Taiwan, President-elect Lai appoints government and national security leaders

The President-elect of Taiwan, Lai Ching-te, has appointed the leaders of the future government and national security just over a month before the day of his inauguration, next May 20th. The local media reported it. The current Foreign Minister Joseph Wuwill chair the National Security Council and will be replaced by Lin Chia-lungnow secretary general of the presidency and former mayor of Taichung. Wellington Koosecretary general of the National Security Council, will instead become defense minister in place of Chiu Kuo-cheng. Lai noted that all the leaders of the future national security team will have already worked in the outgoing president’s administration, Tsai Ing-wen. “In the face of growing authoritarianism and increasingly intense pressure from China, the national security team cannot shirk its responsibilities, it must make the country’s future its mission and share the burden of defending Taiwan,” the president said during the announcement in Taipei.

In his speech, the future Defense Minister Koo underlined how the island is today “the most important piece” for maintaining regional peace and stability”. “Our first objective – he added – is to complicate the calculations on the other side of the Strait, and force China to continually postpone its plans for potential reckless military actions”. Koo, 65, will be the seventh civilian defense minister in Taiwan’s history. Future Foreign Minister Lin, 60, was defeated at the end of 2022 by the Kuomintang candidate Hou Yu-hee for the mayoral race of New Taipei. Another important position, that of director general of the Office for National Security, will instead be retained by the 56-year-old Tsai Ming Yen.

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