Why keep these Yuans?
The Presidential Office on Monday said that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has approved the establishment of nomination committees for the Control Yuan and the Examination Yuan to assist her with selecting new members for the two organizations, and that she has asked the legislature to approve the committees.
This news made me feel distressed.
During former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) time in office, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) made a strong push for the abolition of both institutions.
In addition, then-Control Yuan president Wang Chien-hsien (王建煊) likened his institution to chicken ribs, which “are tasteless, yet people can’t make themselves throw them away,” while a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) think tank said that “it hinders the nation’s advancement and development.”
The pan-blue camp found itself almost lacking the power needed to keep them.
Why doesn’t the DPP propose changing the Constitution? Tsai needs to explain why the party now wants to keep both institutions.
Furthermore, on Dec. 10 last year, the legislature passed an amendment to the Examination Yuan Organization Act (考試院組織法) that would reduce membership from 19 to between seven and nine, and the term of office for the president, vice president and members from six years to four years.
According to a rough estimate, these changes would save the nation about NT$30 million (US$991,604) annually in personnel expenses.
As the Examination Yuan cannot be abolished until the Constitution has been amended, there is nothing wrong with this approach, but, surprisingly, now the government plans to nominate a full set of Control Yuan members.
This is really unacceptable.
Tsai Mei-chu
New Taipei City
As it has striven toward superiority in most measures of the Asian military balance, China is now ready to challenge the undersea balance of power, long dominated by the United States, a decisive advantage crucial to its ability to deter blockade and invasion of Taiwan by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). America expended enormous treasure to develop the technology, logistics, training, and personnel to emerge victorious in the Cold War undersea struggle against the former Soviet Union, and to remain superior today; the US is not used to considering the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN)
The annual summit of East Asia and other events around the ASEAN summit in October and November every year have become the most important gathering of leaders in the Indo-Pacific region. This year, as Laos is the chair of ASEAN, it was privileged to host all of the ministerial and summit meetings associated with ASEAN. Besides the main summit, this included the high-profile East Asia Summit, ASEAN summits with its dialogue partners and the ASEAN Plus Three Summit with China, Japan and South Korea. The events and what happens around them have changed over the past 15 years from a US-supported, ASEAN-led
Lately, China has been inviting Taiwanese influencers to travel to China’s Xinjiang region to make films, weaving a “beautiful Xinjiang” narrative as an antidote to the international community’s criticisms by creating a Potemkin village where nothing is awry. Such manipulations appear harmless — even compelling enough for people to go there — but peeling back the shiny veneer reveals something more insidious, something that is hard to ignore. These films are not only meant to promote tourism, but also harbor a deeper level of political intentions. Xinjiang — a region of China continuously listed in global human rights reports —
President William Lai’s (賴清德) first Double Ten National Day address had two strategic goals. For domestic affairs, the speech aimed to foster consensus on national identity, strengthen the country and unite the Taiwanese against a Chinese invasion. In terms of cross-strait relations, the speech aimed to mitigate tensions in the Taiwan Strait and promote the coexistence and prosperity of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in China and the Republic of China (ROC). Lai is taking a different stance from previous Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administrations on domestic political issues. During his speech, he said: “The PRC could not be the
RSS