Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Fu Kun-chi/Facebook
BUDGETS CUTS BY the KMT have prompted outrage from Taiwanese society, given the scope of the budget cuts. Likewise, the budget cuts are accused of being haphazard in nature, in that the KMT is accused of hitting out at all manner of programming without much consideration.
Some of the KMT’s budget cuts have clear political motivations. The KMT intends to freeze around 70% of the Ministry of Culture and National Human Rights Museum’s budget because of the two institutions’ work on exhibiting Taiwan’s authoritarian past, as part of efforts aimed at transitional justice. The KMT has increasingly sought to deny its past crimes during the authoritarian era, while leaning into praise of past dictators such as Chiang Kai-shek and Ching Ching-kuo. In the meantime, the KMT alleges that the DPP is engaged in a “Green Terror” worse than the White Terror.
This has proved similar with regard to KMT efforts to freeze the budget of PTS. The KMT has been accused of attempting to hit out at English public broadcaster Taiwan Plus, framing Taiwan Plus as a propaganda organ of the DPP, and taking aim at it in this way. The DPP has warned that PTS, including Taiwan Plus, is likely to cease operations if the budget is cut and criticized the KMT for attempting to use personal social media posts by PTS reporters to claim the network is politically biased.
It is less clear why the KMT intends to freeze the budget for Academia Sinica. The KMT previously claimed that Academia Sinica did not do enough to fund academic exchanges with China, which may be the KMT’s pretext for targeting the budget for Taiwan’s most prestigious research institution.
Ad that the KMT has justified cutting the budget of the Ministry of Culture on the basis of. The ad, which refrences popular anime Attack on Titan, warns the public to be careful of overnight cold and to remember to switch off electric heaters or to set them to automatically turn off before sleeping
What provoked further outrage is the KMT cutting the budget for programs related to gender and sexuality, including campus sexual assault prevention services and programs to promote gender equality, to just 3,000 NT. The KMT has taken a stance against education curricula in Taiwan that takes a progressive and pluralistic view of gender and sexuality, which may be coextensive with its apparent attempt to freeze the budget on programs related to gender and sexuality, returning to the KMT’s socially conservative worldview. Yet it is hard to understand what the KMT thinks it would gain politically by freezing programs that promote gender equality or campus sexual assault prevention services. LGBTQ and feminist groups have criticized the move.
Much attention has gone to the KMT reaching for odd rationales to justify its actions. For example, in justifying freezing the budget of the Ministry of the Interior, the KMT claimed that warning stickers produced by the Ministry of the Interior were blue and white in order to create fear about the KMT, seeing as those are the KMT’s party colors.
Similarly, the KMT justified slashing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ budget based on that in spite of China not importing Honduran shrimp, breaking a promise it made to Honduras when the country switched diplomatic recognition to China, Honduras has not switched recognition back to Taiwan.
Likewise, the KMT has justified slashing the budget of the Administration for Cyber Security to 1 NT and the TPP for cutting budget for efforts to combat fraud for unclear reasons, despite that both the KMT, DPP, and TPP likely agree on the need to prevent fraud in Taiwan. The Ministry of the Interior has pointed out that funds meant to advertise services to combat fraud were reduced to 230 million NT, when one scam group spent 250 million NT on advertising scams.
Industry is likely to be affected as well, with the Ministry of Agriculture stating that there will not be funds to pay for basic services such as fax machines and phones, much less to pay for subsidies for farmers. The Ministry of Science and Technology has stated that Taiwan will not be able to maintain its competitiveness in the field of AI and that science parks would suffer as a result of the new budget. State-run power utility Taipower has also stated it would be impacted by the cuts.
Moreover, defense programs are likely to take a hit. Apart from that Taiwan’s domestic submarine program, a program for new rifles, and minelaying efforts would also be affected. Defense officials have warned in particular about the impact to the drone program at a time when Taiwan is seeking to bolster asymmetric means of defense. Defense officials state that 38 programs would see a 44% cut.
It is unclear how much of the KMT’s actions are political theater. The KMT’s proposals along these lines currently include reducing the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Digital Affairs, and the Mainland Affairs Council to 1 NT each, something that would hollow out major elements of Taiwan’s government. Cuts to other ministries are up to 70% of their budget.
KMT infographic attacking Taiwan Plus. Photo credit: KMT/Facebook
The KMT very likely simply means to hit out at any government programs they do not control, in line with the scorched earth strategy that the KMT has adopted in the last year. This proves similar as to why the KMT slashed the budget for the Council of Indigenous Affairs late last year.
The DPP initially intended to fan up public outrage against the KMT’s attempts several months ago to block the national budget by bringing up that this would involve cutting or freezing the defense budget. It is probable the public was not always convinced by what was probably perceived as a tired attempt to lean into cross-strait issues to attack the DPP.
But the public generally enjoys the quasi-welfare state that exists in Taiwan, as well as the wealth of services offered by the government. It is hard to understand why the KMT has felt a need to take such programs hostage.
Attacking these services may not reflect well on the KMT, particularly if such services visibly take a hit. In the meantime, the KMT rediverting resources toward demographics that have historically supported them through attempts to undo the Tsai administration’s pension reforms while cutting the budget for everything else–further worsening the outlook for young people who already lack opportunities–may not resonate well with the public either.
The KMT is likely hoping to repeat how it simply tried to block the budget during the Chen Shui-bian administration and proved obstructionist to any actions by Chen. Still, the present is very different than in the 2000s, and political moves by the KMT that overwhelmingly focus on short-term gains, in targeting any aspect of government not under their control, may not pan out in its favor in the present. If anything, such moves are very likely to undermine the long-term viability of the party.