Su Chi (蘇起), the newly designated secretary-general of the National Security Council (NSC)’ promised yesterday to serve only as an adviser to the president and not to go beyond the scope of his authority.
“[We will] manage [the council] decently and professionally. This is our expectation,” Su said when asked for comment.
“We will basically help the president gain an understanding of [national security] situations. We will not give instructions to any government branches. We will not do anything similar to recent events because that was unprofessional,” he said.
Su said he was not pointing fingers at any specific individual but emphasized that he “would not do something that shouldn’t be done,” an apparent reference to the Papua New Guinea (PNG) fund scandal involving three top officials, including former NSC secretary-general Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), who resigned over the case.
Su told reporters that he would refrain from making comments to the press in the future unless authorized by Ma.
He declined to comment on whether he was helping with Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inaugural address or whether Ma would deliver a message similar to President Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) “four noes.”
Su also refused to comment on reports he had suggested to Ma that Ma allow the current heads of the National Security Bureau (NSB), the Military Intelligence Bureau, the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau and the Coast Guard Administration to retain their posts.
Su downplayed questions about NSB Director Hsu Hui-yu’s (�?�) role in the Ma administration, saying that “stability” was the priority right now.
Some KMT legislators have voiced concern about Hsu staying put, including Shuai Hua-ming (帥化民) and Tsao Erh-chang (曹爾忠). Tsao said Hsu does not have the “strength of character KMT government officials have” and therefore should step down.
However, KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方), a member of the legislature’s Diplomacy and National Defense Committee, said it was appropriate for Hsu to keep his job because Hsu was familiar with cross-strait affairs.
KMT Legislator Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) said the KMT should have the breadth of mind to appoint proper candidates to proper government posts.
Ma’s office released a list of appointees to top security-related posts on Sunday night.
Among the names were National Taiwan University political science professor Kao Lang (高朗), who will become deputy secretary-general of the Presidential Office, while the deputy secretary-general posts at the council will be filled by Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Overseas Department director Ho Szu-yin (何思因) and former deputy minister of national defense Lee Hai-tung (李海東).
Five people were named advisors to the council: Kao Charng (高長), a director at the Chung-hua Institution for Economic Research, Tsing Hua University professor Chung Chien (鍾堅), Chen Teh-sheng (陳德昇), a researcher at the Institute for International Relations at National Chengchi University, Tsai Horng-ming (蔡宏明), executive secretary of the Chinese National Federation of Industries, National Taiwan University Philip Yang (楊永明) and Tamkang University associate professor Chan Man-jung (詹滿容).
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching