The Presidential Office yesterday confirmed that Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (
Chen, 69, has been a persistent Taiwan independence promoter since the 1970s, when he studied in the US. The prominent former overseas leader of the democratic movement headed the Taiwanese Association of America and the World Federation of Taiwanese Associations in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
He was also instrumental in establishing the Washington-based Formosan Association for Public Affairs in the early 1980s, which promoted democratization. It has been widely speculated by local media that his appointment to be the president's No. 1 man could be attributed to his strong sense of Taiwan consciousness, which is important in light of the cross-strait issues the president raised in his latest New Year address.
At a year-end gathering with the media yesterday, President Chen Shui-bian (
"You have to be loyal to yourself, your work, the land and the people here," the president said.
The Presidential Office yesterday also announced that Cabinet Spokesman Cho Jung-tai (
Huang will be officially designated as Minister of Foreign Affairs tomorrow. Since the president announced last Thursday that the new Cabinet will be led by former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Su Tseng-chang (
Controversy especially surrounded Huang and Minister of the Public Construction Commission Kuo Yao-Chi (
Opposition parties have criticized some new Cabinet members for not having adequate experience in the fields to which they have been designated. They have also expressed concern about the president's involvement in the composition of the Cabinet.
The president yesterday expressed deep appreciation to outgoing premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), who officially resigned yesterday. Recent public statements by Hsieh have indicated that the president has adopted a more reluctant attitude toward cross-strait issues.
"I hope that Hsieh will have a smooth future. However, all of us are in the same boat. None of us can be allowed to unbalance it," Chen Shui-bian said.
A number of former Cabinet members who had just resigned were designated fully-paid National Policy Advisers to the president yesterday. They include Lin Ling-san (
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
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