Taiwan premier resigns leaving Tsai with key cabinet decision

Bloomberg

Taiwan’s Premier Su Tseng-chang has tendered his resignation, leaving President Tsai Ing-wen to make a crucial appointment for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party as it seeks an unprecedented third straight term in power in next year’s presidential election.
Su, Taiwan’s longest-serving premier since its first democratic elections in 1996, requested the president form a new Cabinet in a statement Thursday, just hours after the legislature had approved the government’s 2023 budget. Epidemiologist Chen Chien-jen, who served as Tsai’s vice president during her first term between 2016 and 2020, is expected to take up the post of premier, United Daily News reported last week.
In a statement, Su said his appointment as premier in 2019 had come unexpectedly and the opportunity to serve the public over the past four years had been “the greatest honor of my life.” Tsai expressed her thanks to Su, according to a statement from the Presidential Office, and assured the public the government would assemble a new Cabinet over the coming Lunar New Year holiday.
Looming taiwan
Election
The reshuffle comes as Tsai attempts to rebuild public faith in her government after her party’s major losses in local elections last November.
The choice of who to will run the cabinet ahead of next January’s election will likely have a major bearing on the outcome of the race. No political party has managed to hold on to the presidency for more than two consecutive terms since democratization.