Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen has taken over part of an order for Mid-Autumn Festival gift boxes, but critics point out that it was the same political party that cut the budget in the first place. This is bad news for the Presidential Office and for sheltered workshops nationwide, and it has cast doubt on the Blue camp's political manoeuvring.

• The KMT and the TPP cut and froze the entire State Affairs Fund of the Presidential Office in the Legislative Yuan, so the Presidential Office's planned purchase of 15,000 Mid-Autumn gift boxes from 37 sheltered workshops and organisations for people with disabilities across the country was cancelled.
• Lu Shiow-yen said the Presidential Office had "abandoned its order", and stressed that the central government had obtained a record-high budget of NT$3 trillion yet could not solve the problem.
• Media commentator Chan Ling-yu countered: the arsonist and the firefighter are wearing the same vest — it was KMT legislators who cut the budget, and a KMT mayor who then turned around to pose for photos with the victims.
• Taichung took on only 1,650 boxes, worth about NT$520,000, leaving more than 13,000 boxes with no taker.
• When reporters asked Lu Shiow-yen on the spot about the cuts and freezes imposed by the KMT and the TPP, she did not respond.

Outlook: where the remaining 13,000-plus boxes will end up, and whether the KMT will relent and unfreeze the relevant budget, will be the focus of the next round of political sparring.