◎ Su Weizheng
If Wen Tianxiang knew something underground and read that someone was threatening to cut the budget and responding to external criticism by using "Song of Righteousness" to describe himself, I am afraid he would also ask: "Is this what I really meant when I wrote it?"
Member Weng Xiaoling recently claimed to be "righteous" and even wrote "little monsters and beasts" in response to external criticism. She also threatened to find "blue bird and green media owners" and significantly delete "their budget funds" when reviewing the 2016 central government's general budget. Budget deliberation is originally the constitutional authority of the Legislative Yuan, but the question is: is budget deletion based on policy necessity, implementation performance, and rationality of funding, or is it first to label dissent as "blue birds" and "green media" and then use the budget deliberation power as a tool for political pressure?
Please read on...
Kuomintang legislator Weng Xiaoling recently claimed to be "righteous" and threatened to find the "green bird and green media owners" when reviewing the central government's general budget for 2016 and drastically delete "their budget funds." (Extracted from Weng Xiaoling’s Facebook)
In 2025, when the government promoted the publicity and inspection of the current military, civil and educational personnel who are not allowed to register in China and apply for CCP-related identity documents, Commissioner Weng publicly said that relevant agencies have "too much funding" and that the year-end budget needs to be "carefully reviewed." This year (2026), she was interviewed again and claimed to have proposed about 270 proposals for the 2015 general budget, and proposed to freeze the salary of Executive Director Zhuo Rongtai from September to December, which was finally voted by the Senate. The presidential office's state secret fees were also deleted by 10 million yuan, and 20 million yuan were frozen. The original plan to purchase Mid-Autumn Festival products from 37 sheltered factories could not be implemented. In addition, the Ministry of Culture’s media policy and business promotion expenses of NT$47.38 million were eventually deleted, and the public television foundation’s donation budget and TaiwanPlus-related funds were also deleted and frozen.
Looking back at her controversial remarks in the past two years, it is even more difficult to disagree. When questioning Executive Director Chen Jianren in 2024, she emphasized that the questioning was "top to bottom"; when the Chinese pair defeated the Chinese team to win the gold medal at the Paris Olympics, she also called it "the pride of the Chinese people." This year (2026), he even called Executive President Zhuo Wengtai "unworthy of standing on stage to accept questions." A legislator who is a legal scholar can of course have a clear stance, but the Executive Yuan is responsible to the Legislative Yuan, and the two chambers are not subordinate to each other in terms of administrative organization; the right of inquiry is an important means of supervising the legislative power and checking and balancing the executive power, and is not a relationship of command and supervision between superiors and subordinates. Therefore, no one who thinks he is righteous can simply simplify political differences into good and evil.
At the Legislative Yuan meeting in April this year, Weng Xiaoling did not allow Executive President Zhuo Rongtai (right) to take the stage, and only invited Minister of Economic Affairs Gong Mingxin (2nd from left) and Minister of Agriculture Chen Junji (1st from left) to answer questions. (File photo)
"When times are tough, we can only see what we have learned." Righteousness does not have the final say, but depends on whether a person can restrain himself when he has power. If Commissioner Weng really loves "Song of Righteousness", he might as well read "Dong Hu's Writing in Jin Dynasty" again. The reason why Dong Hu was praised by later generations was that he was not afraid of power and recorded historical events directly. If this allusion is viewed in democratic politics, it reminds everyone who holds public power: Accepting criticism and supervision from the media, civil society, and dissidents is part of democratic public life. However, when Commissioner Weng faced criticism, he responded with "bird-like attitude" and "little monsters and beasts". He also threatened to find out who the "owners" were in the 2016 general budget review and significantly cut the relevant budget. I'm afraid it's not that Dong Hubi is afraid of power, but that power is afraid of Dong Hubi.
Accepting criticism and supervision from the media, civil society and dissidents is part of democratic public life. However, when Weng Xiaoling faced criticism, she responded with "birdishness" and "little monsters and beasts". (Taken from Weng Xiaoling’s Facebook)
If government funds are really illegally invested in specific political parties, media or political groups, of course they should be investigated in accordance with the law. Please ask Committee Member Weng to propose specific budget items, subsidy or procurement contracts, cash flow and performance data. Check and delete when necessary. If there are only political labels and accusations without concrete evidence, and the budget knife is used to serve the government, then it will not fulfill its supervision responsibility, but will make the budget review become a tool of political struggle.
"Song of Righteousness" highlights not only "qi", but "righteousness". Uprightness means adhering to procedures in the face of objections, and knowing restraint when in power. If in the end only the pleasure of "if you want to kill the bluebird, kill its feed first" is left, then no matter how familiar you are with "Song of Righteousness", you may only have read the letter and not really understood the spirit of it.
(The author is a university lecturer and former secretary to the president of the Legislative Yuan)
