President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is considering the choice of a new premier after his proposal to let the legislative majority form a new Cabinet was rejected by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), according to Presidential Office spokesman Charles Chen (陳以信).
Based on the principle of respecting the legislative majority, Ma is to consult with the DPP before announcing a new premier, Chen said.
Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) led his Cabinet members to resign en masse on Monday in the wake of the Jan. 16 presidential and legislative elections, which saw DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) win 56.12 percent of the vote to win the presidency and her party garner 68 seats in the 113-member legislature.
Mao has insisted on leaving the post, despite Ma’s hope that he would stay on until the president can persuade the DPP to form a new Cabinet. Mao has since taken leave, with his deputy, Simon Chang (張善政), acting on his behalf.
During a meeting with Presidential Office Secretary-General Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) on Saturday, former DPP secretary-general Lin Hsi-yao (林錫耀) formally turned down on Tsai’s behalf Ma’s offer for the DPP to form a new Cabinet, Chen said.
The newly elected lawmakers are to be sworn in on Feb. 1, more than three months earlier than Tsai’s inauguration.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
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