TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Newly-appointed Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) announced the new Cabinet lineup on Monday (Jan. 30) following the mass resignation of the Cabinet headed by Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) earlier on the same day.
The new Cabinet led by the former vice president will be sworn into office on Tuesday (Jan. 31), though most cabinet members, including the ministers of finance, economic affairs, labor, digital affairs, justice, and the de-facto trade minister, will retain their positions.
Executive Yuan officials
Premier Chen Chien-jen is an epidemiologist-turned politician who, prior to serving as Taiwan’s 14th vice president, served as the vice president of Academia Sinica, minister of the National Science Council, and leader of the Department of Health under former President Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration.
Former Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) will become the Vice Premier, the Cabinet's second-in-command. Cheng served as the mayor of Taoyuan from 2014 to 2022 and was popular with former constituents in Taoyuan for the growth and prosperity he brought to the city. Cheng is equally admired within the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for his affability amongst many party factions.
Cabinet Secretary-General Li Meng-yen (李孟諺), a civil and environmental engineer, will stay in his post.
Cabinet Deputy Secretary-General Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) will remain in her post. She has served in the Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) administration since 2016 and was previously the deputy director of the DPP's Policy Research and Coordinating Committee.
Deputy Interior Minister Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥) will serve as the spokesperson for the new Cabinet. Chen was previously the Cabinet's undersecretary and also served as a deputy of the Central Epidemic Command Center during the COVID-19 outbreak's height between 2020 and summer 2022.
The outgoing Minister of Culture Lee Yung-te (李永得) will become one of the nine ministers without portfolio. He previously served as Hakka Affairs Council chief and deputy mayor of Kaohsiung following his decades-long career in local journalism.
Minister Without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中), who is the country's de-facto trade minister, will continue to sit at the negotiation table for trade talks on behalf of Taiwan.
Minister Without Portfolio Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠) will retain his post as the head of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), which is responsible for shaping strategies for the country's scientific and technological development.
National Development Council Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) will remain in his post. He previously served as a deputy minister of economic affairs.
The National Development Council is responsible for allocating funding and prioritizing assistance for programs and businesses to improve Taiwan's economic landscape and quality of life.
Minister without Portfolio Lin Wan-i (林萬億) will remain in the Cabinet. Lin is an expert in social welfare who has been dedicated to pension reform issues.
He has served in the Tsai administration since 2016, and also served in the Chen administration from 2006 to 2007.
Minister without Portfolio and law professor Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成), an expert counsel on legal matters for the administration, will also remain in his post.
Minister without Portfolio Chang Ching-sen (張景森) will also remain in the Cabinet.
Chang is a civil engineer who headed the Department of Urban Development of the Taipei City Government in the 1990s. In 2016, he was in the media's spotlight for inappropriate comments regarding a controversial urban renewal project in Shilin, Taipei that seemed to favor land developers.
Chang has served in the Tsai administration since May 2016. Since 2017, he has also served concurrently as director of the government's Kinmen-Matsu Joint Services Center.
Minister without Portfolio Huang Chih-ta (黃致達), who served as the Executive Yuan's senior secretary before 2020, will stay on.
Huang has served as a deputy director of the DPP's Department of International Affairs and as a deputy on the party's central committee. He has been a key organizer for several high-profile election campaigns of DPP leaders over the years.
Wu Tse-cheng (吳澤成) will continue in his Cabinet role as the director of the Executive Yuan's Public Construction Commission. He has served in the role since 2017, and also served in the same capacity under the Chen administration from 2006 to 2008.
Heads of Ministries and Agencies
Former Keelung Mayor Lin Yu-chang (林右昌), backed with an educational background in urban planning, will serve as Minister of the Interior after the Cabinet reshuffle.
He served two terms as the mayor of Keelung and maintained a very high approval rating among constituents. Hua Ching-chun (花敬群), formerly the acting minister of the interior, and Wu Jung-hui (吳容輝), formerly the chairman of the state-owned Taiyen Biotech, will serve as his deputies.
Foreign minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) will stay on. He previously served as the Secretary-General to the Office of the President and the head of the National Security Council.
Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) and Lee Roy Chun (李淳), former senior deputy executive director of the Taiwan WTO and RTA Center, will serve as deputy ministers.
Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正), a retired general of the Republic of China Army, will retain his post, along with Vice Ministers Po Horng-hui (柏鴻輝) and Wang Shih-lung (王信龍).
Deputy Finance Minister Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) will be elevated to the top role of the ministry, which is responsible for government revenue, taxation, treasury, government land properties, customs in Taiwan. Juan Ching-hwa (阮清華) and Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) will be deputies.
Chuang has been lauded for her role in cultivating land surface rights to better leverage state-owned plots of land under 500 ping, which have been banned from sale in Taipei since 2010. She is described by colleages as an amiable, clever, and goal-oriented supervisor in the ministry with strong interpersonal and communication skills when dealing with external stakeholders, CTS reported.
The appointment of Chuang marks the country's third female finance minister. Renowned economist Shirley Kuo (郭婉容) and, 24 years later, her daughter Christina Liu (劉憶如) headed the ministry in 1988-1990 and in 2012 respectively.
Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) will stay in his post. He began serving in office in 2016, but stepped down in 2018 after controversy regarding the selection of the current National Taiwan University president. He was re-appointed to the post in 2019.
Lio Mon-chi (劉孟奇) and Lin Ming-yu (林明裕), the former Taoyuan City Government Education Bureau chief, will be his deputies.
Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) is the Minister of Justice and will remain in his post. He has served as the head of the ministry since 2018.
Prior to joining the cabinet, he was director of the Justice Bureau. He oversees the standards and practices of Taiwan's law enforcement agencies and prison system.
The Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) will continue to head the ministry responsible for formulating policy and laws for industry and trade. She has served as minister since 2020, and previously served as undersecretary from 2016.
Vice Ministers Tseng Wen-Sheng (曾文生) and Chen Chern-Chyi (陳正祺) will retain their posts.
Minister Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) will stay in his post as head of the Ministry of Transportation and Communication.
He was appointed Minister in 2021 and served as deputy minister from 2016 to 2021. He was also the acting minister for a brief period from December 2018 to January 2019.
Deputy Transportation Ministers Allen Hu (胡湘麟) and Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯) will retain their posts.
Labor Minister Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) will remain in her post, where she is responsible for overseeing Taiwan's labor policy and workplace regulations. She has served as minister since 2018.
Prior to joining the central government, she was the deputy mayor of Kaohsiung. Her deputies will be Wang An-pang (王安邦) and former Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊邑).
Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) will remain in his post where he has served since 2019. He has served in the Tsai administration since 2016, previously as the deputy chairman of the council.
Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) will remain in his post as Minister of Health and Welfare, to which he was recently appointed in July 2022 after the previous minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) stepped down from the office. Prior to that, Hsueh served as the undersecretary at the ministry, starting in 2017.
Chang Tzi-chin (張子敬) will remain in his post as the minister of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), where he has served since 2019. Prior to leading the EPA, he served as deputy minister from 2006 to 2019, under the Chen and Ma administrations.
Zhe Shi (史哲) is a former deputy mayor of Kaohsiung who also served as the director of the city's Bureau of Cultural Affairs from 2010 to 2016. Shi has been lauded for his capability in branding and marketing for the Kaohsiung City Government.
The Minister of Digital Affairs Audrey Tang (唐鳳) will remain in office, where she has served since the ministry's establishment in August 2022. Before that, Tang was a minister without portfolio, serving in the cabinet since 2016.
Her deputies Herming Chiueh (闕河鳴) and Lee Huai-jen (李懷仁) will stay on.
Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) will continue to lead the top government agency handling cross-strait affairs.
Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chair Huang Tien-mu (黃天牧) will remain in his post. He has served as the FSC chairman since 2020, and prior to that, as vice chairman since 2013, with a brief stint as acting chairman in 2016.
DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) will head the Ocean Affairs Council. Kuan served in the Legislative Yuan for over a decade representing Kaohsiung.
Prior to her work as a legislator, she worked as an administrator for the municipal government of Kaohsiung, where the Ocean Affairs Council is based.
Former Overseas Community Affairs Council Deputy Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) will be promoted to become the minister. Prior to joining the Tsai administration in 2020, Hsu served as the deputy party secretary of the DPP from 2016 to 2019.
Veteran's Affairs Council Minister Feng Shih-Kuan (馮世寬) will remain in his post where he has served since late 2019. Feng served as the Minister of National Defense from 2016 to 2018, at the start of the Tsai administration.
Feng served in the Air Force when he was younger and was the chair of the Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation prior to entering the central government.
Council of Indigenous People Minister Icyang Parod (夷將-拔路兒) will remain in his post, where he has served since 2016. He also served in the office from 2007 to 2008 in the last year of the Chen administration.
Hakka Affairs Council Minister Yang Con-ziin (楊長鎮) will remain in his post where he has served since May 2020. Prior to becoming minister, Yang was deputy minister of the council from 2016 to 2020.
Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民) will remain in his post where he has served since 2016. Prior to joining the Cabinet, he worked as an associate professor at a number of universities in the Greater Taipei area.
Directorate-General of Personnel Administration (DGPA) Minister Su Chun-jung (蘇俊榮) will remain in his post. He has served in the Cabinet since 2016, previously as the deputy minister of the DGPA.
Hsiao Tsong-huang (蕭宗煌), tapped as the new director of the National Palace Museum, previously served as an undersecretary in the Ministry of Culture. He also served as director of several museums in Taiwan.
Atomic Energy Council Deputy Minister Chang Ching-wen (張靜文) will be elevated to the head of the council as the Tsai government continues to pursue the goal of phasing out nuclear power in Taiwan.
Jen-ni Yang (楊珍妮) will remain in her post as the Director of the Taiwan Council for U.S. Affairs, where she has served since 2021. She also has experience as the Director-General of the Bureau of Foreign Trade in the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Yang has also served as the Deputy Chief Negotiator for the ministry.
