Update | Scandal forces Ma to pick yet another defence chief
President names general to lead military after plagiarism row ends civilian's tenure in days
Embattled Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou moved quickly to restore public confidence by appointing a new minister of defence, less than a day after Taiwan saw the resignation of its second military chief in a week.
Taiwan's cabinet announced yesterday afternoon that Chief of General Staff General Yen Ming had been appointed to the top defence post. He succeeds Andrew Yang, who resigned amid plagiarism accusations on Tuesday night, just days after becoming the island's first academic to serve as defence minister.
President Ma must first take action to get the house in order before he can go ahead with his other plan to restructure the military
A graduate of the Republic of China Air Force Academy, Yen worked his way up the air force ranks, serving as a wing chief, Air Force Academy president, chief of staff, and air force commanding general, according to a release by the semi-official Central News Agency (CNA).
Deputy Defence Minister Admiral Kao Kuang-chi, who had been named acting defence minister on Tuesday night, would take over for Yen as chief of general staff.
Yang, a former deputy defence minister, took over the ministry's top post on August 1 after former defence minister Kao Hua-chu stepped down over the death of an army conscript who was allegedly abused while in a military jail.
Ma has been under pressure to investigate the death of army corporal Hung Chung-chiu, 24 whose death has sparked public outrage and mass protests demanding justice and reform in the military.
Yang called a news conference late on Tuesday to acknowledge that an article published under his name in 2007, contained sections plagiarised from a mainland magazine story. Yang said the article was written by an assistant.