Executive Yuan Spokesman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) declined to confirm yesterday whether Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) Minister Tsai Hsun-hsiung (蔡勳雄) has declined Premier Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) offer to serve as chairman of CPC Corp, Taiwan, apparently unhappy with the recent Cabinet reshuffle.
“The premier will make the necessary arrangements for the Cabinet reshuffle and announce the changes when opportune,” Chiang said.
Chiang was responding to a story published by the Chinese-language Commercial Times yesterday that quoted an anonymous source as saying Tsai was sure to leave the government and had declined an offer to take over CPC Corp or serve in any other post.
The report quoted Wu as saying that Tsai had told him he wanted to retire.
Another story by the Chinese-language China Times cited an unidentified source as saying Tsai was upset at the recent Cabinet reshuffle and felt disrespected.
It had been rumored that Tsai was to be appointed vice premier after Eric Chu (朱立倫) indicated earlier this month that he would resign from that post to run for mayor of Sinbei City (the name of Taipei County after it is upgraded to a special municipality later this year) as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate.
Although Tsai dismissed the rumor, several lawmakers congratulated him during a question-and-answer session at the legislature’s Finance Committee on May 5.
On Thursday, Wu announced his new deputy premier — Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman Sean Chen (陳冲).
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co’s chief economic adviser Christina Liu (劉憶如) also told reporters last Friday that she had been appointed to succeed Tsai at the council, Wu did not confirm or deny the appointment.
Wu is scheduled to announce the new Cabinet officials on Wednesday, ahead of the second anniversary of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inauguration on Thursday.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
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