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Taiwanese Lawmaker Proposes Slashing Culture Ministry's Publicity Budget, Calls Cuts 'Too Kind'

From Liberty Times · () Chinese

Translated from Chinese, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • KMT legislator Weng Hsiao-ling proposed cutting the Ministry of Culture's media and publicity budget by NT$47.38 million.
  • Weng argued that government agencies should not spend heavily on promotion, emphasizing efficient execution of their core duties.
  • She criticized the ministry's budget increase, calling her proposed cuts "too kind" and suggesting she would have cut more without concerns of political attacks.

Kuomintang (KMT) legislator Weng Hsiao-ling has proposed a drastic cut to the Ministry of Culture's media and publicity budget, seeking to eliminate NT$47.38 million allocated for these purposes in the upcoming fiscal year. This move follows her earlier proposal to slash over NT$100 million from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' similar budget.

If a ministry or agency can achieve results with a smaller media and publicity budget in the previous year, it should not spend more the next year unless there is a proper and reasonable justification.

— Weng Hsiao-lingExplaining her principle for cutting media and publicity budgets.

Weng stated that budgets for non-essential expenditures, inefficient spending, or those that are "floated and randomly compiled" should be eliminated. She argued that government agencies should not allocate substantial funds for promotion, asserting that the quality of their work itself should be the primary focus. "If a ministry or agency can achieve results with a smaller media and publicity budget in the previous year, it should not spend more the next year unless there is a proper and reasonable justification," she explained.

the government agencies don't need to spend a lot of money on publicity, the business itself is done well is the key.

— Weng Hsiao-lingStating her view on government spending on promotion.

Citing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an example, Weng questioned why it required an additional NT$100 million for media promotion this year when NT$30 million sufficed last year. She criticized her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) counterparts, such as Lin Chu-yin and Wu Siao-ying, for allegedly shielding the government and failing to scrutinize budget allocations. Weng asserted that the DPP government has increased spending by NT$1 trillion over the past decade without evident improvements in Taiwan's overall condition.

Cutting this small amount of budget is not heavy-handed, it is too kind.

— Weng Hsiao-lingDescribing her proposed budget cuts.

Despite media reports characterizing her actions as "heavy-handed," Weng described her proposed cuts as "too kind." She suggested that if her office researchers had not intervened, fearing political attacks from the "green camp" (referring to the DPP), she would have proposed even larger reductions. Weng emphasized that it is a legislator's duty to oversee budgets and eliminate wasteful or inefficient spending.

If it weren't for the office researcher stopping me, fearing I would be attacked by the green camp, I would have cut even more.

— Weng Hsiao-lingSuggesting she would have proposed larger cuts if not for political considerations.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Liberty Times in Chinese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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