The constitutional clash between Taiwan's executive and legislative branches is escalating. The Executive Yuan is refusing to countersign legislation, and the two sides are publicly accusing each other of violating the Constitution — bad news for political stability.

• Legislative Yuan Speaker Han Kuo-yu warned that the Executive Yuan's repeated refusals to countersign and implement legislation would shake the constitutional order.
• Premier Cho Jung-tai hit back, asking whether the Legislative Yuan under Han Kuo-yu's leadership was itself abiding by the Constitution and the law.
• Cho argued that the Constitution assigns the Executive Yuan the task of drawing up the budget and the Legislative Yuan the task of reviewing it, and that the legislature may not use budget cuts to obstruct the work of other agencies.
• He said the power of countersignature is granted to the premier by the Constitution, and that withholding it is a matter of duty when faced with legislation that undermines fiscal discipline and endangers national security.
• The Executive Yuan stressed that both requesting reconsideration and refusing to countersign are passive responses, forced upon it.

Outlook: Neither side is likely to back down in the short term, and the legislative deadlock and constitutional dispute could widen further, with a constitutional interpretation likely needed to settle it in the end.