Kuo Hsu-sung (郭旭崧), the nation's health representative in Washington, will return home to serve as the new director of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in September, Department of Health Director-General Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) announced yesterday.
Chen said the department would benefit from Kuo's contacts in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Taiwan and the US have been talking about a joint AIDS prevention program to help the Republic of Haiti," Chen said.
"With his medical expertise and diplomatic connections, Kuo will play a key role in pushing the program forward and reinforcing Taiwan's cooperation with other countries in medical matters," said Wang Je-chau (王哲超), director of the department's public relations office.
Kuo's appointment was one of a string of new appointments announced yesterday.
Chen said that Chang Wu-shou (
"Chang has served as a bridge of communication between Tai-wan and World Health Organization officials since 2000 and has contributed to Taiwan's bid to enter the international organization during his stint," Wang said.
Liu Chien-hsiang (
Liu, the bureau's current vice president and chief operations officer, has been working to improve the controversial system since it was launched in 1995.
"I believe that his understanding of institutional operations is a great advantage," Chen said.
Another new appointee is Chen Tzay-jinn (陳再晉), the former director-general of the CDC, who will take over the department's Commission of Hospital Affairs.
Chen has been involved in the reconstruction of communications across the hospital system after SARS paralyzed parts of the nation's health system last year.
The commission oversees state-run hospitals and aims to enhance the medical services that are provided to the community.
Mary Huang (黃美娜), formerly the director of the Taichung County Government Bureau of Health, will take charge of the department's new Bureau of Nursing and Health Care.
Established after the Legislative Yuan ratified the Organic Law of the Department of Health (行政院衛生署組織法) earlier this month, the bureau will be responsible for promoting women's health, psychiatric treatment, mental health and the expansion of public medical resources into remote areas, including mountainous areas and islands.
"Huang has more than 30 years of experience in public health," Chen said.
"I believe she will do her job well," he said.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift