Department of Health (DOH) Minister Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川) yesterday refused to say if he would resign to stand in the year-end Hualien County commissioner election, but said he would soon make a decision and inform Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄).
Yeh said the media should wait until he reports to Liu because it was up to the premier what he would do next.
There has been widespread media speculation that Yeh would resign from the DOH to run for the commissioner’s seat as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate.
Asia University vice president Yang Chih-liang (楊志良) has been widely tipped to be Yeh’s successor because of his expertise in long-term care.
Yang is the deputy convener of a health department panel on a long-term care insurance program that is drafting a law to create the program by the end of next year.
The Executive Yuan would respect Yeh’s decision on whether to run in the election, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Hsueh Hsiang-chuan (薛香川) said yesterday.
Yang said Yeh had asked him if he was interested in his job.
Yang said he told Yeh that he would like him to stay in the job as long as possible because of the A(H1N1) flu situation.
It has long been Yeh’s dream to return to Hualien, Yang said, but some in the media have distorted this ambition to allege that Yeh was not interested in his current job.
Amid pressure from would-be candidates upset at the KMT’s plan to nominate Yeh, party headquarters did a U-turn on Saturday night and announced that it would hold a primary for the Hualien commissioner election.
Meanwhile in Taoyuan County, KMT Legislator John Wu (吳志揚), son of outgoing KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), won the KMT primary yesterday for the Taoyuan county commissioner election.
His rival, Taoyuan County Council Speaker Tseng Chong-yi (曾忠義), said that the primary had been unfair. He also complained that the party had suppressed him from the beginning.
Tseng said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had hinted in June that he would like see John Wu run in the Taoyuan election because his victory would make for a good story since Wu Poh-hsiung had served as Taoyuan commissioner, as had his father.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
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