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🇹🇼 Taiwan /Elections & Politics

Culture Ministry Cuts Threaten Taiwan's Voice, Minister Says

From Liberty Times · () Chinese

Translated from Chinese and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • Taiwan's Minister of Culture lamented significant budget cuts to the ministry, calling them an attempt to "destroy its culture."
  • Opposition parties deleted the ministry's publicity budget and reduced funding for Public Television Service and Taiwan Plus.
  • The minister argued these cuts undermine Taiwan's international communication and harm local cultural workers.

Taiwan's Minister of Culture, Li Yuan, has expressed deep concern over substantial budget cuts targeting the ministry, viewing them as a deliberate effort by opposition parties to erode Taiwan's cultural identity.

To destroy a nation, first erase its history; to destroy a people, first destroy its culture.

— Li YuanMinister of Culture quoting poet Gong Zizhen to describe the impact of opposition budget cuts.

Speaking on Saturday, Li stated that the opposition parties' actions, particularly the deletion of the Ministry of Culture's proposed NT$47.38 million publicity budget and reductions to funding for the Public Television Service (PTS) and Taiwan Plus, represent a plan to "eliminate the nation by eliminating its culture." He quoted poet Gong Zizhen, who wrote, "To destroy a nation, first erase its history; to destroy a people, first destroy its culture."

This marks the second consecutive year the ministry's publicity budget has faced such severe cuts. Last fiscal year, its proposed publicity budget was also deleted, and an additional NT$280 million budget request was rejected. Li questioned the targeting of the ministry, whose budget constitutes less than 1 percent of the general budget, suggesting it is a "horrendous" plan by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People's Party (TPP) to "silence a nation's voice."

To silence a nation’s voice, first cut its media communications budget.

— Li YuanMinister of Culture describing the opposition's strategy.

The cuts, amounting to approximately NT$1 billion from the ministry's budget, are seen as detrimental to Taiwan's ability to communicate internationally and harmful to local cultural workers and organizations. Legislator Rosalia Wu of the Democratic Progressive Party echoed these sentiments, accusing the KMT and TPP lawmakers of acting as "executioners of culture," drawing parallels to the KMT's suppression of Taiwanese culture during the martial law era. In response, KMT Legislator Lo Chih-chiang questioned Minister Li's defense of public policy versus his own job, criticizing the performance of TaiwanPlus despite its substantial funding.

KMT and TPP lawmakers have become Chinese collaborators by acting as “executioners of culture.”

— Rosalia WuDemocratic Progressive Party Legislator criticizing the opposition's role in the budget cuts.
About this summary

Originally published by Liberty Times in Chinese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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