【Taiwanology Ep.49】How Taiwan's Mass Recall Movement Is Reshaping Politics

In 2025, Taiwan is witnessing an unprecedented wave of citizen-led recall campaigns targeting lawmakers—mostly from the opposition Kuomintang. Branded the “mass recall” movement, it raises a question: is this a genuine expression of civic outrage, or a politically driven power play? To unpack the roots and implications of this political upheaval, we speak with Nathan Batto, political scientist and author of the Frozen Garlic blog.

- 8:10 How does the Sunflower Movement connect to today’s recall wave?
- 12:02 What sparked this massive recall push? Perspectives from both sides
- 18:45 Is the movement truly grassroots—or party-driven?
- 21:50 Why hasn’t the KMT been able to mobilize as effectively?
- 30:55 Is mass recall Taiwan’s only option for breaking political deadlock?
- 34:01 How might the results affect Taiwan’s geopolitical position?

Host: Kwangyin Liu, Senior Managing Editor of CommonWealth Magazine
Guest: Nathan Batto, Associate Research Fellow at Academia Sinica,  
Producers: Yayuan Chang, Weiru Wang

＊Read CommonWealth's explainer on the mass recall and its implications：https://english.cw.com.tw 
＊Share your thoughts：bill@cw.com.tw

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