The controversy surrounding the appointment of former health minister Lin Fang-yue (林芳郁) as the next superintendent of the Taipei Veterans General Hospital (TVGH) continued after an advertisement appeared in a newspaper yesterday accusing government officials of “shaming the medical field.”
The Executive Yuan’s Veterans Affairs Commission announcement last week of Lin’s appointment as the next superintendent of TVGH will take effect on Jan. 16. However, the decision attracted criticism from current and retired hospital staff because Lin will be the hospital’s first superintendent not promoted from within the VGH system.
Yesterday’s advertisement on the front page of the Chinese-language United Daily News contained a letter criticizing President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Department of Health Minister Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川) and Lin for “shaming the medical field” in Taiwan. The advertisement was anonymous, and ran under the name of “a group of humiliated medical staff.”
In the letter, Lin’s appointment was described as “shocking” and “out of the blue.” The letter also urged the Executive Yuan to retract its decision, or the hospital’s top management would advise against Lin’s inauguration.
Yeh denied the appointment was politically motivated and said, “President Ma was not involved in the decision-making.”
“The Executive Yuan has been planning to re-organize Taiwan’s medical facilities, including biomedical developments and medical resources in rural areas,” Yeh said. “Hospitals such as VGH and National Taiwan University Hospital are national hospitals, so there are many areas in which we need the VGH to help us out.”
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS