NSC Chief Su Chi resigns

The sources dismissed allegations that Su resigned to take responsibility for the U.S. beef import controversy which erupted a few months ago.

The U.S. accused Taiwan of violating a protocol after Taiwan's legislature passed a law amendment to restrict U.S. beef products, overturning an administration decision to lift a ban on certain U.S. beef products.

The impact of the controversy has already been minimized and it did not affect the decision by the United States to allow President Ma to make a recent transit stop in the U.S. during his diplomatic trip abroad, the sources noted.

Lawmakers of the ruling Kuomintang backed the selection of Hu as President Ma's top security aide, saying he is able to immediately continue Su's job.

Liu Chien-hsin, deputy head of the policy research and coordination department under the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said Su should have resigned much earlier because his inept handling of the U.S. beef import protocol.

Legislator Lee Chun-yee, the DPP's legislative whip, said Su's resignation was mainly a gambit by the Ma administration to sacrifice a lower-level functionary in a bid to protect Ma and halt the continuing downward spiral of his public approval ratings.

Nevertheless, Lee said, he doubts the effectiveness of the tactic because the resignation came too late.

“Su should have resigned right after the legislature passed amendments to the Food Sanitation Act,” he added.

On Su's replacement, meanwhile, Liu Chien-hsin noted that Hu was Taiwan's representative to Germany and then to Singapore when the DPP was in power.

Before his resignation from the Singapore representative post in 2007, Hu criticized then President Chen Shui-bian's “de-sinicization” drive and Chen's branding of the late President Chiang Kai-shek as a dictator.

“Hu's statement was a show of loyalty to the then-opposition Kuomintang... His political integrity is something that should be monitored, as he did not voice his disagreement with the DPP's ideology until after having worked in the DPP administration for seven years,” Liu said.

According to DPP Legislator Tsai Hung-liang, Hu is a hardline ideologue and career diplomat, with little national defense and intelligence training.

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