As the result of a reform movement that began in the 1980s, Taiwan's government has recently granted the public universities the status of "administrative legal persons." Since this gives the universities more autonomy, effectively decreasing the degree of governmental control of national university administrations, we might think these universities would be happy with their new legal status, but in fact they are not. This paper explains why. It first introduces the institution of "administrative legal person" and then critiques it from the perspective of government reengineering.