The Taipei City Government is a team in which ideas can be negotiated, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday amid rumors that decisionmaking power in his administration is too centralized.
On Monday, Lo Wang-zhe (羅旺哲) resigned as the city government’s spokesman due to “health reasons” after being in the role for less than two months.
Chinese-language media reported that city government insiders said the main reason for Lo’s resignation was frustration at decisions being in the hands of only a few people.
Photo: CNA
The reports said that Chen Kuo-jun (陳國君), a consultant, was among the top decisionmakers and was instructing — even at times scolding — government officials, so much so that a source described him as an “undercover mayor.”
Taipei Department of Civil Affairs Commissioner Chen Yung-te (陳永德) on Monday also hinted in a Facebook post that he intended to retire.
Asked about the post on Tuesday, he said that he feels tired, but has not spoken with Chiang about the issue nor made a decision about his job.
Even if Chiang wanted to talk to him about his job, the mayor might feel uncomfortable with it being so soon after Lo’s departure and due to his own friendship with Chiang, Chen Yung-te said.
Given the situation, he would not raise the issue with Chiang, but he does feel more tired than he did when he was a city councilor, he added.
Chiang yesterday said that he has spoken with Chen Yung-te and visited a temple with him on Tuesday, so their communication is smooth, while Chen Yung-te has been working hard to push forward department policies since he took office.
The city government is a team and all of its members are playing according to their roles, and its departments are working together, he said.
Asked about decisionmaking power and whether Chen Kuo-jun was an “undercover mayor,” Chiang reiterated that the city government is a team in which every member shares their ideas to be thoroughly discussed to reach the best decisions.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS