Cheng Li-wun Pledged to Buy Sheltered Workshops' Mooncakes but Never Placed an Order; DPP Figures Step In
Kuomintang chair Cheng Li-wun made a high-profile declaration that she would purchase all of the cancelled Mid-Autumn gift boxes from sheltered workshops, but reports say no order was ever actually placed — bad news for the workshops that employ people with disabilities, and a credibility crisis for the KMT.
- A proposal by KMT legislator Weng Hsiao-ling to cut and freeze the Presidential Office's state affairs fund led to the cancellation of orders for 15,000 Mid-Autumn gift boxes from 37 sheltered workshops.
- Cheng Li-wun publicly said she would take the entire lot, but Pingtung's "Man Man Hengchun" and Kaohsiung's "Little Grass Care Association" received only inquiry phone calls, with no formal order.
- The two workshops had already scheduled production and bought raw materials; in the end, the DPP's Lai Jui-lung, Pan Men-an and Pan Fang-chuan each paid out of their own pockets for 300 boxes.
- Online criticism has been fierce, with people questioning whether the KMT was merely putting on a show for the media to win votes and demanding that it release its actual purchase records.
- Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen had earlier accused Lai Ching-te of abandoning orders, and netizens are now throwing that back at her as a "prophecy," spreading the dispute into the KMT's own ranks.
Outlook: Unless the KMT quickly releases its purchase details and follows through on the orders, this "abandoned order" controversy looks set to keep growing into a new front in the blue-green battle.