Former minister of the interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) has been selected as the next secretary-general of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the party announced yesterday.
“A soldier does not have the right to choose the battlefield,” Hsu said yesterday of his new role in an upcoming party reshuffle.
President William Lai (賴清德) selected Hsu to serve as secretary-general, leaving him with “no choice, but to accept,” Hsu said at a media conference following a meeting of the party’s Central Standing Committee.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Asked about reports that he had given up an annual salary of NT$8 million (US$263,957) to assume the role, he said that his “salary as a lawyer was even higher.”
Passion for his career, not money, was his main motivation, he added.
Hsu said he first received a phone call from Lai’s office director before Lai approached him directly to ask his opinion of the backlash against the DPP after the failure of last month’s recall campaign.
When Lai was premier, now-Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) was DPP secretary-general, while Hsu served as spokesperson and minister without portfolio, he said.
Lai, Cho and Hsu worked well together, Hsu said, adding that then-Presidential Office secretary-general Chen Chu (陳菊) dubbed them “brothers.”
“Whenever Lai or Cho needed me, I was there,” Hsu added.
Hsu would succeed Lin Yu-chang (林右昌), who resigned following the failure of the recall votes.
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) who were on the recall ballot survived the vote, ensuring that the KMT, along with the opposition Taiwan People’s Party, maintain control of the legislature.
Meanwhile, Lai is to appoint Cheng Chun-sheng (鄭俊昇), former director of the DPP poll center, as deputy secretary-general.
Hsu said he had confidence in Cheng, adding that he is a “polling expert” who could make up for Hsu’s own shortcomings.
He would “not rule out” the possibility of holding regular livestreams on YouTube once he assumes the position, as he is familiar with hosting programs and the move would be in line with the party’s wish for the public to better understand its political directions, goals and positions, Hsu said.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS