President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration yesterday announced a reshuffle of its top national security, foreign affairs and cross-strait officials.
Presidential Office Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) is to replace Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維), who is to fill a vacancy left by National Security Council Secretary-General Yan Te-fa (嚴德發) after Yan becomes the minister of national defense.
Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Katharine Chang (張小月) is to be replaced by Chen Min-tong (陳明通), a professor at National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of National Development who headed the council from 2007 to 2008.
Photos: Taipei Times and CNA
Due to health issues, Minister of Labor Lin Mei-chu (林美珠) is to leave her post and be succeeded by Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春), while former chief of the general staff Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) is to take over the Veterans Affairs Council after Director Lee Shying-jow (李翔宙) departs.
Chang, Lee Shying-jow and Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) are to be appointed to new posts, Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said, without providing further details.
However, media reports said that Feng is to assume the presidency of a government-funded national security think tank, which is expected to become operational in May.
Photo: CNA
The personnel changes are scheduled to take effect on Monday, with the exception of Chen, who has to handle school matters first and would not report for duty until the middle of next month, Hsu Kuo-yung said
MAC Deputy Minister Lin Cheng-yi (林正義) is to step in for Chen in the meantime, he added.
Regarding Wu’s successor, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) downplayed speculation that it would be Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), saying only that the matter has yet to be determined and would be announced as soon as a decision is made.
Given that the reshuffle mostly pertained to the president’s mandates on foreign affairs, national defense and cross-strait ties, the lineup was not finalized until a meeting between Tsai and Premier William Lai (賴清德) at 1:30pm yesterday, Huang said.
As some ministers who would reportedly be replaced were not included in the reorganization, such as Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) and Minister of the Interior Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮), there was speculation in the media over whether another reshuffle could occur after May 20, the second anniversary of Tsai’s inauguration.
There were no leadership changes in government agencies overseen by Lai — other than Lin Mei-chu — because of good teamwork between the premier and those Cabinet members, Hsu Kuo-yung said.
“The premier also felt that his team’s momentum has not only not slackened since he assumed the premiership on Sept. 8 last year, but has continued in an upward direction,” Hsu Kuo-yung said, adding that any speculation of a reshuffle was unfair to the hardworking ministers.
Nevertheless, he declined to personally guarantee the other ministers’ jobs would be safe when asked, saying that politically appointed officials should always be prepared to leave.
In response to a reporter’s question on whether Wu’s appointment as foreign minister constituted a demotion, he said that Wu’s current and future posts are all minister-level positions.
Wu, a long-time trusted aide of Tsai on international and security affairs, served as the nation’s representative to the US, as well as Democratic Progressive Party secretary-general under Tsai’s party leadership from May 2014 to May 2016, when she campaigned for the presidency.
Following Tsai’s inauguration as president, Wu was put in charge of the top national security body before being transferred to his current post in May last year.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying