Pingtung County Commissioner Su Jia-chyuan's (
Su's appointment was a swift decision, with approval from Premier Yu Shyi-kun immediately following the resignation of former Ministry of the Interior (MOI) head Yu Cheng-hsien (
Yu Cheng-hsien resigned to take responsibility for the assassination attempt on Chen and Vice President Annette Lu (
Su received the nod in recognition of his formidable performance in Pingtung County. Chen had assured Pingtung County residents on many occasions that a person as able as Su would not be neglected.
For many years, Su's approval rate topped those of local government chiefs. With this local support and forceful campaigning for Chen, Su helped make possible an impressive victory over the pan-blue alliance in Pingtung County, reversing the vote of the 2000 election.
A native of Pingtung, the 48-year-old Su holds a masters degree in Public Administration from the National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung.
County commissioner since 1997, Su transformed the relatively undeveloped county into a booming tourism hotspot with large-scale tourism promotions such as the highly acclaimed Pingtung Bluefin Tuna Cultural Festival and the Wind Bell Festival (
The tuna festival was so successful that Su has been compared to Ilan County Commissioner Liu Shou-cheng (劉守成) for his ability to create lucrative business opportunities out of relatively small injections of capital.
The tuna festival and Liu's Ilan Children's Folklore and Folk Games Festival have each generated nearly NT$1 billion in commercial opportunities out of an initial NT$20 million investment.
In addition to accelerating tourism, Su endeavored to rid his county of its mafia-base stigma and greatly reduced the crime rate.
He also started up national-level infrastructure projects, upgrading the county's export processing zone, developing large-scale biotechnology and agricultural science parks and establishing Hakka cultural-revival parks, thus creating lucrative businesses as well as employment opportunities for locals.
According to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (
Su's abundant experience in local government has prepared him well for the interior ministry post, considering that the MOI's administration covers the departments of civil administration, social welfare administration, law enforcement and the construction and planning service.
Apart from administrative experience, Su is also a seasoned Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member, and displayed strong political potential as early as 1985.
Su ran for the National Assembly in 1986 and fought with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) assembly members back when they were dismissively known as the "old thieves" -- representatives elected in China before the KMT government retreated to Taiwan. Su asked them to resign.
Su also served two terms as legislator between 1993 and 1997.
Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday morning announced Su's appointment, which will be effective April 9. He commended Su's comprehensive performance as an administrator.
"Until Su, over the past 20 years, not one Pingtung County commissioner has been re-elected. Su was the first commissioner to win a second mandate," he said yesterday. He added that Su's characteristics of "youth, calm and resolve" could bring about the reforms the country needs.
The first task Su faces is the investigation of the assassination attempt on Chen and a review of the resignation of Chang Si-liang (
Tackling police administration is not unfamiliar to the new MOI chief because Su comes from a police family himself.
Su's wife, Hung Heng-chu (
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
RSS