Minister of the Interior Lee Yi-yang (
Lee made the comments during a question-and-answer session at the legislature's Home and Nations Committee meeting yesterday after Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) on Sunday released an order promoting 140 local police officers.
However, National Police Agency (NPA) officials responded on Monday by calling the promotion order invalid and said that the power to promote police officers lay in the hands of the agency, not the county government.
The central and county governments have been battling each other over the issue for the past few days.
"According to the Statute Governing Police Personnel Affairs [警察人事條例], the Ministry of the Interior has the power to handle personnel matters concerning the police," Lee said when asked by Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator David Huang (黃適卓) to comment on the recent controversy.
"Although the ministry may defer the power to special administrative cities, Taipei County is not a full special municipality, and we have never deferred the power to them," Lee said. "Therefore, Chou's [promotion] order is completely invalid."
Taipei County was upgraded to a quasi-special municipality at the beginning of this month, and thus is entitled to certain rights normallly reserved for special municipalities.
A special municipality is a city under direct Cabinet control with "a population of more than 1.5 million" and has "special needs in political, economic, cultural and urban development" according to the Municipal Self-Governance Act (
Taipei and Kaohsiung cities are the only two special administrative cities.
On the other, hand, Chou insisted that Taipei County enjoyed all of the rights of a full special municipality.
"Does the minister of the interior really understand the law?" Chou said when he visited Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
"Taipei County enjoys the same rights as Taipei and Kao-hsiung cities after amendments to the Local Government Act [
He said that all 140 police officers would be promoted as announced and would receive the corresponding salary increases.
When asked for comment, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Kuo Su-chun (
Kuo said the speaker believed Taipei County's status upgrade would be meaningless if it could not enjoy the full rights of other special municipalities.
In response to Chou's comments, the ministry issued a statement last night and said Chou has misinterpreted the laws.
"A quasi-special municipality is not a special municipality, hence it certainly does not enjoy the same rights as a full special municipality" the statement said.
Lee further elaborated that, according to the Local Government Act, a quasi-special municipality is only entitled to enjoy the same administrative organization and budget.
"The power to handle police personnel matters is certainly not included," Lee said in the statement.
Additional reporting by Flora Wang
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS