Five more new Cabinet appointments announced

Five more new Cabinet appointments announced

2024-04-12

Ahead of president-elect Lai Ching-te’s inauguration on May 20th, premier-designate Cho Jung-tai on Friday announced five new Cabinet appointments. Most notably, the new culture minister will be novelist and screenwriter Li Yuan, better known as Hsiao Yeh, who has links to with the camp of opposition TPP chairman Ko Wen-je. Li once headed Ko’s reelection campaign for Taipei mayor. The appointment may be DPP’s way of tossing Ko’s camp a bone, as his party holds the balance of power in the legislature, but Li insists he doesn’t have any political affiliations.

On Friday, a second round of new Cabinet appointments was announced by premier-designate Cho Jung-tai. One of the highlights was Hsiao Yeh as culture minister. The writer, whose birth name is Li Yuan, once served as the director for Ko Wen-je’s reelection campaign as Taipei mayor.

Cho Jung-tai
Premier-designate
Cultural people find that the public sector actually has a different working environment, but I am very glad that Li Yuan decided to join our action innovation cabinet without hesitation following careful consideration.

Li Yuan (Hsiao Yeh)
Culture minister-designate
I was only asked about this after the beginning of April. I hesitated for a long time, because my family was very worried as they thought I should not be taking on any official duties at this time. I don’t know why people kept asking Ko Wen-je about this. In fact, the reason why they solicited me, they said, was that I had worked in movies and television, and I’ve written more than 100 literary works of my own. I don’t belong to any political party or have any political affiliation.

In addition to recruiting Hsiao Yeh to realize president-elect Lai Ching-te’s vision of a "grand democratic alliance," the second round of new appointments also includes former lawmaker Liu Shih-fang, who will take over the interior ministry, Taiwan’s largest agency. Meanwhile, current Executive Yuan Secretary General Li Meng-yen will be transport minister. The chief prosecutor at the Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office Cheng Ming-chien will serve as justice minister, while Cheng Ying-yao, the president of National Sun Yat-sen University, who has twice served as the head of education for the Kaohsiung City government, will be the new education minister.

Cho Jung-tai
Premier-designate
In the future, we’ll have to refer to her as Minister Shih-fang. She has experience in regional governance in Taiwan’s northern central and southern regions, as well as the outlying islands. Minister Shih-fang will be entrusted with the most difficult responsibilities issues relating to corruption, gambling, public security and campus safety.

Seeing that there are only 38 days left before inauguration day, there are many rumors flying in the media as several appointments still have not been announced.

Cho Jung-tai
Premier-designate
If I haven’t mentioned anything officially, and if a name crops up, it would be extremely awkward, especially if I consult a particular person for the job, while another person’s name appears in the media. When we first meet face-to-face, it will be very embarrassing, the person will wonder if they are a backup or if I have any more backups in store.

No one knows when the new Cabinet will be finalized, Cho can only say that it will be done before May 20.

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第二波人事公布! 劉世芳掌內政.作家小野任文化部長

2024-04-12

520賴清德即將上台，準閣揆卓榮泰今天公布第二波人事，五位首長名單中，包括內政部長劉世芳、交通部長李孟諺、以及文化部長小野等，其中，小野曾經是柯文哲競選市長連任的競選總幹事，不過，小野強調自己沒有黨派屬性。

新政府第二波內閣人事亮相，準閣揆卓榮泰領軍宣布名單，亮點之一就是他，曾經當過柯文哲市長連任的競選總幹事作家小野。

[[準行政院長卓榮泰]]
"對文化人來講，公眾的領域當中，跟他們事實上是有一些不一樣的工作環境，但是很高興李遠部長他能在考量之後，毅然決然地要加入行動創新內閣"

[[準文化部長李遠(小野)]]
"四月初之後才接到徵詢，我猶豫了蠻久，因為我家人都很擔心，因為我不該在這個時候出來擔任公務，我不曉得為什麼大家一直問柯文哲，其實我覺得我被徵詢的理由，他跟我講大概都是，我對電影，然後電視台我也做過，然後我自己的文學作品寫了一百多部，因為我也沒什麼政黨，沒什麼政黨屬性"

除了找來小野，落實準總統賴清德"民主大聯盟"的理念，第二波內閣名單還有前立委劉世芳將接掌天下第一大部內政部、現任行政院秘書長李孟諺轉任交通部長、台北地檢署檢察長鄭銘謙將出任法務部長、教育部長找來曾兩度出任高雄市教育局長的中山大學校長鄭英耀。

[[準行政院長卓榮泰]]
"我們以後要改稱她為世芳部長，台灣的北中南以及離島，她都有區域治理的經驗，黑金槍賭詐，以及治安問題，校安問題等等，未來要拜託世芳部長負起最艱鉅的責任"

眼看距離520只剩下38天，還有多位內閣名單沒揭曉，外界傳聞滿天飛。

[[準行政院長卓榮泰]]
"我都還沒有談，名字都出現，我會非常地尷尬，尤其是我今天如果跟某一個人，要徵詢他的意見的時候，媒體出現了另一個人，我們第一眼相望的時候，都會非常地尷尬，他會問我他是不是備胎，還是問我說，是不是有其他的備胎"

壓力山大，何時能夠完成人事布局，卓榮泰只能說，520之前一定行。

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Ramped up aggression in the South China Sea, with Chinese Coast Guard vessels deploying water cannons and performing other dangerous maneuvers on Philippine boats.

