Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen under midterm pressure over wages and pensions
Economic reforms required what she called ‘painful but necessary’ cuts, but voters are split over effectiveness with many impatient to see the benefits
As Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen reaches the halfway mark in her first term on Sunday, she is under growing pressure from a public tired of economic stagnation but critical of her reform efforts.
An increasingly aggressive Beijing is tightening the screws on Taiwan diplomatically and sabre-rattling with military drills, but the biggest protests in Taipei in recent months have not been about mainland China, which had triggered mass rallies in the past.
Instead, thousands of military veterans and other civil servants have regularly gathered outside parliament in emotive displays against pension cuts.
The rallies have included physical attacks on journalists and the death of a retired colonel, who fell from a wall during a protest.
Tsai has labelled the cuts “painful but necessary” to prevent public-sector pension schemes from collapsing and dragging down government finances.