Plans to build a 4.7km expressway from Tamsui to Taipei made headlines again last week as the Taipei County Government held a public meeting to pacify residents and environmentalists vehemently opposed to the project.
If realized, the Tanbei Expressway would run along the Tamsui River — at its closest only 2m from protected mangrove swamps — and the highly popular bike path that many Taipei residents enjoy as a nearby green getaway from the sights and sounds of the city.
County officials have repeatedly tried to allay public concerns over the planned road — in all the wrong ways. Rather than addressing the potential impact of this project on the environment and the high costs involved, the county government has served up euphemisms and transparent rationalizations.
The government has classified the Tanbei Expressway as a “flat road,” even though 2.2km of it would be elevated, to avoid the “expressway” label. It claims the expressway would be temporary and an alternative route to the congested Provincial Highway 2, providing a speedier thoroughfare for emergency traffic such as ambulances, as well as commuters.
In reality, media reports indicate that the county government offered that rationale only after residents began urging authorities to deal with heavy traffic on Provincial Highway 2. The idea that the NT$3.8 billion (US$119.2 million) expressway would be a temporary measure to deal with that traffic is laughable.
The plot thickened in July, when, after concerns were raised that the expressway would plough through an archeological site, the county government sent out letters announcing that construction on the project would begin this year.
The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) quoted Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) as saying the project would begin “even if it is illegal.”
It may come as a shock that a plan threatening a unique ecological system and archeological site, and likely to exacerbate flooding and erosion in the area, could soon begin without real scrutiny.
The contentious Suhua Freeway has undergone a decade of environmental impact assessments (EIA) because of concerns that damage to the environment would outweigh the benefits of the road.
The Tanbei Expressway, however, neatly skirts this problem by staying under the 5km threshold, above which planned roads must apply for EIAs. The prospect that this project could threaten the Tamsui River’s mangroves as the Environmental Protection Administration stands idly by is yet another example of that agency’s impotence.
Likewise, it is to the discredit of the county government that concerns about erosion have not slowed the planning process. Following heavy rains and widespread flooding this year, a public outcry drew attention to the tragic ramifications of unwise construction projects and inadequate flood-prevention measures along waterways. In response, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) toured dredging projects and early last month asked Chou to draw up a comprehensive plan to address flooding in his county.
Both county and central government authorities must look into the raft of complaints about this project. However, expressway opponents must not be deterred by Chou’s blatant disregard of their concerns or the law. They should continue to raise questions, even if no one in authority wants to provide an answer.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS