Minister without Portfolio Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗) has been appointed Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA) minister, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said yesterday.
The announcement came one day after Wu told the press that as council minister Emile Sheng (盛治仁) had tendered his resignation on Thursday night after coming under fire over Dreamers, a musical staged to celebrate the Republic of China’s centennial last month.
Wu said the position left by Tzeng needed to be filled to maintain its vital function of overseeing educational and cultural affairs and promoting tourism.
Minister without Portfolio Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) and Environmental Protection Administration Deputy Minister Chiu Wen-yen (邱文彥), who are both on the roster of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) legislators-at-large for the next term, might also leave the government, Wu said.
Wu said one of the two KMT legislator-at-large candidates had already expressed his wish to resign, and the other might follow suit.
“We have already had minor adjustments in the Cabinet. Whether there will be more is still under consideration,” Wu said.
The Taipei Times was unable to reach Tzeng for comment on his new position because he flew to Europe to attend an international conference on science on Friday night.
A scientist recognized for his work in memory, psycholinguistics and cognitive neuroscience, Tzeng, 67, an academic at Academia Sinica, served as minister of education from 2000 to 2002 during the former Democratic Progressive Party administration.
Sheng resigned in response to public criticism over the extravagant NT$215 million (US$7.13 million) production. Opposition politicians and people in performing arts circles have lambasted the budget as being “exorbitant” for a production that ran for only two nights.
On Friday, both President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Wu acknowledged that it had negatively affected the public’s view of the administration.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS