KMT Chair Cheng Li-wun spends 5 million NTD on shelter gift boxes for vulnerable groups

The Kuomintang (KMT) announced today that Chairperson Cheng Li-wen recently used approximately NT$5 million of her own funds to purchase nearly 13,000 Mid-Autumn Festival gift boxes from sheltered workshops. These gift boxes, symbolizing social care and substantive support, have recently been delivered to local party chapters across all counties and cities nationwide. Party staff members personally distributed and passed them on to disadvantaged families and social welfare organizations that have long been cared for and assisted by local KMT chapters, hoping to inject warm energy into corners of society ahead of the holiday through such practical actions.

Behind this charitable initiative lies the long-term operational challenges faced by sheltered workshops in Taiwanese society. Sheltered workshops are employment venues primarily established for individuals with physical and mental disabilities, providing them with opportunities to learn practical skills and integrate into society. However, the operations of sheltered workshops often heavily rely on holiday gift box sales to sustain their livelihoods. Particularly during the two major traditional peak seasons of the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Lunar New Year, sales account for the vast majority of their annual revenue. Amid the dual pressures of inflation, rising raw material costs, and fierce market competition in recent years, many sheltered workshops frequently face the plight of unstable orders and heavy sales pressure during holiday seasons.

Cheng's personal contribution of NT$5 million to purchase nearly 10,000 gift boxes not only directly injected revenue into the sheltered workshops, alleviating the urgent personnel and operational crises of these institutions, but also served a demonstrative role in social advocacy. By taking the lead as a party chairperson, she effectively drew the attention of the general public and the business sector to the products of sheltered workshops, thereby driving more private-sector orders and purchasing willingness. This approach of transforming a politician's social influence into substantive charitable momentum has gradually gained attention in Taiwan's political arena in recent years, with various political parties frequently demonstrating care for vulnerable groups through different forms of social welfare participation.

In addition to direct economic support for sheltered workshops, the distribution of these gift boxes also reflects the role played by grassroots party organizations in the social safety net. KMT party chapters across all counties and cities in Taiwan have long been deeply rooted in local communities, maintaining close contact and understanding regarding vulnerable households, elderly people living alone, parentless children, and various social welfare organizations within their constituencies. Utilizing the dense organizational network of local party chapters to precisely distribute the nearly 13,000 gift boxes to those truly in need not only allowed vulnerable groups to feel the warmth of society and the festive atmosphere of the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival, but also further consolidated the connection and interaction between the party's grassroots and local communities.

From a broader political and social perspective, in the daily operations of Taiwan's party politics, beyond policy debates and electoral competition, fulfilling social responsibility to win the hearts of the people remains an indispensable task for all political parties. KMT's large-scale procurement and donation activity led by its chairperson balanced the dual goals of supporting the social welfare industry and caring for vulnerable groups. It not only served as a catalyst in practice, but also established a concrete operational model for charitable activities by political parties in Taiwan, extending political participation beyond electoral mobilization into concrete practices of daily care for society's vulnerable.