Meanwhile, Hu Sheng-cheng, director of the institute of economics at Academia Sinica, Taiwan's premier academic research establishment, has been drafted into the cabinet as a minister without portfolio in the hope of strengthening the government's economic team.
First impressions are, however, deceptive.
The significance of the changes can best be seen against the events that led up to them and the past history of some of the new appointees. What this reveals is a government that is totally shambolic, incapable of standing firm and pushing forward its own policies, bullied into unwise counterproductive action by the opposition which dominates the legislature, and desperately trying to buy popularity by appeasing its most vociferous critics. The extent of this disarray is shown by a look at the newcomers and what they might mean to key policies. But also of concern is, who didn't go and the reasons for that, and, as a manifestation of the government's weakness, the fact that the reshuffle took place at all. Normally relatively minor positions, these two slots become extremely politically sensitive in the wake of the government's effort to cancel the construction of the island's fourth nuclear power plant.