\n<\/p>\n
O<\/span>pposition figure Ko Wen-je put on a defiant display in front of tens of thousands of supporters outside Taiwan\u2019s Presidential Office, two days after being handed a 17-year prison sentence on corruption charges.<\/p>\n \u201cI will not yield! I will not surrender!\u201d Ko shouted on Sunday in Taipei, as he turned towards the grand, red-brick Japanese colonial-era building in order to directly address President Lai Ching-te.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want Lai Ching-te to understand that even if you try to eliminate Ko Wen-je, there are still tens of thousands of supporters behind him,\u201d he told the reportedly 80,000-strong crowd.<\/p>\n Ko\u2019s Taiwan People\u2019s party (TPP) called on its supporters to gather to \u201cfight for judicial justice\u201d immediately after the ruling on Thursday last week by the Taipei district court, which saw the 66-year-old convicted of charges including bribery, breach of trust and misappropriation of political donations.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a message that resonated with those at Sunday\u2019s rally, with several attendees telling the Guardian of their fears that Taiwan\u2019s judiciary is being manipulated. \u201cThe judiciary \u2013 one of the most fundamental red lines in our society \u2013 has been undermined,\u201d says one 49-year-old, who gives his name as Mr Wang.<\/p>\n Within Taiwan, perceptions of Ko remain starkly divided: he\u2019s either an unprincipled populist who succumbed to greed, or a maverick reshaping Taiwan\u2019s political landscape who has been cut down by the ruling Democratic Progressive party (DPP). What\u2019s certain is that Ko\u2019s conviction has widened the chasm in Taiwan\u2019s already fractured political landscape, as it struggles to bridge the divide that exists between its main political forces on how to handle the existential threat posed by China.<\/p>\n