Taiwan's cash handout fight has flipped: President Lai Ching-te is giving every citizen NT$10,000 next year, and the KMT can now only counter by demanding more — good for voters' wallets, awkward for both parties' budgets.

• Lai folded the KMT's own signature policy into next year's central budget and rebranded it as sharing the AI boom, taking credit the opposition had been building for a year.
• Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an immediately called for NT$20,000 instead, and KMT headquarters followed him a day later.
• The KMT spent last year arguing NT$10,000 covered months of groceries; now the same sum is dismissed as not even enough for one shopping trip.
• Chiang jumping ahead of his own party signals he is trying to set the agenda for the whole blue camp himself.
• The DPP fired back that Taipei is sitting on a budget surplus — so if handouts matter that much, the city can top it up itself.

Outlook: The bidding war will likely keep escalating until someone has to explain where the money comes from, and the pressure is now on Chiang to spend Taipei's own cash.