Time and again when a typhoon hits Taiwan, the Suhua Highway linking Suao (
At the beginning of the year, hotel owner Stanley Yen (
Then the Chinese-language magazine Business Weekly published an article entitled "Big construction, big destruction." And so, in the blink of an eye, the construction of the new freeway was cursed, turned into a road that was damaging the environment and that had no practical use whatsoever.
As a professional civil engineer and a future user of the road, I hope that during this typhoon season everyone can give the issue more thought.
It's ironic that even though Taiwan has entered the ranks of developed countries, people still have to risk their lives driving on the Suhua Highway.
Every day thousands of people drive on this road with fear in their hearts. There are 20 dangerous curves on this stretch of the east coast highway, and the death rate is 130 times as high as on freeways on the western side of Taiwan.
Life is priceless, and I hope that those who oppose the freeway can sympathize with those who have to drive on the highway, as well as their relatives and friends.
The freeway will be an ecologically friendly road. Apart from wildlife corridors, safety ramps and the road itself, the construction of the freeway does not include construction access roads in order to avoid digging out large areas from the surrounding slopes.
The dated technology used in building the Central Cross-Island Highway involved large-scale digging and destruction of mountain slopes, but these are things of the past. The methods of construction for the freeway are trustworthy.
Arguments in this debate should be based on data, not emotion. The Business Weekly article "Big construction, big destruction" was intended to encourage protests; however,. much of its content is removed from the reality.
It says, for example, that the freeway will run across 11 fault lines, twice as many as the Chiang Wei-shui Freeway between Taipei and Ilan.
But according to a publication by the Central Geological Survey, there are only 44 active fault lines in all of the country, none of which are in the area where the new freeway is to be built. The only active fault line in the vicinity is the Milun Fault in Hualien City.
In addition, the railway has been in use since February 1980, and in all those 25 years, through many big and small earthquakes, safety has not been compromised. How can one then argue that the Suhua Freeway would be unsafe?
Then there are the cold springs of Suao. The Business Weekly said the freeway would travel through a groundwater control area, and that as soon as digging starts, tunnels would be flooded and the precious cold springs of Suao would face catastrophe.
But the fact is that the railway also crosses the same groundwater control area, and nothing catastrophic has happened there in 25 years.
The freeway will also be at least 2km away from the Suao cold springs, and between them there will still be the old and the new tracks of the railway line.
Moreover, the height of the freeway tunnel will be between 30m and 80m, the same as for the railway tunnel. The latter tunnel has never influenced the Suao cold springs or caused land subsidence, so it is quite improbable that a freeway tunnel would do this.
I hope those who oppose the construction of the freeway will direct their fervor toward supervision of the freeway's construction so that this safe and fast road can bring the people of eastern Taiwan more convenience, all the while meeting ecological demands and the criteria for sustainable development.
Lin Tzu-chiang is a civil engineer and a resident of Taitung County.
Translated by Anna Stiggelbout
On Sept. 3 in Tiananmen Square, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) rolled out a parade of new weapons in PLA service that threaten Taiwan — some of that Taiwan is addressing with added and new military investments and some of which it cannot, having to rely on the initiative of allies like the United States. The CCP’s goal of replacing US leadership on the global stage was advanced by the military parade, but also by China hosting in Tianjin an August 31-Sept. 1 summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which since 2001 has specialized
In an article published by the Harvard Kennedy School, renowned historian of modern China Rana Mitter used a structured question-and-answer format to deepen the understanding of the relationship between Taiwan and China. Mitter highlights the differences between the repressive and authoritarian People’s Republic of China and the vibrant democracy that exists in Taiwan, saying that Taiwan and China “have had an interconnected relationship that has been both close and contentious at times.” However, his description of the history — before and after 1945 — contains significant flaws. First, he writes that “Taiwan was always broadly regarded by the imperial dynasties of
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will stop at nothing to weaken Taiwan’s sovereignty, going as far as to create complete falsehoods. That the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never ruled Taiwan is an objective fact. To refute this, Beijing has tried to assert “jurisdiction” over Taiwan, pointing to its military exercises around the nation as “proof.” That is an outright lie: If the PRC had jurisdiction over Taiwan, it could simply have issued decrees. Instead, it needs to perform a show of force around the nation to demonstrate its fantasy. Its actions prove the exact opposite of its assertions. A
A large part of the discourse about Taiwan as a sovereign, independent nation has centered on conventions of international law and international agreements between outside powers — such as between the US, UK, Russia, the Republic of China (ROC) and Japan at the end of World War II, and between the US and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since recognition of the PRC as the sole representative of China at the UN. Internationally, the narrative on the PRC and Taiwan has changed considerably since the days of the first term of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic
RSS