Pre-election Character Smear: Sanlih's '20 Million Unexplained Wealth' Accusation Against Ko Wen-je

On May 25, 2018, shortly before the Taipei mayoral election, Sanlih TV's political talk show '54 New Views', hosted by Chen Fei-juan with guest lawyer Tseng Ching-yuan, publicly accused incumbent Mayor Ko Wen-je of having 20 million NTD in 'unexplained wealth' in his asset declaration, hinting at illicit gains. The accusation was immediately and fiercely refuted by Ko's wife, Chen Pei-chi, who explained that the figure was a deliberate distortion created by double-counting several items. Chen demanded a public apology and, when Sanlih refused, filed a lawsuit seeking 5 million NTD in damages. Although the court eventually ruled in favor of Sanlih in 2019 (citing high legal tolerance for commenting on prominent public figures' assets and that the show did not target Chen personally), the controversy sparked widespread condemnation of Sanlih's practice of utilizing public airwaves during election seasons to wage malicious character assassinations using falsified financial numbers.