Taiwan's legislature has slashed and frozen about NT$13 billion from the culture ministry's budget, a blow to public media and grants for artists and cultural groups.

• Lawmakers cut roughly NT$1 billion and froze another NT$3.86 billion, hitting public broadcaster PTS, the international channel TaiwanPlus, and the cultural content agency TAICCA hardest.
• The ministry's media promotion funding was wiped out entirely for the second year running.
• Culture Minister Li Yuan says the cuts gut the ministry's core, weakening Taiwan's voice abroad and cutting money that flows to local artists and cultural organizations.
• TAICCA has already signed contracts for late-2026 events — films, TV, comics, publishing, and overseas exhibitions — that now lose their funding.
• Li rejects the opposition's claim that the promotion money is used to buy off friendly media, calling that an insult to Taiwan's artists and a throwback to martial-law thinking.

Outlook: Li vows to keep fighting through public talks and social media, but the frozen and cut funds leave many cultural projects and public media outlets scrambling for money in the months ahead.