Taiwan’s legislature passes changes seen as favoring China, reducing president’s power

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s opposition-controlled legislature has passed changes that are seen as favoring China and diminishing the power of the island’s president. The changes pushed by the opposition Nationalist Party and its allies on Tuesday would give the body greater power to control budgets, including defense spending that the party has blocked in what many see as a concession to China. The Nationalists officially back unification with China, from which Taiwan separated during a civil war in 1949. They took control of the legislature with a single-seat majority after elections in January, while the presidency went to Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party, which favors Taiwan’s de facto independence from China.