Taiwan’s next president has named new foreign and defense ministers to join the incoming government as the island faces continued military threats and diplomatic isolation from China.
Kiyotoku Lai, who will become president on May 20, announced on Thursday that current secretary-general to the president, Yoshi-taka Hayashi, will become foreign minister.
He said Wellington Koo would become the head of the defense ministry at a time when Taiwan is beefing up its defenses against China with new ships, submarines, fighter jets, missile systems and other land-based defense equipment.
Chinese military leaders take tough stance on Taiwan and other conflicts at international naval event
China has increasingly threatened to annex Taiwan by force, reduced the number of Taiwan’s formal diplomatic allies to just 12 countries, and excluded Taiwan from the United Nations and most other international organizations.
Lisa McClain (left), executive director of the U.S. House Republican Caucus, meets with Taiwan’s next president, Vice President Lai Ching-de, in Taipei, Taiwan, on April 23, 2024. McClain and Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee led a bipartisan caucus. A group of parliamentarians is scheduled to visit Taiwan from April 23 to 25, as the island faces continued Chinese aggression. (Taiwan Presidential Office, Associated Press)
Koo, a lawyer, is the chair of the National Security Council under President Tsai Ing-wen, who is retiring at the end of her two four-year terms. His successor will be Joseph Wu, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Taiwan has a civilian head of defense, in contrast to China’s practice of appointing top generals, who have taken an increasingly belligerent stance toward Taiwan and the United States, as well as China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and East China Sea. There is a long-standing tradition of serving as a minister.
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Mr. Lin previously served as mayor of Taiwan’s largest city, Taichung, and was responsible for Taiwan’s economic expansion into Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Mr. Lin and Mr. Koo are both members of the Democratic Progressive Party, but China has severed ties with the party because it does not recognize China’s claim of sovereignty over the island.
Lai easily won the presidential election in January, but the main opposition party, the Kuomintang Party, which supports eventual unification with China, won a one-vote majority in parliament.
Taiwan has a mixed presidential system and parliamentary cabinet system, with great powers being given to local city and prefecture governments. The system emerged after Mao Zedong’s communists seized power on the mainland after decades of civil war, and Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Party moved government to Taiwan, a former Japanese colony, in 1949.
