Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday appointed his long-time aide Lin Hsi-yao (林錫耀) as the party’s secretary-general while also making former representative to the US Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) the head of the DPP’s policy-making body.
The appointments — Su’s first since the former premier took over the party helm on May 27 — also included three deputy secretary-generals: former Pingtung County legislator Lin Yu-shen (林育生), who is close to Su; former Tainan County lawmaker Lee Chun-yi (李俊毅) and former DPP spokesperson Lin Yu-chang (林右昌), DPP spokesperson Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) told a press conference.
A long-time colleague of Su’s, Lin Hsi-yao served for five years as deputy commissioner in Taipei County — now known as New Taipei City (新北市) — when Su was the county commissioner between 1997 and 2004. Lin served as the county’s acting commissioner between 2004 and 2005.
Photo: Lee Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
The decision to appoint Wu as director of the DPP’s Policy Research Committee has raised eyebrows and it appears to reflect Su’s intention to improve ties with Washington, Beijing and pro-independence forces within the DPP.
Wu — now a researcher at National Cheng Chi University’s Institute of International Relations — has wide experience handling cross-strait and Taiwan-US relations during DPP administrations and served as chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council between 2004 and 2007. He was Taiwan’s representative to the US between 2007 and 2008.
Su has also made efforts to divide power among major party factions with the appointments of deputy secretary-generals Lee, who is close to former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Yu-chang Lin.
Su has sought to nominate the best possible candidates for the positions, Wang said.
More appointments are expected to be unveiled at the Central Standing Committee meeting tomorrow, Wang said.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Passengers aboard Korean Airlines Flight KE189 arrived in Taichung safely yesterday after a scare the previous day encountering uncontrolled decompression, which injured 13 passengers. Flight KE189 departed from Incheon at 4:45pm on Saturday bound for Taichung with 125 passengers on board. The flight was above Jeju Island when a fault in the pressurization system occurred 50 minutes after takeoff. Online flight tracker Flightradar24’s data show that the plane dropped more than 8,000 meters within 15 minutes, before it returned and landed back at Incheon Airport at 19:38pm. Thirteen passengers on board had a headache or earache due to the incident and were hospitalized. A different
China might seek to isolate Taiwan and weaken its economy through a “quarantine,” which would make it difficult for the US to respond and force Taipei to negotiate on unification, CNN reported on Saturday. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “increasingly bellicose actions” toward Taiwan have heightened concerns that Beijing would use its military against Taiwan, it said, citing a report by think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). However, China might choose to initiate a quarantine, rather than a military invasion of Taiwan, to avoid US involvement, it said. “A quarantine [is] a law enforcement-led operation to control
A new message broadcast on the Taipei MRT’s Wenhu (Brown) Line urging passengers to yield their seats to those in need, not necessarily elderly people, would be extended to other MRT lines and public transportation in the capital, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday. Chiang was responding to reporters’ questions on the sidelines of a news conference at Taipei City Hall promoting healthy walking. Several disputes over priority seats on public transportation have recently been reported, sparking debate about who qualifies to sit in them, as most of the cases involved elderly people asking young people to give up their