More than 40 organizations preparing protest outside parliament in Taipei — Taipei Times
In Taipei, Taiwan, more than 40 civic organizations plan to hold a protest outside the Legislative Yuan on the opening day of the new parliamentary session. Participants will call on opposition lawmakers not to delay consideration of the supplementary budget for fiscal year 2026, to prioritize the development of domestic drones, to prevent the paralysis of state institutions and to stop delays in funding social programs.
The campaign, titled “Don’t Slack Off at the Start of the Parliamentary Session, Citizens Sound the Alarm After Work,” is being organized by the Taiwan Citizen Front and the Taiwan Economic Democracy Union, among others, Taipei Times reports.
Complaints against the parliamentary majority
Lai Chung-chiang, coordinator of the Taiwan Economic Democracy Union, said that lawmakers from the Chinese Nationalist Party and the Taiwan People’s Party, which together hold a majority in parliament, have repeatedly blocked consideration of important bills, delayed consideration of the central government budget and boycotted the approval of personnel appointments.
Among those appointments, he named Constitutional Court justices, members of the Central Election Commission and the National Communications Commission. According to him, the campaign is intended to draw attention to national security issues, social welfare funding and the paralysis of constitutional bodies.
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Budget for drones
The organizers also intend to announce four warning signals. Lai Chung-chiang said that in October 2020, the Communist Party of China set the goal of achieving full modernization of its armed forces by August 1 of the following year, when the People’s Liberation Army of China marks its centenary.
He also said that China is expanding its maritime combat capabilities: the Type 076 amphibious assault ship Sichuan has already begun sea trials, while three Type 071 amphibious transport dock ships are under construction. According to Lai, these ships pose a direct threat to security in the Taiwan Strait.
Lai Chung-chiang believes that Taiwan should take Ukraine’s experience into account and develop drones for asymmetric warfare. According to him, parliament cut the relevant funding from the special defense budget in May, while the Executive Yuan proposed restoring it in the supplementary budget. He noted that 93 days remained until the end of the year, and therefore parliament must pass the supplementary budgets by the end of the following month so that the military has time to hold tenders, conclude contracts and implement the spending.
