more efficient.

Whether the meetings have been successful is difficult to say.

The meetings themselves were strongly criticized by opposition Kuomintang (KMT) lawmakers as “unconstitutional.” The lawmakers alleged that because Tsai hosted the meetings and led discussions among administrative heads about policy-making, it has eroded Premier Lin Chuan’s authority as the central government’s head.

While those claims were refuted by Lin, it poses a worryingly precedent.

This was evident at the end of the first coordination meeting, when Tsai gave the green light for the controversial workweek bill, instructing the government to step up policy promotion efforts and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus to speed up legislature passage by the end of this legislative session.    [FULL  STORY]