Taiwan Politics: One article to understand the key cabinet officials of Lai Ching-te’s new government – BBC News Chinese

Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te, who will take office on May 20 this year, has successively announced the cabinet list. Former Democratic Progressive Party Chairman Zhuo Rongtai will serve as the Executive President, and former Culture Minister Cheng Lijun will serve as the Vice President.

On Thursday (April 25), Lai personally announced the final personnel layout of the cabinet and national security team of the ruling team, including Foreign Minister Lin Jialong, Defense Minister Gu Lixiong, National Security Director Cai Mingyan, Secretary-General of the Presidential Palace Pan Mengan, and Secretary-General of the National Security Council Joseph Wu, etc. .

The cabinet personnel announced one after another also include Chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council Qiu Chuizheng, Chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation Zheng Wencan, Minister of Culture Li Yuan (pseudonym Ono), Minister of the Interior Liu Shifang, Minister of Transportation Li Mengyan and others.

Analyzing the composition of Lai Ching-te’s new government, Zhang Junhao, a professor at the Department of Political Science at Tunghai University in Taiwan, told BBC Chinese that looking at the new cabinet officials in the national security system and cross-strait diplomacy, it can be seen that the current officials are still the main ones. Even if their positions are transferred, they are still mainly It is a continuation of Tsai Ing-wen’s cross-strait diplomatic line, “seeking the stability of the national security system.” Many people on the new cabinet list are important figures in Tsai Ing-wen’s government.

However, Zhang Junhao said that in terms of domestic affairs, it can be seen that many ministers are from southern Taiwan, or have served as the right-hand man of Lai Qingde, the mayor of Tainan at the time. These have some colors that Lai Qingde brought from the south. “Looking at the new Minister of Justice, Cheng Mingqian, he has handled many major cases. It is expected that after he takes office, he will launch an anti-corruption campaign or actively handle some of the malpractice cases that occurred during the party’s past administration.”

The following is part of the cabinet list of Lai Qingde’s new government compiled by BBC Chinese.

Zhuo Rongtai was born in Taipei City and has been in politics for more than 30 years. He graduated from the Law Department of Taipei National Chung Hsing University. Since 1987, he has served as the parliamentary assistant to Hsieh Chang-ting, the leader of the Democratic Progressive Party, and started his career in politics. Later, he was elected to two terms as Taipei City Councilor and Legislator.

In 2017, Zhuo Rongtai served as Secretary-General of the Executive Yuan during Lai Ching-tak’s cabinet. After the DPP’s “nine-in-one” election defeat in November 2018, President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as chairman of the DPP. Zhuo Rongtai was appointed by the DPP Recommended by insiders, he was elected as the 16th Party Chairman of the Voting Party. According to Taiwan’s Central Broadcasting News Network, outsiders have commented that Zhuo Rongtai has good coordination skills. In the past, he played the role of coordinator between various ministries in the Executive Yuan and between the central government and political parties.

Lai Ching-tak said that the main reason for choosing Zhuo Wengtai is that Mr. Zhuo is good at communication and coordination. “He can transcend personal or party differences in complex issues and quickly find directions and build consensus.” Lai Qingde also said that Zhuo Wengtai can fully Master the central and local, parliamentary and administrative issues, “accustomed to listening to public opinion, and also know the parliamentary deliberations and operations.”

In addition, there are also comments that Zhuo Rongtai has a good relationship with Huang Shanshan, the core of the People’s Party and former deputy mayor of Taipei City, and has smooth communication. He can help the Lai Ching-te government communicate with the opposition parties, especially Ko Wenzhe, chairman of the People’s Party.

The deputy director announced this time is Taiwan’s former Culture Minister Cheng Li-jun. Cheng Lijun is also the third female deputy cabinet minister in Taiwan’s political history. The first two are former Transportation Minister Ye Julan and current President Tsai Ing-wen.

Zheng Lijun was born in Taipei, and her parents were from Miaoli County. After graduating from Taipei University, she was admitted to the Department of Civil Engineering of National Taiwan University and later transferred to the Department of Philosophy.

During her college years, Zheng Lijun participated in the “Wild Lily Movement”, a student movement in Taiwan. Later, Zheng Lijun went to France to study, and studied in the doctoral program in philosophy at the University of Paris 10. After that, she took a leave of absence and returned to Taiwan to join the Chen Shui-bian cabinet. In 2004, she took over as the chairman of the Youth League and became a contemporary The youngest cabinet in Taiwan’s political history, and was later nominated as a non-district legislator of the Democratic Progressive Party.

In 2016, Zheng Lijun joined Tsai Ing-wen’s government as the Minister of Culture, and the cultural policies she introduced were deeply recognized by Taiwan’s cultural circles and young people. She is regarded as Lai Ching-te’s right-hand man in policy governance. During the election, she was the convener of Lai Ching-te’s campaign team’s “National Policy Advisory Group” and planned Lai Ching-te’s governing white paper. She was also once rumored to be Lai Ching-te’s deputy partner.

