The nation’s five special municipalities, home to 60 percent of the population, began operations yesterday, starting a new phase in Taiwan’s administrative history.
Taipei, New Taipei City (新北市, the proposed name of the upgraded Taipei County), Greater Taichung, Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung began operating as megacities almost one month after the residents of the five municipalities, including Taipei City, chose their mayors in high-profile elections on Nov. 27.
In addition to Taipei City and New Taipei City, the other three cities were expanded through a merger of two administrative districts.
Greater Taichung is the result of a merger of Taichung City and Taichung County; Greater Tainan a merger of Tainan City and Tainan County; and Greater Kaohsiung a merger of Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung County.
According to Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), the change is aimed at making the five megacities “spearheads of Taiwan’s regional development” and “cores of the three living areas of northern, central and southern Taiwan.”
The new system is not likely to affect the everyday life of the 13.7 million residents in the five cities, but integrating local governments and administrative branches are likely to present a big challenge in the cities where mergers took place.
Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung both split their agencies into two parts to keep them in their original office buildings, while Greater Taichung opted for three office buildings in different parts of its administrative area.
Effective yesterday, townships (鄉鎮) and county-administered cities (市) are renamed “districts (區)” and villages (村) will be renamed “boroughs (里).” District chiefs are to be appointed by mayors rather than being elected, as was previously the case.
Township councils have been disbanded, which means thousands of township and city councilmen have lost their jobs.
Newly elected mayors have focused on the financial aspects of the new city governments. Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) publicly expressed concern that the city would be in financial trouble if budget allocating procedures and tax regulations were not reformed.
New Taipei City faced a different problem — trying to figure out what to call itself in English. Mayor-elect Eric Chu (朱立倫) has announced that he wanted the new city’s English name to be “New Taipei City,” because Sinbei means “new Taipei” in Chinese.
However, the move was blocked by the Ministry of the Interior for now, with Deputy Interior Minister Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) saying the ministry would discuss the proposal with Chu at a later date.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SECURITY: The New Zealand and Australian navies also sailed military vessels through the Strait yesterday to assert the right of freedom of navigation The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force on Wednesday made its first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait in response to the intrusion by a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft into Japan’s sovereign airspace last month, Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday. The Japanese news platform reported that the destroyer JS Sazanamisailed down through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, citing sources in the Japanese government with knowledge of the matter. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi declined to comment on the reports at a regular briefing because they concern military operations. Military vessels from New Zealand and Australia also sailed through the Strait on the same day, Wellington’s defense ministry
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) is set to issue sea and land warnings for Tropical Storm Krathon as projections showed that the tropical storm could strengthen into a typhoon as it approaches Taiwan proper, the CWA said yesterday. The sea warning is scheduled to take effect this morning and the land warning this evening, it said. The storm formed yesterday morning and in the evening reached a point 620 nautical miles (1,148km) southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, moving west-southwest at 4 kph as it strengthened, the CWA said. Its radius measured between 220km and 250km, it added. Krathon is projected
SOVEREIGNTY EMPHASIZED: President William Lai said that Taiwan ‘absolutely will not sign’ an agreement with Beijing implying that the nation is part of China Taiwan hopes to join like-minded nations under the democratic umbrella and jointly counter authoritarian aggression, President William Lai (賴清德) said in a prerecorded speech during the annual Concordia Summit in New York on Tuesday. Lai addressed the summit via video at Concordia’s invitation, using the opportunity to speak on the issue of Chinese aggression toward Taiwan and Beijing’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758. Lai’s comments came on the heels of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, which opened on Tuesday. China has “distorted” UN Resolution 2758 “in support of its ‘one China’ principle,” he said. Through its misinterpretation