Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) yesterday sat down with 88 advisers to the Executive Yuan for a two-hour closed-door meeting followed by lunch, with some of the attendees being voter brokers who are influential in mobilizing people in elections.
Among the participants who have drawn media attention were Chen Ting-yun (陳釘雲), a former president of the Changhua County Farmland Irrigation Association, and Liang Chun-liang (梁俊良), former president of the Taitung County Farmland Irrigation Association.
Observers say that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has long knitted together local networks of politicians in every country and city for the purpose of mobilizing votes.
Also at the meeting, two Cabinet advisers were appointed: Chen Tien-pu (陳田圃), who is connected with former Kaohsiung City Council speaker Chen Tien-mao (陳田錨), whose family is considered to be one of the three most politically influential in Greater Kaohsiung; and former National Assembly member Lin Chin-nung (林欽濃), a leader of Greater Taichung’s Red Faction.
Also attending was former Pingtung County Council speaker Chen Chin-hsing (陳進興), a local faction leader who has been campaigning for KMT Kaohsiung mayoral candidate, Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) — who served as Executive Yuan minister without portfolio since 2012.
The number of advisers to the Executive Yuan, a position without remuneration, has increased to 200 from 40 since 2012, when Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) was premier.
Jiang met the other 112 advisers on Friday last week.
In his opening remarks yesterday, Jiang said he appreciated suggestions the advisers have been offering to the Cabinet on policy implementation, saying that they are elites and have rich experience and professionalism from all walks of life.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
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.
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,
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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