All eyes on foreign ministry post

With Minister of Foreign Affairs Jason Hu (-J志強) about to become Vice President Lien Chan's (3s戰) campaign manager, legislators yesterday grilled government spokesman Chen Chien-jen (程建?H) on whether he will take over at the ministry.

"You are natural diplomat material but have been given inappropriate positions," said KMT legislator Chen Ming-wen (3祟??/CHINESE>).

When Premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) reshuffled his Cabinet in 1997, Chen, then deputy foreign minister, was expected to become the next foreign minister.

However, President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) chose Hu to succeed the then incumbent foreign minister John Chang (31孝嚴).

From today, Chang becomes the Presidential Office Secretary-General.

Chen has years of diplomatic experience: he was the director of the foreign ministry's department of North American Affairs, the deputy of Taiwan's representative office in Washington DC, and the second-in-command at the foreign ministry.

In between his stints at the foreign ministry, Chen was elected to the Legislative Yuan and was appointed the director of overseas affairs for the KMT.

Chen denied yesterday during interpellation that he has been approached to take over the foreign minister post.

"The truth is that no one has approached me ... and the matter was not brought up during the KMT central standing committee meeting this morning," said Chen.

When one legislator asked Chen who he thought should be the successor, he replied, "I have somebody in mind, but there are a lot of qualified candidates."

Chen also aced a foreign affairs quiz posed by KMT legislator Lee Ching-an (李慶|w) on the heads of state from the Philippines, Macedonia and the Marshall Islands.

"Diplomatic work is similar to propaganda work in that China is constantly trying to suffocate you," Chen said in answer to a legislator's question on how he would improve Taiwan's diplomatic standing if he becomes the next foreign minister. "Diplomatic work is multi-faceted, it consists of internal politics, cross-strait issues and diplomacy," he said.

Aside from Chen, the current deputy foreign minister David Lee (李?j維) and Taiwan's de-facto ambassador to the US, Stephen Chen (3紊??, are other contenders.

"Siew would probably want Chen Chien-jen to take over as foreign minister because he feels like he owes him the post," said one foreign ministry official.

"Chen is familiar with the workings of the foreign ministry. He is more conservative compared to Hu, but very experienced," he said.

Local reports said that the appointment of the next foreign minister will be confirmed at the KMT central standing committee meeting next Wednesday.