Taiwan News
Date: 2016-05-28
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Foreign Minister David Lee said Saturday that the rejuvenation of diplomatic personnel was an important task following reports that more than half of Taiwan’s representatives overseas were older than 60.

Democratic Progressive Party legislator Liu Shyh-fang said she found from Ministry of Foreign Affairs documents that the average age of Taiwan’s 116 overseas office heads was 59.2.

Only two were younger than 49, 55 were in their fifties, 48 were 60 to 64 and eleven were 65 or older, she said.

Liu said that Lee wanted to promote presidential diplomacy, but many overseas diplomats and ambassadors were older than President Tsai Ing-wen.

Lee responded that he became head of North American affairs at MOFA when he was 46 and deputy foreign minister when he was 49, with then-Foreign Minister Jason Hu being 50 years old.     [FULL  STORY]