Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators boycotted a Transportation Committee meeting yesterday to show their opposition to a proposed amendment to the Act for Promotion of Private Participation in Infrastructure Projects (促進民間參與公共建設法) that would allow Chinese investment in public construction works.
DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) said the committee had passed a resolution asking the Public Construction Commission (PCC) to hold a hearing on the amendment. The commission held a hearing but did not include suggestions and recommendations made by experts at the hearing in its report, she said.
The amendment presented to legislators yesterday did not specify in what areas Chinese companies would be allowed to invest or what areas they would be barred from, Yeh said.
“However, a commission press release on May 11 said 11 areas related to infrastructure at the proposed [Taoyuan] airport zone, seaports and tourism and entertainment would be opened for Chinese investment following the build-operate-transfer [BOT] model,” she said. “Are you planning on selling Taiwan to China or what?”
She said it would be inappropriate to review the amendment article by article so the commission should redo its proposal and resubmit it.
Yeh’s motion was quickly seconded by her DPP colleagues, including some non-committee members. They accused the government of planning to outsource Taiwan’s mountains and seas to China as a BOT project.
Enraged by the words of the committee chair — Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Tsao Erh-chang (曹爾忠), who said the proposed amendment was legitimate and legal — the DPP committe members took Tsao’s seat and blocked Public Construction Commission Chairman Fan Liang-shiou (范良銹) from responding to accusations from legislators.
“I’m not selling out Taiwan [to China],” Fan said.
DPP Legislator Kuo Wen-chen (郭玟成) stood on the chairman’s desk and yelled at KMT legislators who had accused him of making a show.
Tsao was forced to dismiss the morning session of the committee meeting because of the uproar. The afternoon session did not review the amendment because of the DPP boycott. Tsao said the committee would resume its review tomorrow.
Fan said the 11 areas proposed for Chinese investment had been drawn up through interdepartmental discussions.
“There was no way that the commission had the authority to unilaterally decide on issues regarding Chinese investment,” Fan said.
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today. The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation. Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism. For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency
TRADE: The premier pledged safeguards on ‘Made in Taiwan’ labeling, anti-dumping measures and stricter export controls to strengthen its position in trade talks Products labeled “made in Taiwan” must be genuinely made in Taiwan, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday, vowing to enforce strict safeguards against “origin laundering” and initiate anti-dumping investigations to prevent China dumping its products in Taiwan. Cho made the remarks in a discussion session with representatives from industries in Kaohsiung. In response to the US government’s recent announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on its trading partners, President William Lai (賴清德) and Cho last week began a series of consultations with industry leaders nationwide to gather feedback and address concerns. Taiwanese and US officials held a videoconference on Friday evening to discuss the
RSS