President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday tapped former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) to be the new premier, set to take office after the inauguration on May 20.
Lai made the announcement at a news conference in Taipei, at which he unveiled the slogan “an active and innovative Cabinet,” or “AI” Cabinet.
Cho served as Cabinet secretary-general from 2017 to 2018 under Lai as premier.
Photo: CNA
He was also elected chair of the Democratic Progressive Party following its defeat in the 2018 local elections.
During his tenure from 2019 to 2020, Cho played a key role in navigating a contentious primary race between Lai and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
Cho is known as being a relatively soft-spoken negotiator, with more than three decades of experience in government as a city councilor, legislator, presidential secretary-general and Cabinet member.
More recently, Cho was a member of a “study group” convened by Lai that helped formulate the candidate’s national infrastructure platform, and served as a key member of Lai’s presidential campaign, organizing overseas support organizations.
At the event, Lai also named former minister of culture Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) as vice premier, National Development Council Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) as secretary-general and former Taichung city councilor Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) as spokesman.
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
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