■POLITICS
Cabinet reshuffle finalized
The government completed its reshuffle yesterday, with Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) saying that Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德) would remain in his post, as would Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Vice Chairperson Lee Jih-chu (李紀珠), whom Wu said last week would leave the Cabinet. Asked why he changed his mind and kept Lee Jih-chu, Wu declined to comment on whether it was because she had told reporters on Thursday that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Wu had offered her four different positions to step down as FSC vice chairperson. The reshuffle saw former FSC chairman Sean Chen (陳冲) succeed Eric Chu (朱立倫) as vice premier, while the former chairman of First Financial Holding Co, Chen Yuh-chang (陳裕璋), succeeded Sean Chen at the commission. Meanwhile, Christina Liu (劉憶如), former Chinatrust Financial Holding Co’s chief economic adviser, replaced Tsai Hsun-hsiung (蔡勳雄) as chair of the Council for Economic Planning and Development. Tsai refused the post of president of state-owned CPC Corp, Taiwan, a position vacant since September when Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) was appointed to lead the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Late last night, the Executive Yuan appointed Tsai as chief of Sinotech Engineering Inc, a government-funded non-profit organization dedicated to providing engineering consulting services.
■DIPLOMACY
MOFA prepares Thai plan
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has prepared a contingency plan in response to the escalating conflict between protesters and the Thai government in Bangkok, with evacuation of Taiwanese expatriates the last resort, the ministry said yesterday. Spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said the nation’s representative office in Thailand had prepared responses to different scenarios and evacuating Taiwanese expatriates in Thailand was merely one of the scenarios. Chen said the office had not activated the measure, but advised Taiwanese businesspeople and other expatriates in Bangkok to stay in touch with each other. When asked under what circumstances the ministry would begin an evacuation, Chen said the measure would be implemented when expatriates’ lives are in danger. The ministry raised the level of its travel alert for Bangkok to “red” on Friday, advising people to avoid traveling to Bangkok after the US and the UK closed their embassies amid an upsurge in violence between security forces and protesters.
■TRANSPORTATION
KRTC expects to trim losses
Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp (KRTC), which has been in the red since the Kaohsiung MRT opened in 2008, expects its losses to fall by about NT$100 million (US$3.14 million) this year because of increasing passenger volume. According to KRTC figures, the metro system carried 15.3 million passengers in the first four months of the year, up 5.8 percent from a year earlier. “The daily average passenger volume rose by about 7,000 passengers [to 127,000] during the four-month period,” a KRTC official said. “If the growth is sustained for the rest of the year, we expect the loss for 2010 to be nearly NT$100 million less than last year,” he said. Passenger numbers were still far short of the 300,000 per day that the company has said it would need to break even. Last year, the Kaohsiung metro system incurred a loss of NT$1.54 billion after receiving a subsidy from the Kaohsiung City Government.
DEFENSE: The National Security Bureau promised to expand communication and intelligence cooperation with global partners and enhance its strategic analytical skills China has not only increased military exercises and “gray zone” tactics against Taiwan this year, but also continues to recruit military personnel for espionage, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday in a report to the Legislative Yuan. The bureau submitted the report ahead of NSB Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign and National Defense Committee today. Last year, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted “Joint Sword-2024A and B” military exercises targeting Taiwan and carried out 40 combat readiness patrols, the bureau said. In addition, Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s airspace 3,070 times last year, up about
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
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