After joining the Executive Yuan’s senior leadership this time, external analysts say Cheng Lijun is regarded as an important candidate for Lai Ching-te’s governance and communication with Taiwan’s youth, and her career in politics will not stop there.

The Minister of National Defense will be Secretary-General of the National Security Council Gu Lixiong. He is the seventh “civilian minister” with non-military background in Taiwan’s contemporary cabinet history. Gu Lixiong was originally a well-known lawyer in Taiwan. He later served as a representative and legislator of the task-oriented National Congress. After Tsai Ing-wen came to power, he was promoted to the cabinet. He successively served as chairman of the Financial Supervision Commission and secretary-general of the National Security Council. He is Tsai Ing-wen’s right-hand man.

Gu Lixiong is 65 years old. He graduated from the Law Department of National Taiwan University and studied in New York, the United States. Mr. Gu’s spouse is Wang Meihua, the current Minister of Economic Affairs of Taiwan.

According to the Taiwan media “Liberty Times”, Gu Lixiong is deeply trusted by Tsai Ing-wen and Deputy Lai Qingde, which is the main reason why he became the Minister of Defense. Lai Qingde hopes that Gu Lixiong can achieve the identity of Taiwan’s military that “the country has no differences and Taiwan is the center” .

Chen Yongkang, who came from a high-level position in Taiwan’s military and is now a KMT legislator, told the Taiwan media Lianhe Daily that when Gu Lixiong takes over as the Minister of Defense, he looks forward to “more exchanges, more communication, more interaction, and more support” for the national security team in the future. Chen Yongkang also said that he has successively pointed out to the Tsai administration that there are still many problems in Taiwan’s national security system and military building, and that the new government will be more demanding after taking office.

Another Kuomintang legislator, Lai Shibao, questioned whether “civilian ministers” with no military background could suppress the various military services. This is a big problem.

In 2022, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council of China announced sanctions against a group of “Taiwan independence die-hards” included on the list. Gu Lixiong is one of the sanctioned persons on the list, including Vice President-elect Hsiao Meiqin, former Executive Yuan President Su Tseng-chang and others Also tied on this list.

Lin Jialong is the current Secretary-General of the Presidential Office and Ambassador-at-large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan.

Lin Jialong was born in Wanhua, Taipei. His father came from Mailiao Village in Yunlin and was not from a wealthy background. He holds a PhD from the Department of Political Science at Yale University in the United States. He studied Taiwan’s party politics and China’s system before entering politics. He is a well-known young political scholar.

According to his book, while studying in the United States in 1995, due to a research project, he accepted an invitation from the Ford Foundation to conduct research on “Village Autonomy and Grassroots Elections” in Beijing, Shanghai and other places. Many years ago, I also collaborated with personnel from the Chinese State Council on research, and communicated with overseas Chinese people such as Yan Jiaqi and Zheng Yongnian.

In fact, in the late 1980s, Lin Jialong was an important participant in the “Wild Lily Student Movement” when he was a student at Taiwan University. After studying abroad and returning to Taiwan to work as a scholar for several years, he was immediately promoted by Chen Shui-bian to important party and government positions.

Lin Jialong has served as Minister of Transportation, Mayor of Taichung, Deputy Secretary-General of the Presidential Office, Information Director of the Executive Yuan, Secretary-General of the Democratic Progressive Party, and Legislator. He is regarded as the leader of the “Main Congress” faction within the Democratic Progressive Party, and the goal of this faction is to pursue Taiwan’s “national normalization.”

As Minister of Foreign Affairs this time, Lin Jialong’s clear Taiwanese local stance and non-diplomatic background have become important challenges for assuming this position.

According to the website of the Presidential Office of Taiwan, the National Security Council (National Security Council) is an advisory body for the President of Taiwan to decide on major policies related to national security. The President may convene a National Security Council as necessary to listen to the opinions of participants, and the resolutions of the meeting shall be regarded as presidential decisions. reference.

Taiwan’s National Security Council is also considered by some analysts to be the same as the “National Security Council” of the United States and the “Central National Security Council” of mainland China, a very high-level unit.

The new cabinet includes the return of Taiwan’s current Foreign Minister Joseph Wu. Analysts believe that Joseph Wu, who is deeply relied upon by Tsai Ing-wen, will still be an important figure in handling foreign affairs and cross-strait affairs in Lai Ching-te’s government of the Democratic Progressive Party, even if the government changes.

Wu Zhaoxie was born in Changhua County in central Taiwan in 1954. He received a doctorate in political science from The Ohio State University in the United States. After returning to Taiwan, he engaged in research work at the International Relations Center of National Chengchi University. In 2002, he was promoted by Chen Shui-bian to serve as Deputy Secretary-General of the Presidential Office, starting his career in politics. In 2004, he was appointed chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, and in 2007, he served as Taiwan’s representative in the United States.

