Soochow University president Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) confirmed yesterday that he had accepted president-elect Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) invitation to serve as premier.
“I talked with Ma many times, and we have reached a consensus. I agreed to serve as the premier of the new government,” Liu said yesterday when approached for comment at the university.
Liu said he would further discuss the details with Ma and finalize the lineup of the new Cabinet by the end of this month.
Ma is scheduled to announce his Cabinet around April 20.
Liu, who served as vice premier in former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) administration — alongside vice president-elect Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), who served as premier — is a long-time adviser to Ma.
After serving as vice premier, Liu became a close aide to former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰).
Holder of a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Toronto, Liu returned to academia after the KMT lost power to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2000.
Liu refused to confirm the news two days ago when first quizzed about it, but admitted the appointment yesterday after Ma spokesman Luo Chih-chiang (羅智強) confirmed late on Thursday night that Liu would be the new premier.
Luo yesterday denied he had only decided to announce Liu’s appointment after local media outlets received notes condemning Liu for having an affair with talk show host Ying Nai-ching (尹乃菁).
The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) carried a story about the affair two years ago, along with photos showing them going to movies and dinners together.
Luo said the office decided to confirm Liu’s appointment because media outlets have carried stories about Liu and the premiership.
He declined to comment on Liu’s alleged affair.
Admitting that his decision had met opposition from his family, Liu said he would try to persuade them to support his decision.
Ma refused to comment on the appointment, saying only that his office would clarify the matter.
A note was faxed to local media outlets on Thursday, drawing attention to Liu’s alleged affair and accusing Ma of trying to appoint a premier with suspect morals.
Liu refused to comment on the matter.
The DPP caucus yesterday said that DPP members wished Liu well as premier.
“On behalf of my fellow DPP members, I wish him luck,” deputy DPP caucus whip Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said during a press conference at the caucus office yesterday morning.
“Meanwhile, we also hope that the personnel for the new Cabinet will be decided as soon as possible so the current Cabinet can begin the transition,” he said.
Kuan said that she would not question Liu’s ability to carry out his new role because he had experience as vice premier under Siew. The DPP believed Siew and Liu’s experience of working together would serve them well.
“The DPP caucus hopes that Liu can carry out Siew’s economic policies and help to improve things,” Kuan said.
Meanwhile, Ma said in an interview on Thursday that his Cabinet, in addition to focusing on the economy, would concentrate on education, ways to reduce ethnic divisions and fighting corruption.
“People naturally tend to think that we will focus on economy. True, but that is only one of our focuses,” he said.
Although the economy has topped the list of complaints he has heard during his visits to more than 260 townships in the past year, people also want the government to pay extra attention to education, he said.
Additional reporting by Jimmy Chuang and agencies
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS