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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| TaiwanÂ’s top China negotiator tipped to be next premier |
| 2007-05-14 |
| TAIPEI - Taiwan’s top China negotiator Chang Chun-hsiung was tight-lipped on Sunday over whether he will be the next premier following the shock resignation of Su Tseng-chang. Su stunned the nation with his resignation Saturday, less than a week after he lost the primary for the 2008 presidential election. Su was the fifth man to quit the job during the president’s seven years in office. Chang, premier from 2000-2002, on Sunday neither confirmed nor denied the reports. “It will be inappropriate to speculate (on the next premiership) before the announcement by the president,” Chang told reporters. Presidential office spokesman Lee Nan-yang quoted President Chen Shui-bian as saying that the new premier will be announced “as soon as possible.” “President Chen needs someone who has experience, given the current circumstances,” said Hsu Yung-ming, an assistant research fellow of Taiwan’s top academic body, Academia Sinica. “But in order not to invite opposition from within the ruling party, the president also needs someone who has no political ambition.... Chang is 70,” he said. |
| Posted by:Steve White |