Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said he and all other members of the Cabinet would resign to help President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) appoint a new team to implement her policies.
Su made the announcement on Facebook after an hour-long meeting with the president following the legislature’s approval of the government’s general budget for this fiscal year of NT$2.69 trillion (US$88.6 billion).
The move came after the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) defeats in the local elections on Nov. 26 last year and Tsai’s resignation as DPP chairperson in their wake.
Photo: Lo Pei-te, Taipei Times
Prior to the meeting with Tsai, Su visited the legislature and thanked lawmakers for passing the budget, in line with past practice after the approval of an annual general budget.
Su, who became premier in 2019 after the DPP’s losses in local elections the previous year, said that “over the past four years, serving the country and the public has been an honor.”
Su said he tendered his resignation to the president immediately after the election defeats in November, but Tsai at the time asked him to stay on until the budget has been passed.
He agreed with Tsai that his immediate departure would have caused a delay to budget negotiations, Su said.
However, now it is time to lead the Cabinet in stepping down, Su said, adding that it would put Tsai in a better position to implement existing and new policies.
Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said Tsai thanked Su for his hard work over the past four years.
The government would work to appoint a new Cabinet over the Lunar New Year holiday, Chang said.
The government would review candidates and make appointments as soon as possible to ensure that government affairs and policy implementation are not delayed, Chang added.
Additional reporting by Wu Su-wei, Hsieh Chun-lin and CNA
‘DANGEROUS GAME’: Legislative Yuan budget cuts have already become a point of discussion for Democrats and Republicans in Washington, Elbridge Colby said Taiwan’s fall to China “would be a disaster for American interests” and Taipei must raise defense spending to deter Beijing, US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead Pentagon policy, Elbridge Colby, said on Tuesday during his US Senate confirmation hearing. The nominee for US undersecretary of defense for policy told the Armed Services Committee that Washington needs to motivate Taiwan to avoid a conflict with China and that he is “profoundly disturbed” about its perceived reluctance to raise defense spending closer to 10 percent of GDP. Colby, a China hawk who also served in the Pentagon in Trump’s first team,
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
RSS