After Tsai Ing-wen became president in 2016, Joseph Wu was appointed Secretary-General of the National Security Council, and in 2018 he served as Taiwan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs until now.

In handling the triangular relationship between the United States, China and Taiwan, Joseph Wu was active in the international media to promote Tsai Ing-wen’s diplomatic line and criticized Zhongnanhai’s suppression. He was well known to international political and media figures and deeply trusted by Tsai Ing-wen. He was called the spokesperson of Tsai Ing-wen’s diplomatic line. and implementers.

The “National Security Bureau” of the Republic of China, located in Yangmingshan, a suburb of Taipei City, Taiwan, is nicknamed “The Mountain” by Taiwanese political circles. It is Taiwan’s highest intelligence agency. Responsible for comprehensively managing three main tasks: “National Security Intelligence”, “Special Service Planning and Execution”, and “Cryptocurrency Control and Development”. In addition to being responsible for international, internal intelligence and counter-intelligence work on mainland China and Taiwan, he also performs special service work for current and former heads of state and deputy heads of state.

According to an analysis by the Taiwanese media “Tianxia” magazine, almost all the previous directors of the National Security Bureau came from the military. Cai Mingyan, who was born as a scholar, is the third civilian director after Xu Huiyou and Chen Mingtong.

Tsai Ming-yan graduated from Soochow University in Taiwan and later studied for a PhD at the Institute of War Studies at King’s College London. After studying in the UK and returning to Taiwan, he first joined the Fourth Institute of the Taiwan Institute of Research, a think tank headed by former President Lee Teng-hui, which was a peripheral agency of the National Security Bureau. Afterwards, Cai Mingyan taught at the Institute of International Politics at National Chung Hsing University, specializing in Chinese military organization and international strategy.

Over the years, Tsai Ming-yan has successively served as an advisory member of the Mainland Affairs Council of Taiwan’s Executive Yuan, deputy secretary-general of the National Security Council, ambassadorial representative of Taiwan’s representative office in the European Union and Belgium, parliamentary undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc., and is currently the director of Taiwan’s National Security Bureau.

A former senior national security official told Taiwanese media that year that Tsai Ming-yan has a low-key personality, keeps to himself, and has a mysterious acting style. Compared with former National Security Director Chen Mingtong, who has a distinctive and straightforward personality, he “lacks the temperament that can calm the National Security Bureau.” field”.

Cai Mingyan said that the National Security Bureau takes “loyalty to the country, obedience to the Constitution, administration in accordance with the law, and administrative neutrality” as its work creed, adheres to the work stance of “intelligence has no color, and intelligence has no holidays” and strives to achieve various tasks.

Well-known Taipei writer Li Yuan, whose pen name is “Ono”, serves as the Minister of Culture. Because Li Yuan assisted Ke Wenzhe in running for mayor of Taipei in 2018, defeating Democratic Progressive Party candidate Yao Wenzhi, this participation attracted attention.

Li Yuan, who used his pen name “Ono”, has been active in Taiwan’s cultural circles for decades. He has published more than a hundred books and was one of the important promoters of the “Taiwanese New Film Wave” in the 1980s.

He once served as program department manager of Taiwan Television Company, general manager of China Television, chairman of the Pinwheel Cultural and Educational Foundation, chairman of the Taipei City Cultural Foundation, and the first chairman of the Taipei Film Festival. He is recognized as the “King of Ideas” by Taipei’s cultural circles. However, Li Yuan has a close relationship with politics and the Democratic Progressive Party. Chen Shui-bian is running for mayor and president of Taipei, and Ono has always been a major participant in cultural policy and election campaigns.

A woman who did not want to be named and works in the Taipei film industry told BBC Chinese that compared to the political orientation of former minister Shi Zhe, Li Yuan does have more obvious cultural relief. A publisher said that Li Yuan was “highly respected” and well-liked. Zeng Yongkuan, another person in the cultural industry, commented on his personal Facebook that Li Yuan was “replaced as a simple, gentle and warm cultural person” when he took office, and hoped that he would do well. Li Zhong, the son of Li Yuan, is a well-known young director in Taiwan.

In response to Li Yuan’s selection, some analysts criticized Li Yuan for being mostly active in Taipei’s cultural circles. How to communicate with the cultural circles outside Taipei is a big challenge. In addition, in the face of the active cultural field of young people in Taiwan, whether he, who is over 70 years old, is sure to grasp and understand youth culture, and how to connect the policies of the Lai Ching-te government with young people and the international cultural market through cultural policies It’s all a big challenge.

Although Lai Ching-te promotes an “innovative cabinet”, female cabinet members are still scarce. From Tsai Ing-wen to Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party, the chances of women being promoted to high-level government officials were not high. Compared with the first time the Democratic Progressive Party Chen Shui-bian came to power in 2000, the record of 25% of female cabinet members was still far behind.