President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) offers of a position as a senior presidential adviser were rebuffed by former presidential adviser Peng Ming-min (彭明敏), as well as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweights Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃), sources said.
While former DPP chairman Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文) has accepted a post as a senior adviser to the president, Su and Yu both turned down the offer, while veteran democracy advocate Peng has “provisionally declined it,” sources said.
A member of Peng’s office confirmed that Tsai offered Peng a position as senior presidential adviser, but that he had refused the offer due to old age and because his recommendations on the direction the nation should take are routinely published by local media.
The staffer said Peng had served as former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) senior presidential adviser and that his expertise in international law had helped the government’s diplomatic efforts in the US, Japan, EU member states and other nations.
Peng believes that “the time is right” for Taiwan’s normalization as a state in the international community, and that the Tsai administration should make a “determined and forceful commitment” to join international organizations, the staffer said.
A source close to Su said he turned down the offer because he believes that in past administrations, senior presidential advisers and national policy advisers had been of “limited utility” and “little help” in governing the nation, and he recommended that Tsai do away with the positions.
Sources added that Tsai’s office late last month telephoned Yu to offer him the post, but he declined on grounds that others should have the opportunity to serve the president.
Meanwhile, the Presidential Office confirmed that the recruitment of senior presidential and national policy advisers is ongoing, but added there is no established timetable and it does not comment on individual cases.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
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