Taiwan’s Blue-White Bloc Cuts Central Government Media Budget by Half, Says Taichung Lawmaker

A Taichung Democratic Progressive Party councilor says the city government’s media publicity budget remains intact despite opposition lawmakers cutting central government publicity funds by half.

Chen Shu-hua said Taiwan’s 2026 central budget reduced media policy and administrative publicity spending by 50% through cooperation between the Kuomintang and Taiwan People’s Party lawmakers. She contrasted that with Taichung’s budget, where the Information Bureau set aside NT$6.881 million for news releases and public relations and NT$49.263 million for marketing and policy achievements, totaling NT$56.144 million.

Chen said Taichung also has more than NT$10 million in promotional spending for the city’s shopping festival through its Economic Development Bureau. She added that other departments contain further publicity allocations that are less visible in the headline budget figures.

The lawmaker said last year’s cross-party negotiations produced a general NT$600 million cut, leaving the city government to decide which items to reduce. In her view, the intention was to remove inflated allocations, but the DPP did not specifically cut related publicity funds and the city government would not do so either.

The Taichung government said its relevant budgets were prepared according to actual policy-promotion needs and had been submitted to and approved by the city council.