Taipei, Jan. 26 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) announced the first moves of a government reshuffle Thursday with the appointment of Deputy Foreign Minister Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) as National Security Bureau (NSB) chief, and Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) as secretary-general of the Presidential Office.
Presidential Office spokesperson Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said that Tsai Ming-yen, an international relations scholar and former diplomat, had been picked to replace incumbent NSB Director-General Chen Ming-tong (陳明通), who has tendered his resignation.
Chen has been mired in a plagiarism scandal involving his former student, ex-Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) since August last year.
Tsai Ming-yen, who holds a doctorate in war studies from King's College London, was appointed Taiwan's representative to the EU and Belgium in June 2020 and remained in that post until being named deputy foreign minister in August 2022.
Prior to his stint at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tsai Ming-yen took office as deputy secretary-general of the National Security Council (NSC) alongside then-NSC Secretary-General Yen Teh-fa (嚴德發) in 2017.
Meanwhile, President Tsai met with the current secretary-general of her office David Lee (李大維) and Lin Chia-lung Thursday to discuss the handover between the two following the Lunar New Year holiday that will end on Sunday, according to Chang.
Tsai thanked Lee for his service since August 2020 and decided to appoint him as chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation, a position the veteran diplomat previously held for two months in 2020 before taking on his current position, according to Chang.
Chang said that the president hoped Lin Chia-lung, a former transport minister and mayor of Taichung, could use his experience in local and central government positions to help advance government policies.
Lin Chia-lung became transport minister on Jan. 14, 2019, remaining in office until April 19, 2021, when he stepped down following a deadly train crash in Hualien County.
He later became an ambassador-at-large to promote digital initiatives in Southeast Asia before running unsuccessfully for mayor in New Taipei in Taiwan's local government elections in November 2022.
As mayor, Lin Chia-lung tried to deal with Taichung's air pollution problem by working to cut emissions at the Taichung Power Plant, the largest coal-fired power plant in Taiwan notorious for polluting the area's skies.
As transportation minister, he convinced Uber to be listed as a commercial vehicle operator rather than as a technology company as Uber had campaigned for.
