Former presidential adviser Lin Yang-kang (林洋港), a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) heavyweight who faded from the political scene after losing the nation’s first direct presidential election in 1996 to former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), died on Saturday midnight of intestinal obstruction and organ failure. He was 87.
Lin, also known as Uncle A-Kang (阿港伯), was one of the so-called “Taiwanese youths” cultivated by the KMT to consolidate grassroots support. He had served as Nantou County commissioner, Taipei mayor, chairman of Taiwan Province, minister of the interior and head of the Judicial Yuan, and was once seen as the likely successor to former president Chiang Ching-kou (蔣經國).
Chiang instead picked Lee as his vice president, which sparked a power struggle between Lin and Lee. In the 1996 presidential election, Lin violated KMT regulations and paired up with former premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) to compete against Lee and former vice president Lien Chan (連戰). The Lin-Hau ticket lost the election and Lin’s party membership was revoked for years until the KMT restored it in 2005.
Photo: CNA
Lin left politics after retiring from his post as an adviser to the Presidential Office in 2006, and went to live in Greater Taichung with his family.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday expressed his condolences to Lin’s family and praised Lin’s life-long dedication and achievements, including the decision to build the Taipei Feitsui Reservoir in 1978 amid concerns about the reservoir’s possible threat to local residents’ safety if it were destroyed in a natural disaster.
“His vision allowed people in the Greater Taipei area to enjoy clean and cheap drinking water for the past 20 years. It was a very wise decision,” Ma said in a written statement.
Ma also expressed his gratitude for Lin’s advice, saying he had often discussed judicial matters with Lin when serving as minister of justice. Lin, then the minister of the Judicial Yuan, helped facilitate cooperation between the Judicial Yuan and the Ministry of Justice.
KMT heavyweights, including Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), son of Hau Pei-tsun, also expressed regret over Lin’s death.
Wang described Lin as a respectful politician who made great achievements, and said politicians in future generations should learn from his dedication to Taiwan’s development.
Hau Lung-bin thanked Lin for building the Feitsui Reservoir for Taipei, saying it prevented a shortage of drinking water for Greater Taipei residents.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
RSS