A confirmation hearing for Taiwan's new Control Yuan watchdog members turned combative, with opposition lawmakers questioning whether the nominees will actually hold the ruling party to account.

• KMT lawmaker Chiu Chen-chun mocked nominee Ivan Nokan with a joke question about investigating why sun cakes contain no sun, before pressing him on a Taiwan Sugar land deal.
• The core attack: Nokan has long ties to the ruling DPP and backed last year's mass recall campaign, so the opposition says President Lai Ching-te is just planting an ally.
• Nokan said he would investigate Premier Cho Jung-tai or anyone else if there is hard evidence, and pointed to a past record of publicly correcting his own boss.
• He also flagged Indigenous land rights and cultural appropriation as priorities, saying harvest festivals across Taiwan have been flattened into one Amis-style template.
• Asked about calls to abolish the Control Yuan, he argued its investigative power punishes misconduct and cannot be replaced by the legislature's.

Outlook: The confirmation vote will hinge on whether opposition lawmakers can hold a bloc against Lai's slate, keeping the Control Yuan's future a live political fight.