Taiwan's Legislative Yuan passed the 2026 (Republic of China year 115) general budget on its third reading, cutting the Ministry of Culture's budget by more than NT$1.3 billion — bad news for the arts sector and frontline cultural workers.

• The Legislative Yuan slashed and froze more than NT$1.3 billion of the Ministry of Culture's budget, drawing strong pushback from the arts community.
• Lin Chia-feng, chairman of the Performing Arts Alliance, pointed out that those who truly bear the risk are frontline cultural workers, not the figures on a budget sheet.
• Many private-sector groups had already signed contracts and invested in productions in line with government policy — some more than halfway through execution — only to have their budgets cut when two-thirds of the year had already passed.
• Lin Chia-feng stressed that if cultural policy is restarted every year amid political wrangling, Taiwan will struggle to build an internationally competitive cultural industry.

Outlook: The arts sector will continue pressing for the restoration of this NT$29.6 billion cultural budget, and in the short term the budget battle and partisan confrontation are unlikely to subside.