Reshuffle at foreign ministry sees Shih take spokesman job

Richard Shih (石瑞琦), deputy director of the foreign ministry's non-governmental organization affairs committee, has been handpicked to succeed foreign ministry spokesperson Katharine Chang (張小月) in the ministry's latest reshuffle.

Chang, the new top representative to The Netherlands, revealed the name of her successor when contacted by the Taipei Times yesterday.

"He is very smart and capable," Chang said of the 46-year-old Shih.

Shih declined to comment on his yet-to-be-finalized appointment when contacted by the Taipei Times.

The confirmation of Shih's next appointment at the foreign ministry ended a months-long guessing game over who was to succeed Chang as the foreign ministry spokesperson. Chang is slated to leave for The Hague in the latter half of February.

Despite his recognized ability, Shih was reprimanded by the ministry last summer in the wake of what was viewed as his mishandling of the Senegalese soccer team's visit to Taiwan.

A law major from the Central Police College, Shih spent the first few years of his career as a police officer -- once serving former Premier Sun Yun-suan (孫運璿) -- before joining the foreign ministry in 1983.

Before serving in his current post, Shih was deputy director general of the ministry's department of Asian and Pacific affairs after returning from New Zealand where he headed the Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in Auckland from 1996 to 2001.

Meanwhile, inside sources confirmed a local media report that Shen Ssu-tsun (沈斯淳),

director-general of the ministry's department of international organizations, has been handpicked to succeed Francis Chang (張添能) to head the department of West Asian Affairs.

Tung Kuo-yu (董國猷), director of the Geneva Bureau of the Taipei Cultural and Economic Delegation in Switzerland, is slated to take over Shen's position, inside sources said.