Opposition lawmakers yesterday continued to berate Minister of Economic Affairs Christine Tsung (
But Premier Yu Shyi-kun said it was premature to judge a Cabinet official who has been in office for just one month.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Tsung -- though taken aback by the legislature's feisty interpellation style -- said yesterday she would hang on to her post.
Tsung is an old friend of President Chen Shui-bian (
"You don't have to eat the whole apple to tell it is rotten," KMT lawmaker Liao Fung-te (廖風德) said yesterday. "The DPP has found an intern to steer the economics ministry. Tsung is obviously inept, judging from her performance at the Economics Committee yesterday."
On Monday, nearly 60 lawmakers from across the spectrum lined up to question Tsung, who vowed upon her appointment to turn the economy around and bring the unemployment rate below 3.8 percent within two years.
Tall, sophisticated and attractive -- Fortune once put Tsung on its "people to watch" list -- the former head of China Airlines spoke with increasing unease later in the day after giving a series of wrong answers to questions.
She mistakenly said the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant would be completed in 2011. The official estimate is 2006. She also floundered in defining economic terms raised by lawmakers.
Having lived in the US for decades before her return in 1999, Tsung couldn't help but intersperse her speeches with English. This drew protest from legislators who insisted they had problems comprehending her.
"I don't see how the minister can help the economy take off when she -- with tears in her eyes? -- looked crestfallen during the interpellation [on Monday]," KMT legislator Yang Chung-ying (楊瓊櫻) said yesterday.
PFP lawmaker Chou Hsi-wei (
Defending his Cabinet, the premier urged the legislature to give Tsung more time to learn the ropes.
"Having taken office for just one month, Tsung is still in the process of adjusting," Yu said. "Given more time, she will prove a competent minister."
The premier said the adjustment usually would take six months but Tsung, given her intelligence, could master her job in three months.
For her part, Tsung greeted the volley of criticism with her hallmark smile. She pshawed charges of ineptitude, saying a good minister did not have to be omniscient.
"It's unrealistic to expect a minister to know everything," Tsung told reporters.
"Rather, I will act as a strategic leader, overseeing and coordinating a staff of 70,000."
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
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