The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has finally filled the vacancy for Taiwan's representative in Israel, announcing that senior diplomat Ting Gan-cheng (
The ministry had not appointed a replacement mission chief following the retirement of former representative to Israel, Teng Shen-sheng (
Michael Huang (
However, it has been alleged that this subsequently fell through as a result of Huang's involvement in the case of former US State Department official Donald Keyser's betrayal of state secrets.
The ministry denied this speculation and said that the delayed announcement of the new representative to Israel was because of Israel's invasion of Lebanon.
Ting has been serving as deputy secretary-general of the ministry's Coordination Council for North American Affairs and has served in the Department of Treaty and Legal Affairs.
Ting earned a master's degree in law at Soochow University specializing in international law and subsequently worked in the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Tel Aviv for six years.
Meanwhile, John Chen (陳忠), director-general of the Department of International Organizations, will be sent to New Zealand to serve as Taiwan's representative there.
This follows speculation that former deputy secretary-general of the National Security Council Parris Chang (張旭成) was originally the first-choice candidate for the position but that Chang was nixed by New Zealand.
In June, former representative to New Zealand Victor Chin (秦日新) was demoted to the post of consultant at the country's trade mission in Fiji due to his alleged involvement in embezzling official funds.
Also, Lo Koon-tsan (羅坤燦), executive director of ministry's Committee on Japanese Affairs, was appointed as the second deputy representative to Japan to join Chen Hung-chi (陳鴻基), Taiwan's deputy representative.
Unlike most countries, Taiwan cannot use its country’s own name to compete in the Olympic Games or other major international sports events. Instead, it participates under the name “Chinese Taipei,” a name that causes confusion and sparks curiosity among many people, including an American director who explored the topic in his new documentary. Garret Clarke, the director of the 20-minute documentary What’s in a Name? A Chinese Taipei Story, said in an recent media interview said that he was motivated to make the documentary because he finds the name “Chinese Taipei” to be “weird.” The dispute that eventually created the name dates back
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
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