As of yesterday afternoon, much of the new Cabinet consisted of familiar faces, with six members set to remain in their posts and others being filled by incumbent deputy ministers or ministers without portfolio, sources said.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) on Thursday led the Cabinet’s mass resignation ahead of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) second-term inauguration on Wednesday next week, which is when the new Cabinet is to take office.
Sources said that Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇), Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) are among the members staying for another term.
Hsu and Lin were asked to remain because of their performance over the past 16 months, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Pan would remain because of his work in implementing the new curriculum in September last year, sources said.
Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津), Minister of Finance Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮) and Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民) are also expected to remain, they said.
Su has approved the resignation of Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), sources said, adding that Hakka Affairs Council Minister Lee Yung-de (李永得) would fill the post.
Lee, who headed the Hakka Affairs Council from 2005 to 2008 and 2016 to this year, has long cultivated cultural and arts circles, leading Su to ask him to succeed Cheng, sources said.
Yang Chang-chen (楊長鎮) is to assume Lee’s post, they added.
Minister Without Portfolio Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠) is to take over as minister of Science and Technology from Chen Liang-gee (陳良基), sources said.
Wu, who served as the chairman of the Industrial Technology Research Institute, was a technology policy adviser to Tsai during her 2016 and 2020 presidential election campaigns.
Financial Supervisory Commission Vice Chairman Huang Tien-mu (黃天牧) is to replace Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄), who has been tipped for a national security or intelligence post, sources said.
Minister Without Portfolio Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) is to replace National Development Council Minister Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶), they added.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to 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), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition