President-elect William Lai (賴清德) yesterday tapped former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) to be the next premier, to take office after the inauguration on May 20.
Lai made the announcement at a news conference in Taipei, at which he unveiled the slogan “an active and innovative Cabinet,” or “AI” Cabinet.
Cho, 65, served as the Cabinet secretary-general from September 2005 to January 2006 and again from September 2017 to December 2018, when Lai was premier under President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Lai stepped down from the post in late December 2018 to run for DPP chairman, a role left vacant following Tsai’s departure after the party’s defeat in local elections in November 2018.
Cho served as DPP chairman from January 2019 until Tsai began her second term as president, before returning as the head of the party in May 2020.
During his tenure from 2019 to 2020, Cho played a key role in navigating a contentious primary race between Lai and Tsai.
Cho is known as a relatively soft-spoken negotiator, with more than three decades of experience in government as a city councilor, legislator, presidential secretary-general and Cabinet member.
He largely stayed out of politics following Tsai’s return, until he was invited to join Lai’s campaign last year.
More recently, Cho was a member of a “study group” convened by Lai that helped formulate the candidate’s national infrastructure platform, and was a key member of Lai’s presidential campaign, organizing overseas support organizations.
During yesterday’s news conference, Lai said Cho was a perfect choice for premier because he is known for his communication skills and has prioritized national interests ahead of party differences.
“We’ve worked together for the same causes, and we have trusted and supported each other,” Lai said.
Cho said he was honored to take up the post, pledging to do his best.
He said he was given three major tasks by Lai, the first of which is to build an “active and innovative Cabinet” to transform Taiwan into a “smart tech island.”
The second is to establish a communications platform to solicit public opinion on major issues where a social consensus has not yet been formed to resolve difficult problems, he said.
The third is to create a “healthy Taiwan” by promoting equal rights and expanding investment in projects of concern to young people, such as affordable housing, education, employment and childcare, he said.
Cho told reporters that he would announce his other Cabinet members soon, adding that he would reach across party lines.
“I hope this active, innovative ... Cabinet, will as in the past uphold the spirit of a great democratic alliance, using people based on their talents without distinction to party affiliations and proactively training a younger generation,” he said.
Lai also named former minister of culture Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) as vice premier, National Development Council Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) as secretary-general and former Taichung city councilor Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) as spokesman.
Cheng, who served as Tsai’s culture minister throughout her first term, was a central pillar in shaping Lai’s policy platform during his presidential campaign.
The 54-year-old has not held an official position since she left the culture ministry in 2020, but has remained active in nonprofit organizations with liaison to the Tsai administration.
They include the General Association of Chinese Culture, which is headed by Tsai with Cheng as one of her deputies.
The association, with a mission to expand Taiwan’s cultural outreach, has been responsible for the visuals designed for Double Ten National Day celebrations and has hosted the Presidential Culture Awards for several years.
Kung has headed up the National Development Council since May 2020 while also serving as the Cabinet’s minister without portfolio since 2019. Before that, he was deputy economics minister for nearly one-and-a-half years.
The 60-year-old has been a principal architect of some of Tsai’s major policies, including shaping Taiwan’s 2050 net zero carbon emissions campaign and programs to promote the development of the cybersecurity, precision health, renewable energy and national defense sectors.
Local media have reported that National Security Council Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄), a lawyer by training, would likely take over as defense minister from Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正), a former army commander.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) would likely succeed Koo as head of the National Security Council, they reported.
National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥), who had previously served as Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the EU, would stay on as head of the intelligence agency, the reports added.
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
RSS