President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) offers of a position as a senior presidential adviser were rebuffed by former presidential adviser Peng Ming-min (彭明敏), as well as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweights Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃), sources said.
While former DPP chairman Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文) has accepted a post as a senior adviser to the president, Su and Yu both turned down the offer, while veteran democracy advocate Peng has “provisionally declined it,” sources said.
A member of Peng’s office confirmed that Tsai offered Peng a position as senior presidential adviser, but that he had refused the offer due to old age and because his recommendations on the direction the nation should take are routinely published by local media.
The staffer said Peng had served as former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) senior presidential adviser and that his expertise in international law had helped the government’s diplomatic efforts in the US, Japan, EU member states and other nations.
Peng believes that “the time is right” for Taiwan’s normalization as a state in the international community, and that the Tsai administration should make a “determined and forceful commitment” to join international organizations, the staffer said.
A source close to Su said he turned down the offer because he believes that in past administrations, senior presidential advisers and national policy advisers had been of “limited utility” and “little help” in governing the nation, and he recommended that Tsai do away with the positions.
Sources added that Tsai’s office late last month telephoned Yu to offer him the post, but he declined on grounds that others should have the opportunity to serve the president.
Meanwhile, the Presidential Office confirmed that the recruitment of senior presidential and national policy advisers is ongoing, but added there is no established timetable and it does not comment on individual cases.
A NT$39 receipt for two bottles of tea at a FamilyMart was among the NT$10 million (US $312,969) special prize winners in the January-February uniform invoice lottery. FamilyMart said that two NT$10 million-winning receipts were issued at its stores, as well as two NT$2 million grand prizes and three NT$200,000 first prizes. The two NT$10 million receipts were issued at stores in Pingtung County and Yilan County’s Dongshan Township (冬山). One winner spent just NT$39 on two bottles of tea, while another spent NT$80 on water, tea and coffee, the company said. Meanwhile, 7-Eleven reported three NT$10 million winners — in New Taipei
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
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