Funding Amendment Could Disrupt Defense Spending, Cabinet Warns

TaiwanPlus News

Taiwan's Cabinet says a controversial spending amendment passed by the legislature could cause a major disruption to next year's spending plans, including the defense budget.

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00:00Taiwan's cabinet is warning that a controversial amendment passed by this legislature just

00:06a few days ago could severely disrupt the way they spend their budget.

00:10They're saying they might have to cut as much as 30% of parts of the budget, including that

00:15all-important defense spending.

00:18Taiwan's government is split with a ruling Democratic Progressive Party president and

00:23his cabinet, while this legislature is in the hands of main opposition parties.

00:29They've been clashing, quite literally, we've seen brawls in the legislature over the last

00:32few days, over a controversial amendment that would reallocate funds from the central government

00:38to local governments.

00:59This is one of just three controversial amendments that were passed over the last few days.

01:11Another changes the way that Taiwan's constitutional court works.

01:15And another will make it harder for Taiwan's citizens to recall their local politicians.

01:22Taiwan's cabinet has said these laws are going to be difficult to implement.

01:25And over the weekend, Taiwan's president, Lai Ching-de, said that they could deprive

01:29Taiwan's citizens of some of their rights, and that they will endanger national security.

01:35This is not the first time that we've seen controversial amendments, legislative brawls,

01:39and protests over the last few months.

01:42Taiwan's cabinet has said it's still considering how it will move after these reforms were

01:48passed in the legislature, but there is of course the option that Taiwan's president

01:52refuses to sign them into law.

01:56This is all happening in just the first few months of four-year legislative and presidential

02:00terms.

02:01So, we can expect that this sort of political turmoil will continue for the foreseeable

02:06future.

02:07Alex Chen, Justin Wu, and Rick Laut in Taipei for Taiwan Plus.

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