The new Cabinet lineup announced by the Executive Yuan yesterday features many familiar faces from Premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) Cabinet that resigned on Thursday last week.
The list was announced at a news conference in Taipei by Ting Yi-ming (丁怡銘), who has been appointed Executive Yuan spokesman, replacing Kolas Yotaka, who has been appointed Presidential Office spokeswoman.
No changes have been made to key posts, with Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發), Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津), Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) and Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) staying on.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Also staying on are Vice Premier Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), Executive Yuan Secretary-General Li Meng-yen (李孟諺), and ministers without portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳), Lin Wan-I (林萬億), Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成), John Deng (鄧振中) and Chang Ching-sen (張景森), Ting said.
Two former ministers without portfolio have new posts: Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) will be a minister without portfolio, but also serve as National Development Council minister, while Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠) takes on the science and technology brief, Ting said.
Former Hakka Affairs Council minister Lee Yung-de (李永得) has been given the culture portfolio, while his former deputy minister, Yang Chang-chen (楊長鎮), is to take the top council post, he said.
Former representative to Thailand Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) has been named Overseas Community Affairs Council minister, and former Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) deputy minister Huang Tien-mu (黃天牧) is to head the commission, Ting said.
Former Executive Yuan senior secretary Huang Chih-ta (黃致達) has been appointed minister without portfolio, he added.
Transitional Justice Commission Acting Chairwoman Yang-tsui (楊翠) and National Communications Commission Acting Chairman Chen Yaw-hsyang (陳耀祥) have been nominated to head those agencies, but their nominations have not yet been approved by the Legislative Yuan, he said.
Asked about Executive Yuan Gender Equality Commission member Annie Lee’s (李安妮) criticism that the new lineup was more backward in terms of gender than the Cabinets of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), Executive Yuan Secretary-General Li Meng-yen (李孟諺) said there are four female agency heads.
The importance that the Executive Yuan attaches to gender equality is not only reflected in the Cabinet, but by its introduction of bills to address the issue, he said.
Asked if economic recovery measures to spur consumption would start this summer, Li said the measures would be reviewed next month and launched in July, when schools go on vacation.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS