"Minister of National Defense Andrew Yang (楊念祖) resigned last night in the wake of plagiarism allegations, just six days after taking office."Well that is unusual isn't it? Minister resigns after less than a week! What a farce. Of course the ostensible reason given is just an excuse; presumably Yang wanted to push for certain reforms of the military but met opposition from within the military, or perhaps from within Cabinet or from the President himself. He wasn't going to be allowed to do his job, so he walked.
Or is there something else going on here?
Update: J.M. Cole says it was members of a DPP faction that gave the plagiarism thing to Next Magazine. Now why would certain DPP members be opposed to the military reforms Yang wanted to introduce?
Two possibilities, not mutually exclusive: one is straightforward corruption, in the form of certain DPP members being bought by Chinese money to shaft Taiwan's military, and the other is the possibility of budget squabbles down the road; following last weekend's protests Yang might have been in a strong position to demand a larger budget with which to implement the switch from conscription to an all-volunteer system. A larger budget for the military might have meant substantial cuts elsewhere, e.g. education which is something that DPP politicians might be expected to oppose on ideological grounds.
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