Executive Yuan spokesman Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) yesterday rebutted a report that said Premier Lin Chuan (林全) is considering a minor Cabinet reshuffle at the end of the year to salvage the dwindling support ratings of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration.
“Regarding the report claiming that there might be a Cabinet reshuffle, Lin said that all Cabinet members are doing their utmost to push relevant policies,” Tung said, adding that what the report suggested was untrue.
Tung made the remarks one day after the Chinese-language Apple Daily published an article quoting an unnamed member of the pan-green camp as saying that a reshuffle is likely to occur at the three most heavily criticized ministries: the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
The article said that the labor ministry was singled out because of its failure to communicate with the public and other government agencies over its proposed policy to require “one fixed day off and one flexible rest day” and “six work days and one rest day,” prompting protests from labor groups.
“As for the transportation ministry, it has also been shadowed by controversies, from the collection of tolls on national freeways at night during holidays and flooding at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to a strike staged by China Airlines’ flight attendants in June,” the person was quoted as saying.
The source attributed the health ministry’s unsatisfactory performance to its lack of concrete action on long-awaited reforms of the National Health Insurance Administration’s reimbursement scheme, as well as the nation’s medical referral and evaluation systems.
The report said that in an effort to improve communications between the legislative and executive branches of the government, Lin has been holding policy coordination meetings between the Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan each week and poached Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊), director of Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming’s (柯建銘) office, to serve as the Executive Yuan’s deputy secretary-general.
“Nevertheless, the pan-green camp remains dissatisfied with the executive branch’s performance,” the report added.
Tsai’s support ratings have noticeably declined since she was sworn in as the nation’s first female president on May 20.
Although Tsai’s approval rating remained relatively high at 56 percent in a poll published by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation late last month, it recorded a decline of 14 percentage points from May, while the percentage of people dissatisfied with her handling of national matters rose by 12 percentage points during the same period.
Another survey released by Taiwan Thinktank earlier this month found that Tsai’s approval rating has declined by 3 percentage points, with her disapproval rating increasing significantly by about 24 percentage points to 36 percent.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened 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), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS