With Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) backing out at the last minute, Taipei Deputy Mayor Teng Chia-chi (鄧家基) yesterday morning took his place at the inauguration of newly appointed Taipei Police Department Commissioner Chen Jia-chang (陳嘉昌).
The former Taichung Police Department commissioner took over the position from Chiu Feng-kuang (邱豐光), who was appointed deputy director-general of the National Police Agency.
Some have viewed Chiu’s transfer to a post that holds very little power as punishment for his mishandling of the Taipei Universiade’s opening ceremony last month, when protesters broke past police lines and delayed the ceremony’s start.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Ko had said he would not transfer Chiu as punishment for failing to prevent protesters from obstructing the Games.
However, Minister of the Interior Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) initiated the transfer and told him of the change at the last minute, Ko said.
Chiu’s transfer has been regarded by many as an indication of the deteriorating relationship between Ko and the Democratic Progressive Party ahead of next year’s mayoral elections, due to Ko’s soaring popularity after the success of the Universiade and his criticism of the government’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program.
Taipei City Government spokesman Liu Yi-ting (劉奕霆) denied there was a reason behind Ko’s absence at the inauguration.
However, a source at the city government, who requested anonymity, said the move was a form of “silent protest” by the mayor, which he decided to take after a meeting with his advisers on Wednesday night.
Several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) city councilors have suggested that Ko should contest the appointment of Chen, just as former Taipei County commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) had ignored the National Police Agency’s orders regarding promotions in 2007.
Ko said at a news conference on Wednesday that politics should not interfere with the affairs of police and the military, because they are civil servants.
Members of the police force said that yesterday’s inauguration ceremony was significantly differently from past practice, with several people who would normally have been there skipping the event.
During the ceremony Teng listed Chiu’s contributions to the city’s public security and commended him on his knowledge and execution of the law.
He cited Chiu’s apprehension of gang members without any protective gear and his rescue of the daughter of the then-South African military attache, who had taken the attache’s family hostage in their Taipei home in November 1997, from the hands of kidnapper Chen Chin-hsing (陳進興).
Protests in the city must be better handled in the future, Teng said, adding that social order must be upheld and respect for police maintained.
Chen Jia-chang bears a heavy responsibility in his new role, he said.
Asked by reporters if he felt wronged by Ko’s absence, Chen Jia-chang said he did not, adding that he would respect the government’s supervision and put his best effort into his work.
Yeh yesterday said that the police reshuffle was aimed at combating global terrorism, stopping the spread of illegal drugs and managing protests.
The changes were made with the officers’ capabilities in mind and not because of political considerations, he said.
Problems that emerged during the recent Universiade need to be addressed, Yeh said, adding that his decision to replace Chiu as police commissioner was intended to assist Ko in these efforts.
Yeh said he considers Chiu to be an outstanding officer and that he hopes he will cooperate with Chen Jia-chin to the best of his ability in his new role.
Additional reporting by CNA
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater