Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said yesterday that government officials would be limited to one bodyguard each except in extraordinary cases.
Liu made the remarks in response to a question by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) on the legislative floor.
The unnecessary allotment of police to serve as bodyguards for government officials has increased the workload for a national police force that is already short-staffed, Lee said.
Following the recent controversy over the alleged abuse of bodyguards assigned to officials, two government officials said yesterday they had given up their bodyguards.
The Government Information Office (GIO) issued a press release saying that the bodyguards of Shih Su-mei (石素梅), head of the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, and Jiang Yi-hua (江宜樺), head of the Research, Development and Evaluation and Evaluation Commission, had been transferred back to the National Policy Agency.
Out of the 36 Cabinet-level agencies, 15 heads of the departments were assigned bodyguards, the GIO said.
“[The KMT government] has reduced the use of police as bodyguards. More than 40 bodyguards were assigned to officials in January when the [Democratic Progressive Party was in power.] That number has been reduced to 20 after May 20,” Liu said.
Jiang said he didn’t ask for a bodyguard but followed the practice started in 1999 as his predecessor Jay Shih (施能傑) told him that he may encounter some problems when inspecting state-owned firms.
Liu said the Cabinet would conduct a review of the matter to make sure only officials who have security concerns are assigned bodyguards.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang
RSS