Cabinet Secretary-General Lee Ying-yuan (
In order to maintain Cabinet stability, Lee indicated, the premier wants to nominate Lee's replacement from outside the Cabinet.
Sources said that the premier favors DPP legislator-at-large Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) as Lee's successor.
PHOTO: CHU YU-PING, TAIPEI TIMES
The premier is said to think Liu is an ideal candidate, Lee said on a radio show yesterday.
As for Liu's successor, DPP member Lin Chung-cheng (
Liu is in Indonesia for an international conference and was unavailable for comment.
Lin said he was not in a position to give further details before the Cabinet and DPP officially announce the nominations.
The Cabinet is scheduled to name its new secretary-general tomorrow.
Lin, however, confirmed that since the DPP is to elect members to the Central Standing Committee next month, he has received many congratulatory calls from party members who want him to run in the election.
Meanwhile, DPP member Lin Wen-lang (林文郎) is slated to replace Chiu Chang (邱彰) as a legislator-at-large, after Chiu was expelled from the party for "violating a party resolution" by refusing to show her ballot during the legislative vice-speaker election on Feb. 1.
Lin is to be sworn in on Tuesday.
Commenting on her ouster, Chiu said yesterday that she was helpless in the face off DPP and Presidential Office pressure.
She added that she is disappointed by the "infighting and power struggles within the DPP, which has lost its idealism."
After losing the legislative post, Chiu is busy finding new jobs for her legislative aides and moving out of her office in the legislature.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and