It was a focus of the trilateral summit Thursday between President Joe Biden and leaders of two U.S. allies in Asia - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Joe Biden
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Any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke our mutual defense treaty.

China’s so-called gray zone tactics of intimidation, including ramming into ships fall dangerously close to triggering the mutual defense treaty between Washington and Manila. Marcos did not publicly mention China but couched his words in diplomatic terms often used to target Beijing.

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Mao Ning
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Biden, Marcos and Kishida announced new maritime defense deterrence measures, alongside infrastructure investments in the Philippines and collaboration on global humanitarian assistance efforts.

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For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
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Maiden EVA Air Kaohsiung-Hong Kong flight takes off

For the first time in nine years, more flight options are coming to Kaohsiung International Airport. On Friday, EVA Air inaugurated a new direct flight route to Hong Kong, in hopes of attracting more visitors to Taiwan. And just in time for the summer break, T’way and VietJet Air will be launching flights to South Korea and Vietnam from the southern port city.

For the first time in nine years, EVA Air has launched a new flight route from Kaohsiung. Its destination: Hong Kong. On Friday, the maiden flight took off packed with passengers, some of whom were simply there for the experience.

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I’m actually going to Taipei. I’ll be transferring flights in Hong Kong. I just wanted to go on the first flight, it’s an interesting experience.

Mr. Tsai
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After all, if more airlines have flights, ticket prices could become cheaper. So the more airlines, the better.

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We hope to attract more tourists from Hong Kong with this arrangement, which includes the flight routes to and from Taoyuan International Airport. They can enter Taiwan via Kaohsiung and leave from Taoyuan, or arrive from Taoyuan and return from Kaohsiung. This could all help boost Taiwan tourism.

Fu Yao-nan
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The number of flights is back to 70% of pre-pandemic levels. We have also been receiving a lot of messages with proposals to increase flight numbers and flight routes. So we should all take advantage of these opportunities.

Kaohsiung International Airport expects traveler numbers to grow with the new destinations on offer. Officials say they are optimistic about the resumption of all flight routes that were canceled during the pandemic, adding that they will make efforts toward that while maintaining flight safety.

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The patient had been transferred from a care center to Kaohsiung Municipal Min-Sheng Hospital, where he was confused for another patient in his ward. In the operating theater, neither the nurses, the anesthesiologist nor the surgeon confirmed the patient’s identity as required.

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Chen Chi-mai
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This was a very basic mistake on the part of Min-Sheng hospital. It’s very unprofessional. It shows that there were oversights on the management front.

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A former diplomat, Taiwanese digital activist,and musician tell stories of Taiwan’s political and diplomatic history.

The 2024 Taiwan International Festival of Arts is back in action. This stage production, titled "This Is Not an Embassy," is a joint production between Taiwan’s National Theater and Concert Hall and Germany’s Rimini Protokoll, and Switzerland’s Theatre Vidy-Lausanne. Teams worked together for two years to produce the work. They interviewed diplomats, soldiers, and secret agents to learn about Taiwan.

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This is a project that tries to portray how Taiwan has a complex situation in the world. Being a country not recognized as a country and I find that the Taiwanese have found so good and creative solutions of how you manage to put themselves on the map through creative forms like NGOs, civil society, from people-to-people, and culture actually can do this as well. So, we made a project that set up embassies in countries where you don’t have a real embassy for the duration of a performance. This has created a lot of human bindings.

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Should we be called Taiwan or the Republic of China? What should the national flag look like? This has different meanings and notions for people of different eras. We are introducing the complex political situation of Taiwan to people in the world. But at the same time, we are showing the greatness of Taiwan. Everyone can have their own beliefs.

The show will be performed in Taiwan from April 12 to 14. It will also be performed in Switzerland, South Korea, Germany, France, Australia Spain, and other countries. Each production will be tailored to the country in which it is performed.

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Each time we will perform in a new city, we will open a new embassy of Taiwan for the duration of the show. For all these openings of new embassies, we will adapt the show to the local situation. Each time, we have to reflect on the local stories and the local connections to Taiwanese history to Taiwan situation, and also to China.

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