Premier-designate Sean Chen (陳冲) yesterday unveiled his Cabinet lineup after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) formally announced his appointment, with 16, or about one-third, of the 47 positions reshuffled.
All the Cabinet members were chosen because of their skills, which matched their respective positions, and regardless of their ethnicity or party affiliation, Chen told a press conference.
Chen said he was reluctant to use any “adjective” to describe the Cabinet, but that he hoped each agency would fulfill its full potential.
“The Cabinet is not the Chen Cabinet. It is the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China. I would not call it a finance and economic Cabinet, a culture Cabinet or by any other names,” he said.
Lung Ying-tai (龍應台), who served as the first director of the Taipei City Government’s cultural affairs department — an agency created by Ma when he was the city’s mayor — was named minister of the Council for Cultural Affairs, replacing Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗).
Chen said Lung would continue to lead the department after the council is upgraded to a ministry, scheduled for May 20.
Simon Chang (張善政), director of Google Asia Regional Infrastructure, was appointed minister without portfolio in charge of technology-related affairs.
Chen said he persuaded Chang, who he said has a profound knowledge of hardware operations and digital convergence, to give up a higher-paying job at a multinational company to work for the government out of a sense of “patriotism” and to serve “national interests.”
Chen Yi-chen (陳以真), a former TV news anchor who ran as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) legislative candidate for Chiayi County last month but lost, was tapped to replace National Youth Commission Minister Lee Yun-jie (李允傑).
Among the 47 Cabinet officials, 36 are male, 11 female. None of them hold dual nationality. Lung has permanent residency in Hong Kong, but she is in the process of relinquishing this status, Sean Chen said.
Four of the incoming Cabinet members have backgrounds in civil engineering: Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) and Chang, who have been tapped as ministers without portfolio; Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧), who is taking over the Ministry of Education; and Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源), who will head the Ministry of the Interior.
Four holdovers in the Cabinet are Hakka, including central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南), Hakka Affairs Council Minister Huang Yu-cheng (黃玉振), Minister Without Portfolio Lin Junq-tzer (林政則) and Environmental Protection Administration Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏).
Earlier yesterday, vice president-elect Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who was also the premier, led the Cabinet in resigning en masse, a day before the swearing-in of the new legislature.
Wu said a handover ceremony for the new and outgoing Cabinet members would be held on Monday.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) expressed their disappointment over the new lineup.
“The Cabinet reshuffle was disappointing in a lot of ways,” DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) told a press conference.
The new Cabinet was hardly “refreshing” as most of the new ministers are veteran politicians and familiar names, he said, adding that they were likely appointed as a reward for helping Ma win re-election.
Tsai said the most disappointing choices were Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Christina Liu (劉憶如) — who is moving on to head the Ministry of Finance — while Minister without Portfolio Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) was tapped to replace her at the council.
Tsai accused the two of being the “hired thugs” of the Ma administration for their attacks against the DPP’s presidential candidate, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), during the campaign.
“It would be difficult to count on the controversial pair [Liu and Yiin] to carry our country through the euro-debt crisis,” he said.
Tsai Huang-liang also expressed concern over the appointment of Chiang as minister of education. He said that Chiang, a university president whose specialty is civil engineering, might not have the expertise to carry out the KMT’s campaign promise to implement a 12-year compulsory education system by 2014.
Incoming Council of Agriculture minister Chen Bao-ji (陳保基), who had shown an interest in representing the KMT in the Pingtung County commissioner election, has been described as an academic with strong political ambition, Tsai Huang-liang said.
He added that he hoped Chen would be able to maintain administrative neutrality and work on improving the well-being of farmers.
TSU legislator-elect Hsu Chun-hsin (許忠信), who is also the party’s designated caucus whip and an economics professor, said he was concerned with the performance of Liu and Yiin, given their poor records.
Hsu, who strongly opposes closer trade relations with China, said the priority of any economic policymaker in Taiwan should be the creation of a diverse trade and investment architecture, rather than placing all its eggs in one basket — that is, China.
Additional reporting by CNA
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source