Taiwan's Executive Yuan and Legislative Yuan clashed in public on National Day, pushing the constitutional deadlock further into the open — bad news for political stability.

• Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu said in his address to the National Day rally that last year's mass recall campaign and the Executive Yuan's refusal to countersign bills passed by the Legislative Yuan have left cracks in Taiwan's democracy.
• The Executive Yuan responded that both branches should respect each other's powers, that neither side should cross constitutional boundaries, and that constitutional mechanisms should not be stigmatised for the sake of political combat.
• The Executive Yuan said the eight bills it declined to countersign mostly involve safeguards against party, government and military intervention in the media, contravene interpretations by the Council of Grand Justices, or encroach on the Executive Yuan's budgetary powers.
• Among them, the amendment to the Organic Act of the Legislative Yuan has been accused of seeking to exempt the fraudulent claiming of assistants' fees from criminal liability, potentially leaving a loophole in criminal sanctions.
• The Executive Yuan stressed that the power of countersignature is granted by the Constitution and that, where necessary, it must be used as a passive defence of the separation of powers and of checks and balances.

Outlook: The dispute between the governing and opposition camps over the power of countersignature is unlikely to be resolved soon, and the legislative deadlock and possible constitutional litigation will carry over into the next session.