Former Financial Supervisory Commission chairman Gordon Chen (陳樹) broke his silence on his resignation yesterday, saying he wasn’t suffering from occupational fatigue as Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) had said, but had “played the obedient subordinate.”?
Gordon Chen, the second minister to leave Liu’s Cabinet, announced emphatically minutes before turning the FSC helm over to successor Sean Chen (陳冲):“I was never tired of my duties.”
The comment fed media speculation about a Cabinet reshuffle.
Gordon Chen also defended six appointments an hour before his resignation last Friday, saying they were carried out in line with internal review procedures weeks beforehand, not pushed through at the last minute.
“This was the first time I have resigned from a post,”? he said.“That accounted for the lack of knowledge that I should not have made personnel appointments after offering to quit.”
He said he hoped his departure could contribute to the smooth running of the commission and boost the performance of local markets, hinting that he had been seen as a stumbling block.
Meanwhile, Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus deputy secretary-general, urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Liu to reshuffle Cabinet officials in charge of financial and cross-strait policy.
Lo said Cabinet officials who had failed to push the government’s policies and had low approval ratings should be replaced, especially those responsible for financial and cross-strait affairs.
However, she declined to say if she was referring to Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛).
Lai, a former Taiwan Solidarity Union member, has been criticized by KMT legislators since her appointment was announced.
“The reshuffle should be done as soon as possible. It is never a good thing to prolong the process,” Lo said.
KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said there was an urgent need to recruit “competent personnel” for the Cabinet given the nation’s economic difficulties.
Vice Premier Paul Chiu (邱正雄) was tight-lipped on the possibility of a reshuffle yesterday, saying only that“Cabinet officials responsible for financial policies had done a good job.”
Also See: Sean Chen takes over as head of FSC
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS