Control Yuan member Kang Ning-hsiang (康寧祥) yesterday gave his strongest hint yet that he intends to take the vacant post of vice minister of national defense.
Asked at a routine monthly Control Yuan press conference whether he intended to take the post, Kang said, "[I have] plans to move in that direction," adding, "I am nervous [about taking the post]," and "I think it will be challenging."
But he also added, "The president is still awaiting my response."
Chinese-language media have reported in recent days that Kang is to assume the post on June 1.
One of the two posts of vice minister of defense has remained unfilled since the Cabinet reshuffle in February. At the time, Kang told reporters that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) favored him for the job but had agreed that he should complete his existing caseload at the Control Yuan before assuming the post.
Former air force chief Chen Chao-ming (
Although Kang told the press in February, "I am going to take the post," he later demurred, saying that he had not decided whether to join the ministry.
Throughout his tenure in the Control Yuan over the past nine years, Kang has focused on investigations of military cases, including the Lafayette frigate scandal.
Asked whether he thought his "future job" in the ministry might be made difficult by hostility caused by his investigations into military scandals, he responded, "Those probes helped me to understand the ministry better. If I join the ministry, I certainly will modify my approach to fit in with it [the ministry]."
Kang has been a Taipei City Council member for three years, a lawmaker for 19 years, a National Assembly member for three years and a Control Yuan member for nine years.
He has no formal military background other than compulsory military service.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS