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Top China affairs
officials reshuffled
CROSS-STRAIT AFFAIRS: KMT Secretary-General Lin
Join-sane will take over as SEF chairman. MAC head Lai Shin-yuan will be the new
WTO envoy, while Wang Yu-chi fills her post
By Mo Yan-chih / Staff reporter
Wang Yu-chi, the newly-appointed
minister of the Mainland Affairs Council.
Photo: CNA
Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman
Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) yesterday announced that he would resign next week because
of health concerns and to pursue other career plans.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General Lin Join-sane (林中森) will take
over his position.
Chiang, 79, said he first offered his resignation to President Ma Ying-jeou
(馬英九) on May 18 at the launch ceremony of the new SEF building in Taipei and
urged the president to appoint someone as soon as possible.
Chiang added that he decided to announce his resignation this time before
receiving an official confirmation from the Presidential Office because the SEF
is holding a board meeting today.
“Because of my age, health and career plans, I decided to offer my resignation
and hand over the important duty of managing cross-strait affairs to other
cross-strait experts,” he said yesterday in an impromptu press conference at the
SEF.
Chiang thanked Ma for trusting him with the position, while dismissing
accusations that he and his family have close business ties in China.
“I hope my resignation will make all groundless accusations against me and my
family members disappear as well,” he said.
The Presidential Office later said Ma had approved Chiang’s resignation and Lin
would take over as SEF chairman.
SEF Vice Chairman Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) also offered his resignation yesterday.
During his term, Chiang has presided over eight rounds of cross-strait
negotiations with his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the
Taiwan Straits Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), since 2008, with the two sides
signing 18 agreements and the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).
Chiang’s resignation was just the start of changes in the Ma administration’s
cross-strait affairs personnel. The Presidential Office confirmed later
yesterday that Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) had
been appointed representative to the WTO. National Security Council adviser Wang
Yu-chi (王郁琦) will take over as MAC chairman.
Wang, 49, is one of Ma’s top aides, having served as a spokesman for the
Presidential Office and was involved in policymaking in Ma’s administration.
Commenting on the appointment, Wang said he would continue to promote
cross-strait relations and seek to convey the government’s cross-strait policies
in a clear and accurate manner.
Lai said she would take advantage of her four years of experience at the MAC to
promote the nation’s global participation at the WTO, based on the success of
the Ma administration’s cross-strait policies.
The personnel changes will take effect later this month.
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