Premier-designate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) is to retain the economics and finance team from the previous Cabinet, but would make changes in other ministries and departments, sources said yesterday.
The incoming premier’s first priority would be to boost the nation’s economy and he asked the four ministers who make up the team whether they were willing to remain in their posts, the sources said.
National Development Council Minister Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶), Minister of Finance Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮), Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) and Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) have all been asked to stay, the sources said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Among those to be tapped as members of the new Cabinet are former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) as minister of transportation and communications, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Deputy Minister Chang Tzi-chin (張子敬) as EPA minister and Council of Agriculture Acting Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) as council minister, the sources said.
Former DPP legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), who like Su and Lin was defeated in the local elections on Nov. 24 last year, is to be deputy premier, while former acting Tainan mayor Li Meng-yen (李孟諺) would be Executive Yuan secretary-general, the sources said.
They added that Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) and Executive Yuan Deputy Secretary-General Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) have been asked to stay on, while Minister of Science and Technology Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) would be the new minister of education.
The position of education minister has been vacant since Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) tendered his resignation on Dec. 25 last year after approving the appointment of Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) as National Taiwan University president.
The government had held back approval for nearly a year, a position that cost the two education ministers who preceded Yeh their jobs. The new Cabinet is to be sworn in tomorrow.
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