With recent wide-ranging budget cuts passed by the KMT, the KMT has sought to defend the cuts as necessary for fiscal security in Taiwan. To this extent, the KMT has claimed that the cuts only amount to 3% of the budget and that such budget-cutting also occurred during the Tsai administration. By contrast, President Lai Ching-te of the DPP has framed the cuts and freezes as amounting to 30% of the available funding. There have never been cuts on this scale in the past twenty years, showing that against the claims of the KMT, such budget-cutting is not normal in the legislature...
In his New Year's address, President Lai Ching-te touted Taiwan’s accomplishments on the international stage, such as the Olympics victories in badminton by Wang Chi-lin and Lee Yang, as well as in boxing by Lin Yu-ting. Lai also brought up Yang Shuang-zi’s Taiwan Travelogue winning best work in translation at the United States National Book Award, as translated by King Lin. Likewise, Lai touted Taiwan’s economic growth, including in high-tech industries, and increases in wages...
Of the three laws passed by the KMT last week, the least discussed has been changes to budgetary provisions between the central and local governments. The KMT push for changing budgetary provisions brings together several recurring threads in Taiwanese politics in the past few years...
As the KMT continues with efforts to freeze the Constitutional Court, views on capital punishments are set to become a political dividing line. That is, the KMT will justify blocking the DPP’s nominations on the basis of capital punishment...
Three controversial bills were forced through the legislature by the KMT last week, with all three bills completing their third reading in the legislature...
After a night of protest around the legislature, with DPP legislators forcing their way into the legislature and dramatically ousting the KMT, DPP legislators were themselves pushed out of the legislative assembly chambers this morning...
Ten thousand demonstrators have gathered outside of the legislature, ahead of a planned attempt by the KMT to raise barriers for recalls by changing the Recall Act. With the KMT occupying the legislative podium ahead of a scheduled vote at 8 AM tomorrow, in a dramatic series of events, the DPP broke into the legislature through a window at 10 PM. While protesters continue to stay overnight, in spite of cold and rain, the DPP legislators continue to stay in the legislature and have stated that they are fortifying the legislature against possible incursions by the KMT...
Anger has broken out over the KMT forcing draft amendments to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act through a preliminary review in under three minutes yesterday, in spite of significant contention over the issue...
The KMT has sought to use similar tactics for Taiwan’s NCC, as it has aimed to do with the Constitutional Court. That is, the KMT has tried to freeze the NCC by mandating that the NCC cannot function without a minimum quorum of members then blocking any appointments that the Lai administration seeks to make to the NCC...