This paper argues that failed efforts by Taiwan's DPP’s minority government (2000–2008) to change Taiwan’s Mandarin-ruled language regime, designing law proposals accepting all Taiwanese ethnic languages as similar to national languages, are to be accounted for by the logic of the Taiwanese party system. Appeals to linguistic human rights may not have furnished a strong enough warrant for sound language policy changes. By appealing to the political and cultural status quo, the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuo Min Tang or KMT) has had the upper hand in the debates. Keywords Language law Language politics Linguistic recognition Nationalism Party politics Taiwan