A former Financial Times reporter's claim that votes in rural Hualien are routinely bought has set off a political fight in Taiwan, and the record on past bribery cases makes it hard for local leaders to brush off.

• Kathrin Hille, who has lived in Hualien for years, said almost all votes there are bought and questioned how that survives decades of democracy.
• Fu Kun-chi, the KMT caucus leader and legislator for Hualien, hit back and said anyone who witnesses vote-buying and does not report it is an accomplice.
• Lawyer Huang Di-ying turned that logic around, noting Fu has three criminal convictions — two securities law cases that put him in prison and one forgery case — so by his own standard his own relatives would be accomplices.
• Court and prosecution data back up the wider claim: Hualien accounted for more than a tenth of the national vote-buying reward payouts in 2018, and prosecutors raided dozens of sites and detained several people in 2022.

Outlook: With the accusations now aimed squarely at the Fu family's long grip on Hualien, expect the dispute to keep escalating ahead of the next local elections.