Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (
Huang was responding to a local media report yesterday that cited high-ranking Democratic Progressive Party officials as saying the government was very displeased with the fact that Lee was excluded from a meeting between Ma and a line-up of high-ranking US officials, including Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick.
The report said the government planned to replace Lee because it was dissatisfied with his performance.
Huang said yesterday that Lee was not at fault for failing to attend Ma's meeting with the US officials, as the KMT chairman had insisted on the envoy's absence.
"The US authorities initially wanted our colleagues in the US representative office to be present at the meeting [with Ma] and Lee made great efforts to participate. It was Ma who insisted that our officials be excluded from the meeting. So it's really not Lee's problem," Huang told reporters yesterday.
Asked by reporters whether Lee would remain in his post, Huang said "at least from the point of view of the foreign ministry, I've never considered changing Lee's job."
Meanwhile, Huang confirmed yesterday that the country's top envoy to the EU, Chen Chien-jen (
Rumor has it that Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Kau (高英茂) could be in line for the position.
"During his posting in the EU, Chen has gone the extra mile for the government. Now he has completed his duties and will retire. I want to express appreciation for his contribution," Huang said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,