Minister of the Interior (MOI) Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) was forced to leave the Cabinet after declining an offer by Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) to transfer to the position of a minister without portfolio.
Jiang asked Lee to decide whether he would accept the office by midnight on Tuesday, but Lee insisted on returning to academia if he was not allowed to stay on as interior minister.
Executive Yuan Secretary-General Chen Wei-zen (陳威仁) was appointed to succeed Lee, the Executive Yuan said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Lee, who has enjoyed a much higher approval rating than most Cabinet officials, denied that there has been tension between him and Jiang over the past months because of disagreements on various issues, as widely reported in the media.
However, “there had been differences in opinion,” Lee said during a brief press conference in the lobby of the ministry’s building.
“I wanted to finish the projects I’ve started at the ministry, and thought about resigning from my teaching post, but apparently my boss had different considerations,” Lee told reporters.
Executive Yuan spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said late on Tuesday that Lee had mentioned to Jiang last week that he had to make a decision on whether he would return to his teaching post at National Taiwan University (NTU) in Taipei or resign by the end of the month.
“Lee said that he would resign from the teaching post if the government wanted him to continue to serve as interior minister,” Sun said.
After discussing the matter with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Jiang asked Lee if he would like to become a minister without portfolio instead.
Lee turned down the offer, saying that if he could not continue to serve as the interior minister he would rather return to teaching, Sun said.
Jiang told Lee that he could call at any time before midnight on Tuesday if he changed his mind.
Lee did not make that call.
There has long been speculation that Jiang and Lee were not on good terms.
Asked why he turned down the position of minister without portfolio, Lee said his objectives since he took over as the interior minister have always been completing national spatial planning and nationwide disaster prevention projects, “and those are the only things I want to do.”
Lee said that he would return to the NTU as a professor and would not consider running in the upcoming local elections.
The Presidential Office yesterday denied that Ma had met with Jiang on Tuesday to discuss the reshuffle, expressing regret over what it called groundless news reports.
Amid reports about Lee’s problematic relationship with Jiang over his resignation and the Cabinet reshuffle, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday confirmed that he met with Ma to discuss the ministry’s failure to appropriate funding for construction of the athlete’s village for the Summer Universiade, and this has delayed the preparatory work on the international sports event the city is scheduled to host in 2017.
People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) said that it was a shame Lee was forced to resign because he was someone with exceptional talent who was not afraid to speak his mind and get things done.
Additional reporting by Jake Chung and Shih Hsiu-chuan
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS