Government Information Office (GIO) Minister Pasuya Yao (姚文智) came under fire in the Legislative Yuan yesterday because of his unreasonably high salary, which critics say is more than what he is entitled to by law and equals that of a Cabinet-level minister.
Yao told the legislature that he did not know how much he was paid per month and was merely following precedents. He said that the salary paid to People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), who assumed office at the GIO in 1979, was granted according to the same regulations.
When reporting on his official business at the Legislative Yuan, Yao was questioned by opposition lawmakers on the contentious issue of public servants' salaries.
According to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (
However, Lai said, Yao's salary is specially audited based on a previous law, which came into effect in 1968, rather than the more recent Organizational Statute of the Government Information Office under the Executive Yuan.
"So you receive NT$2.154 million annually. You should look into your own conduct before you criticize others," Lai told Yao.
Lai's criticism of Yao's salary was part of the opposition parties' attack on President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) recent announcement that the government would reduce the "overly generous" pension payouts for public servants.
"If you lawmakers think my salary has to be cut, just do it. Don't waste time elaborating on reasons," Yao 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
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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