A Cabinet reshuffle is expected to be announced by Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) tomorrow following the planned resignation of Vice Premier Eric Chu (朱立倫), who is set to quit his post to run as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate in November’s Sinbei City election.
Talking to reporters yesterday evening, Wu confirmed that he had recently exchanged opinions on a possible Cabinet reshuffle with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
“Yes. We have reached a consensus [on how to reshuffle the Cabinet],” Wu said, but he did not elaborate.
PHOTO: PAN HSING-HUI, TAIPEI TIMES
Chu is scheduled to tender his resignation to Wu this evening after he is to be formally nominated as the KMT’s candidate during the a Central Standing Committee meeting.
Wu said he would sign Chu’s resignation letter early tomorrow morning and announce his successor and other individuals involved in a Cabinet reshuffle at a press conference tomorrow afternoon.
Elections for the heads of five special municipalities will take place on Nov. 27 in Taipei City, Sinbei City (the upgraded Taipei County), Greater Taichung (a merger of Taichung City and Taichung County), Greater Tainan (a merger of Tainan City and Tainan County) and Greater Kaohsiung (a merger of Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung County).
The Chinese-language China Times said in its editorial yesterday that the government must take the opportunity of Chu’s departure to conduct a thorough review of officials’ performance and shake up the Cabinet.
The editorial said Ma could not afford to “let one opportunity after another slip away,” especially with his popularity recently hitting “rock bottom” after two years in office.
It lauded Wu’s performance, who it described as eloquent, experienced and political.
Meanwhile, the Chinese-language United Evening News reported yesterday that the Cabinet reshuffle was likely to happen before May 20, the second anniversary of Ma’s inauguration. It said the change “would not be minor.”
Presidential Office spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) yesterday said Ma would take advantage of the special occasion of his second year in office to “report to the people” about the “many achievements” he and his administration have made in the past years, as well as his policy objectives for the future.
“The worst time has passed, it is time for us to see some results,” he said. “It is like eating sugarcane, the more you bite into its end, the sweeter it gets.”
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:
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