The Presidential Office yesterday dismissed speculation about a personnel reshuffle at the National Security Council (NSC) and the Ministry of National Defense (MND) after reports that council Secretary-General Hu Wei-jen (胡為真) would be replaced.
Presidential Office spokesperson Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) rejected a report in the Chinese-language Next Magazine weekly that said Minister of National Defense Kao Hua-chu (高華柱) would replace Hu as part of a reshuffle of national defense and national security personnel before President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) second inauguration on May 20. Fan Chiang described the story as sheer speculation.
Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) secretary-general King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) yesterday also dismissed the magazine’s claim that he had declined Ma’s invitation for him to take over as council secretary-general.
King, a top aide of Ma, will serve as an unpaid adviser in the KMT’s International Affairs Center to promote party diplomacy.
KMT spokesman Yin Wei (殷瑋) said King plans to keep his promise not to take over any government posts or join the decisionmaking team in the Ma administration.
“Mr King said during the presidential election campaign that he would leave the political circle after the election, and so President Ma did not discuss the position or any personnel reshuffle with him,” Yin said.
However, it is expected that Ma, who doubles as KMT chairman, will continue to consult King on government policies and political issues after King returns to the party as an unpaid adviser.
KMT sources said yesterday that Ma was satisfied with the performance of both Hu and Kao and had no plans for a reshuffle.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift