Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao Faces Backlash for Campaigning on Sick Leave

On June 29, 2026, the Education and Culture Committee of the Legislative Yuan was scheduled to review crucial bills concerning campus safety and the rights of teachers and students, including the "School Affairs Conference" regulations and the "National Education Act." However, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao suddenly requested sick leave on that morning citing "physical discomfort" and failed to attend the committee's questioning session. Shortly afterward, media outlets and local residents exposed that Cheng was not resting at home, but had instead traveled to Changhua County to publicly attend a campaign event for a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate and stood on stage to stump for them. This controversial conduct of "taking sick leave to campaign while receiving full government salary" immediately sparked widespread public outrage and fierce condemnation from opposition lawmakers. Critics lambasted that as the highest head of national education, evading legislative review and parliamentary oversight under the guise of illness, and openly violating the principle of administrative neutrality to campaign for a specific political party's candidate, represents a serious abuse of state resources and public authority. Despite attempts by the Ministry of Education and the DPP to defend the trip as a private itinerary, the explanation failed to defuse the intense public outcry regarding the lack of political ethics, integrity, and administrative discipline in the Lai Ching-te administration's cabinet.