Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday appointed Cabinet Spokesman Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢) as the head of the Overseas Chinese Commission, effective Saturday.
The position has been empty since last September, when Chen Rong-jye (
Since Chuang's successor has not yet been named, Cabinet Secretary-General Liu Shih-fang (
One frontrunner for the position is Government Information Office Director-General Arthur Iap (
Iap, however, told the Taipei Times yesterday that he has no interest in the job.
"If I were interested, I would've taken it as soon as it was offered," he said.
Although Yu was tightlipped about the shift yesterday, he hinted that he was leaning toward Iap for the spokesman's post during the year-end banquet with the media at the Executive Yuan on Monday night.
"He might change his mind and take up the Cabinet spokesman job if you guys jointly sign a petition imploring him to do it," Yu said, jokingly.
Chuang, on the other hand, seemed happy about his move to the commission post.
"I accepted the premier's offer right on the spot when he quizzed me on the matter on Monday night," he said.
Chuang, 48, referred to the spokesperson position as the "fax machine of the premier" when he took the job a year ago. At the time he was vice chairman of the Tai-wan Provincial Government.
Chuang served as political vice minister of the Ministry of Civil Service between 1996 and 2000.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
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