The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced the latest wave of a personnel reshuffle yesterday, including the appointments of new representatives to Poland, Germany and New Zealand.
Ministry spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said at a news conference that Wei Wu-lien (魏武煉), head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles, has been appointed representative to Germany; Tsai Erh-huang (蔡爾晃), a former ambassador to Belize, has been appointed representative to New Zealand; and Kelly Hsieh (謝武樵), head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Toronto, has been appointed head of the Geneva bureau under the Taipei Economic and Cultural Delegation in Switzerland.
Wei will replace You Ching (尤清), a technocrat of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who resigned recently as the representative to Germany.
Other possible changes overseas include the head of Taipei representative offices in Belgium, Italy and Brazil, Chen said.
“All these new arrangements are still in the pipeline,” he said.
Meanwhile, representative to Switzerland George Liu (劉寬平) said yesterday he had tendered his resignation a day earlier in light of his dual citizenship.
Liu’s resignation came amid reports that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration was planning to replace a number of non-career diplomats appointed by the former DPP administration.
Liu, who is currently in Taipei, told the Central News Agency’s correspondent in Geneva by telephone that he had personally handed in his letter of resignation to Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) at a meeting with the minister on Tuesday morning.
The letter was written late last month as the discussion over the appropriateness of officials holding foreign citizenship or permanent residency resurfaced, Liu said.
Although Liu filed a form to renounce his US citizenship late last year before he assumed the post of representative to Switzerland in February, he is still a US citizen because US authorities have not asked him to appear at a US embassy or consulate to complete the procedure.
Liu, previously a Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator, had been named in media reports speculating which diplomatic officials were likely to be replaced in the personnel reshuffle.
Liu also expressed displeasure yesterday at the way the ministry had handled personnel issues.
Instead of directly informing those concerned of its decisions, the ministry has allowed the media to break the news, which has also sown rumors, Liu said.
“This has damaged the reputation of diplomatic officials,” he said.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
STAY VIGILANT: When experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or fatigue, near a water heater, open windows and doors to ventilate the area Rooftop flue water heaters should only be installed outdoors or in properly ventilated areas to prevent toxic gas from building up, the Yilan County Fire Department said, after a man in Taipei died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday last week. The 39-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), an assistant professor at Providence University in Taichung, was at his Taipei home for the holidays when the incident occurred, news reports said. He was taking a shower in the bathroom of a rooftop addition when carbon monoxide — a poisonous byproduct of combustion — leaked from a water heater installed in a poorly ventilated
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