Deputy Minister of the Interior Hsiao Chia-chi (蕭家淇) has been selected to assume the new post of Cabinet deputy secretary-general, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday, marking the third personnel adjustment at the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) in a month.
“Deputy Minister of the Interior Hsiao Chia-chi, who is an experienced public servant familiar with affairs concerning the ministry and the public, will take the new role of deputy secretary-general of the Executive Yuan,” it said in a press statement said. “He will serve as the premier’s right-hand man.”
The announcement was the third reshuffle to take place at the ministry in the past four weeks, following the removals of former Department of Household Registration director Hsieh Ai-ling (謝愛齡) and former minister of the interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) last month.
Yet while Hsieh and Lee were removed from their original positions, Hsiao has been promoted to take the new Cabinet position.
Asked yesterday whether Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) had called to ask him to take the new post, Hsiao said that it would be inappropriate for him to answer that question.
“I can only say that I have been mentally prepared to take the role for some time,” he said.
When asked if serving as the Cabinet’s deputy secretary-general would help prepare him to run in the 2018 Greater Taichung mayoral election, Hsiao said he wants to focus on his current duties, but “would not rule out the possibility of running in any election.”
“My new job as Cabinet deputy secretary-general be to help connect the Cabinet with local governments and legislators. It is a new challenge, but I will do the best I can and I am grateful for the promotion,” he said.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner