Fu Kun-chi: The Spiral of Power from the East Coast's 'Hualien King' to Legislative Caucus Convener

30-second overview:
Fu Kun-chi is one of the most controversial legendary figures in Taiwanese politics, widely known as the “Hualien King.” He once served a prison sentence while still holding office because of a stock-manipulation case, yet maintained political influence from behind bars and quickly returned to the center of legislative power after his release. His political career has been a long-running experiment in “local power encircling the center” and “judicial authority confronting politics.” The model through which he and his wife, Hsu Chen-wei, have taken turns governing Hualien has also set a unique precedent in Taiwan’s history of local self-government.

In 1997, when Fu Kun-chi was still “Kai Ju Little Fu,” a formidable player in the stock market, few could have anticipated that this Hakka youth from Taichung would establish, on the other side of the map in eastern Taiwan’s so-called “back mountains,” a political fortress that even the central government would struggle to dislodge.

The Origins of an East Coast Dynasty and the Birth of the “Hualien King”

Fu Kun-chi’s political career began in 2001, when he was elected to the Legislative Yuan. Drawing on the considerable financial resources he had accumulated in business and his exceptional organizational abilities, he quickly took root in Hualien. In 2009, running as an independent, he was elected Hualien County magistrate by a large margin, beginning a nine-year legend as a “five-star county magistrate.” In Hualien, his support remained consistently high. This almost “ruling” level of influence earned him a resonant nickname from outside observers: the “Hualien King.”¹

📝 Curator’s note: In Taiwan’s political context, the word “king” is both a recognition of real strength and a metaphor for the high degree of monopolized power held by local factions.

Power Gymnastics at the Edge of the Law: Sham Divorce and Imprisonment While in Office

What has most astonished outside observers about Fu Kun-chi is his precise command of gaps in law and institutions. After being elected county magistrate in 2009, in order to circumvent rules barring relatives from serving as deputies, he carried out a “sham divorce” from his wife, Hsu Chen-wei, and immediately appointed her deputy county magistrate.² The Hualien District Court found that the divorce had been staged to evade the rules and convicted him of document forgery, sentencing Fu to six months and Hsu to four months, both commutable to fines. This also opened the prelude to the Fu couple’s pattern of “governing in rotation.”²

Even more dramatic was what happened in 2020, after Fu had returned to the legislature: his conviction in the case involving manipulation of Kai Ju and other stocks was finalized, and he was sentenced to two years and ten months in prison.³ (This case stemmed from stock-manipulation conduct in the 1990s and was distinct from the separate Ho Chi case in 2018.) At the time, he created the rare example of “serving prison time while holding office,” retaining both his status and salary as a legislator while in prison. This spectacle of “sitting in jail while conducting legislative oversight” became an absurd miniature of the collision between Taiwan’s judicial and political systems.⁴

Legislative Caucus Convener: From Local Strongman to Central Power Broker

In 2024, Fu Kun-chi returned to the Legislative Yuan and was elected convener of the Kuomintang legislative caucus. This marked the point at which his influence was no longer confined to eastern Taiwan, but had formally entered the core of national power. Known for a forceful leadership style, he has shown intense confrontational energy on major issues such as legislative reform and budget review, and has even been described by some media as a “legislative tyrant.”⁵

His relationship with mainland China has also been a focal point. In April 2024, after the major Hualien earthquake, he led several Kuomintang legislators on a visit to Beijing and met with officials from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.⁶ This political move across the Taiwan Strait at a sensitive moment again sparked fierce debate over “local forces participating in diplomacy.”

Resilience Amid Controversy: The Sources and Costs of Power

Fu Kun-chi’s power base comes from his precise delivery of resources to grassroots needs in Hualien. Through large-scale construction projects and dense local service networks, he successfully transformed government resources into personal political capital.⁷ Critics, however, argue that this mode of governance, highly concentrated in the Fu family, has also been accompanied by controversies over his management of media relations. The Reporter’s series “The Two Faces of Fu Kun-chi” describes his two-handed approach to the media, using “a carrot in one hand and a stick in the other,” and argues that he has helped create in Hualien a “single-voice hall” unfavorable to dissenting views.⁸

The title “Hualien King” reflects Hualien residents’ reliance on him, as well as outside concern over the qualitative transformation of Taiwan’s local democracy. Fu Kun-chi’s story is not merely the rise of one politician; it is also a complex mirror of Taiwan’s local politics, judicial justice, and party system.

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