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.
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
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88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
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