The new chairman of the National Science Council (NSC), Weng Cheng-I (翁政義), yesterday apologized profusely to legislators for his ignorance of the council's ongoing activities during his first policy report to the Legislative Yuan.
The former president of a well-known university was chided by lawmakers who likened him to a student who had failed his examinations.
Being ignorant of the council's affairs, Weng was sometimes unable to reply to questions at the meeting. However, NSC Vice Chairman, Steve Hsieh (薛香川), who has held the position for many years, was able to answer most of the difficult questions yesterday.
"I feel so sorry because I cannot answer the questions," Weng said, adding that yesterday was his third day as NSC chairman.
Weng apparently expected that his explanation would exempt him from being grilled by legislators.
"You look like a student who's failing his examinations," said KMT legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中).
"You may not have had enough time to prepare for the question and answer session, but at least you should earn support from your team members first and fight here with them," said KMT legislator Lee Sen-zong (李顯榮)
Legislators said that Weng should had not be exempted from the difficult learning curve required to be a Cabinet-level committee head, even though he had accepted the nomination at the last minute after a political conflict occurred within the DPP.
Last Friday, an anxious Chen Shui-bian (
During the questioning, it became apparent that inadequate support from staff appointed by legislators was going to be a problem.
Taking satellite-related projects as examples, the DDP's Chen Chung-shin (陳忠信) said that details regarding two satellites, ROCSAT-1 and ROCSAT-3, described in the reports were out-of-date.
"It's difficult for me to believe that NSC officials would take such an arbitrary attitude toward the Legislative Yuan," Chen said, adding that NSC officials had previously concealed up-to-date information from outsiders.
Experienced public administration experts said that Weng's problem with the existing bureaucracy would not be the only one for the new government.
"If he doesn't establish a mechanism of mutual trust with his staff, Weng will be dominated by technical bureaucrats," Ricky Wu (吳定), a public administration professor at National Chengchi University, said yesterday.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
RSS