The new Cabinet lineup announced by the Executive Yuan yesterday features many familiar faces from Premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) Cabinet that resigned on Thursday last week.
The list was announced at a news conference in Taipei by Ting Yi-ming (丁怡銘), who has been appointed Executive Yuan spokesman, replacing Kolas Yotaka, who has been appointed Presidential Office spokeswoman.
No changes have been made to key posts, with Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發), Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津), Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) and Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) staying on.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Also staying on are Vice Premier Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), Executive Yuan Secretary-General Li Meng-yen (李孟諺), and ministers without portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳), Lin Wan-I (林萬億), Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成), John Deng (鄧振中) and Chang Ching-sen (張景森), Ting said.
Two former ministers without portfolio have new posts: Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) will be a minister without portfolio, but also serve as National Development Council minister, while Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠) takes on the science and technology brief, Ting said.
Former Hakka Affairs Council minister Lee Yung-de (李永得) has been given the culture portfolio, while his former deputy minister, Yang Chang-chen (楊長鎮), is to take the top council post, he said.
Former representative to Thailand Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) has been named Overseas Community Affairs Council minister, and former Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) deputy minister Huang Tien-mu (黃天牧) is to head the commission, Ting said.
Former Executive Yuan senior secretary Huang Chih-ta (黃致達) has been appointed minister without portfolio, he added.
Transitional Justice Commission Acting Chairwoman Yang-tsui (楊翠) and National Communications Commission Acting Chairman Chen Yaw-hsyang (陳耀祥) have been nominated to head those agencies, but their nominations have not yet been approved by the Legislative Yuan, he said.
Asked about Executive Yuan Gender Equality Commission member Annie Lee’s (李安妮) criticism that the new lineup was more backward in terms of gender than the Cabinets of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), Executive Yuan Secretary-General Li Meng-yen (李孟諺) said there are four female agency heads.
The importance that the Executive Yuan attaches to gender equality is not only reflected in the Cabinet, but by its introduction of bills to address the issue, he said.
Asked if economic recovery measures to spur consumption would start this summer, Li said the measures would be reviewed next month and launched in July, when schools go on vacation.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching