The Executive Yuan announced yesterday that former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) will serve as the new Mainland Affairs Council deputy minister, while former professional basketball star Rosa Chien (錢薇娟) will serve as the deputy minister for the Sports Affairs Council.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) called the new Cabinet as a “dumping ground for defeated lawmakers,” saying that Chien ran unsuccessfully in last month’s legislative elections as a KMT candidate, while Chang didn’t even secure the KMT’s nomination in the first place.
“This goes to show President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) arrogance — he ignores professionalism and treats government appointments as political rewards,” Pan said.
The DPP lawmaker cited other examples, such as the appointments of Chen Yi-chen (陳以真), who ran unsuccessfully as a KMT legislative candidate in Chiayi County, to head the National Youth Commission and Lin Yi-shih (林益世), who lost his re-election bid last month, to the post of the Executive Yuan secretary-general.
Other deputy minister appointments announced by the Executive Yuan included Hsu Jen-hui (徐仁輝) for the Ministry of Finance; Yeh Shin-cheng (葉欣誠) for the Environmental Protection Administration; Chou Yuan-ching (周源卿), Atomic Energy Council; Hochen Hong (賀陳弘), National Science Council; Wu Kuo-an (吳國安), Public Construction Commission; and Lee Chao-ming (李朝明) for the Council for Hakka Affairs.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by