Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday apologized to residents of Orchid Island (蘭嶼) over the government’s “outrageous” decision in 1982 to store nuclear waste on the island, saying that she hoped the waste would eventually be transferred to an alternative site.
The DPP presidential candidate, who is on a two-day campaign trip to Hualien and Taitung, also reiterated her initiative to achieve a “nuclear-free homeland” by 2025.
In her speech, Tsai apologized three times for the decision to build a nuclear waste disposal facility on the 48km2 volcanic island off the southeastern coast without prior consultation and communication with its residents, who are mostly Tao Aborigines — one of the country’s 14 recognized Aboriginal tribes.
Photo: CNA
“I am very sorry that nuclear waste was shipped and stored here in 1982 without communicating with local residents or the implementation of a democratic mechanism,” she told a group of residents in a yard in front of the Ivalino Presbyterian Church after visiting the disposal facility.
After resistance from residents, shipments of low-level nuclear waste to the island were suspended in 1996.
Residents should be the ones to decide how the waste is dealt with by coming to a consensus, possibly through a referendum, she said, adding that the DPP, as a firm supporter of a nuclear-free nation, prefers the permanent removal of the waste to an alternative site to be determined in the future.
Tsai pledged to improve infrastructure on the island with projects such as an airstrip for larger planes and a harbor for sightseeing yachts, and to study the possibility of the residents taking operational control of compensation funds paid by Taiwan Power Co.
The DPP’s “2025 Nuclear-Free Homeland Initiative” aims to phase out nuclear power by 2025 by decommissioning the three nuclear power plants currently operational, preventing the commercial operation of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, which is under construction, improving power-generation efficiency and using alternative energy resources.
While some say nuclear power is cheaper, problems and controversies associated with storing nuclear waste have added to its social and economic cost and made it an undesirable form of power generation, Tsai said.
Later, speaking at Kalarulan, a Paiwan Aboriginal community in Taitung City, Tsai pledged to re-examine the government’s relationship with Aborigines if she was elected in January.
Her administration would establish a “new partnership” with Aborigines and do its best to implement substantial Aboriginal autonomy, which would assure Aborigines of management rights over their property and fiscal revenues, as well as rights to operate specific businesses, she said.
“Starting from 2012, there will be new partnership between Taiwanese and Aborigines ... Aborigines are one of the most important elements in Taiwan’s diverse culture,” Tsai told more than 100 Kalarulan residents.
Tsai also apologized to the Aborigines for mistreatment and discrimination by the government in the past when she visited Wushe (霧社) in central Taiwan in July.
She is scheduled to travel through Hualien County today and return to Taipei in the evening.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS