The full lineup of premier-designate Chen Chien-jen’s (陳建仁) new Cabinet was unveiled yesterday, with academics and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters among those appointed to deputy ministerial positions.
Incoming Cabinet spokesman Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥) announced the appointments at a news conference yesterday.
Professor and researcher Roy Lee (李淳) is to serve as deputy minister of foreign affairs. Currently the senior deputy executive director of the Taiwan WTO & RTA Center at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, Lee is to replace Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) following Tsai’s appointment as National Security Bureau secretary-general.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Wang Ya-fen (王雅玢), a professor at Chung Yuan University’s Department of Environmental Engineering, has been appointed deputy minister of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Wang, who currently heads the Sustainable Environmental Education Center and Taiwan Association for Aerosol Research, is to become the agency’s first female deputy minister, and replaces the retiring Tsai Hung-teh (蔡鴻德).
Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋), a former DPP lawmaker, has been appointed deputy minister of labor.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Former DPP Taipei city councilor Ruan Jhao-syong (阮昭雄) is to serve as deputy minister of the Overseas Community Affairs Council, while Chou Chiang-chieh (周江杰) is to become deputy minister of the Hakka Affairs Council.
Incoming Executive Yuan secretary-general Li Men-yen (李孟諺) said that the three new women appointed to the Cabinet has increased their number to seven.
Li said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) had tasked the new Cabinet with addressing four main areas — post-pandemic economic recovery, infrastructure, bolstering the social safety net and assisting the six key strategic industries of communication technology, information security, precision healthcare, defense, renewable energy and wartime necessities.
Outgoing Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) led Cabinet members in resigning en masse to facilitate the reshuffle prompted by the DPP’s many losses in the local government elections in November last year.
The 75-year-old Su, who has headed the executive branch under Tsai since January 2019, tendered his resignation on Jan. 19 after his earlier offer to resign was turned down by the president on election night.
Su is the longest-serving premier since Taiwan first held direct presidential elections in 1996.
The new Cabinet, led by Chen Chien-jen, who served as vice president during Tsai’s first term from 2016 to 2020, is to be sworn in today.
Separately, the Presidential Office yesterday announced that Lin Yu-chan (林聿禪), a former secretary at the Office of the Minister of the Interior, is to serve as one of its spokespeople, while Kolas Yotaka would be reappointed to the same position.
Yotaka returns to the Presidential Office following a failed bid to become Hualien county commissioner in November’s local elections.
Yesterday’s moves are part of a reshuffle that began with the appointment on Thursday of former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) as Presidential Office secretary-general.
Other personnel changes announced include the selection of former Presidential office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) as specially appointed deputy secretary-general to the president, Xavier Chang (張惇涵) as politically appointed deputy secretary-general to the president, and Chu Tsai-ching (朱財慶) to head the Presidential Office as senior secretary.
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with
RSS