TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — KMT Legislator Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲) proposed Thursday to eliminate the culture ministry's advertising budget during a legislative committee meeting, triggering a heated confrontation between KMT and DPP lawmakers.
Arguing that the ministry continued to operate despite having no advertising budget in 2025, Weng questioned the need for the NT$47.38 million (US$1.4 million) allocated for fiscal 2026, per ETtoday. She initially proposed freezing the budget until the ministry could provide a detailed explanation of how the funds would be used before leaving the meeting.
The proposal drew strong criticism from DPP lawmakers. DPP Legislator Lin I-chin (林宜瑾) said eliminating the ministry's advertising budget would amount to "declaring war on Taiwan's cultural sector," per UDN. She said promotional efforts for Taiwan's Tech World pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka had stalled until funding was secured through fundraising.
DPP Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) said a thorough review of the ministry's promotional spending was appropriate but argued that eliminating the entire advertising budget would be excessive, per Rti. DPP Legislator Wu Szu-yao (吳思瑤) said Weng had relied on the same rationale she previously used to propose cuts to the advertising budget of the foreign affairs ministry, the Cabinet, and the Mainland Affairs Council, rather than conducting a case-by-case review.
Culture Minister Li Yuan (李遠) said the ministry had managed without an advertising budget through extra efforts, including his writing nightly Facebook posts promoting ministry policies. He said eliminating the budget would undermine public outreach on key initiatives, including efforts to combat ticket scalping.
After returning to the meeting, Weng responded to criticism that she was a "culture killer" by calling DPP lawmakers "taxpayer killers." She then revised her proposal, seeking to cut NT$47 million while leaving NT$380,000 in the budget.
Weng said Li would still have enough funding to avoid writing Facebook posts. The committee ultimately agreed to freeze NT$8 million of the ministry's advertising budget.
During Weng's absence, KMT Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) briefly reached a consensus with other committee members to freeze NT$3 million instead, per Liberty Times. However, Education and Culture Committee acting Chair Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) declined to put the proposal to a vote, saying Weng had not agreed to the compromise.
