Following the start of former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Lin I-hsiung’s (林義雄) hunger strike on Tuesday to force the government to terminate the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, groups and activists across the nation yesterday supported his cause by staging protests.
In front of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning, Anti-nuclear Alliance of Fathers executive director Kobe Chih (池國平) announced that following an anti-nuclear road-running event planned for Saturday morning, the group will invite about 3,000 people to form the words “NO NUKE NOW” in English at about 9am on Ketagalan Boulevard.
The 7km “run away from nuclear energy” race organized by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU), Anti-nuclear Alliance of Fathers and the DPP, was rescheduled for 7am on Saturday and is to start and end on Ketagalan Boulevard.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“If President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government does not want to be encircled by barricades or by the public, it should start communicating soon,” Chih said, adding that the group will occupy Ketagalan Boulevard until it receives an acceptable response from the government.
TEPU secretary-general Andy Tung (董建宏) said there are three legal ways to terminate the construction of the pact in Gongliao (貢寮), New Taipei City, — the Executive Yuan proposes a plan supported by the legislature; the legislature initiates a resolution and the Executive Yuan does not table a reconsideration motion against it; or the Referendum Act (公民投票法) is amended to address the aspects of it seen as unreasonable so the public can decide on the issue through a fair vote.
“We and many [non-governmental] organizations are actively striving for reconciliation between the government and the public, but if the government refuses to reconcile, is that not declaring a war against the public?” he said.
Chih said social movements can inconvenience the public, but the activists have no option but to continue using various protest measures to express their opinions, because the government never seems to listen, see or respond to its citizens’ demands.
At noon, about 200 people organized by the National Nuclear Abolition Action Platform rallied in front of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) headquarters in Taipei, before the party held its Central Standing Committee meeting at 1pm.
Green Citizen Action Alliance deputy secretary-general Hung Shen-han (洪申翰) said the government has been saying that “the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant will not operate without ensured nuclear safety and a referendum,” but the current nuclear plant safety inspection mechanism is flawed.
Calling the government’s safety inspection mechanism fraudulent, he said the safety inspections will not conclude that the plant is “unsafe” because if Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) finds any problems in its test runs, it can discuss them with reactor designer General Electric Co to find “alternative solutions,” and easily pass newly amended standards for the inspections.
Hung said that while an opinion poll showed that more than 70 percent of people are in favor of aborting the construction of the plant, Ma and top KMT officials are still trying to make it operational by lying to the public about its safety.
Taiwan Association for Victims of Occupational Injuries organizer Liu Nien-Yun (劉念雲) said: “Civic discussions on public issues recently have shown that the public may have more in-depth knowledge on certain issues than policymakers,” but the government has always avoided civic participation.
“Nuclear power issues have become a problem of ‘democracy,’” she said.
Northern Coast Anti-Nuclear Action Alliance chief executive Kuo Ching-lin (郭慶霖) said the government is used to deceiving the public, never allowing the public to have a say on nuclear power policies, including when the operating nuclear power plants were constructed in his hometown.
The groups also said that no country using nuclear energy has yet developed a safe disposal method for spent nuclear fuel, so it follows that Taiwan, as a small island nation, should not be generating electricity atomically at all if it has no way to store nuclear waste safely.
They urged the president to abort the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant project and retire the nation’s three operating nuclear power plants as scheduled, while also calling on him to return the decisionmaking power to the people by amending the Referendum Act to lower its threshold.
Shouting: “Safety inspection is dead, return the life of democracy,” and throwing leaflets in the air, the anti-nuclear protesters pushed toward the KMT headquarters building, saying that “if the KMT does not respond to them, they will push their demands forward.”
The advancement sparked minor verbal and physical clashes between the activists and the dozens of police officers encircling them.
The scuffles settled down shortly after Hung asked the protesters to take a step back and announced that if the government does not give them a satisfactory response by today, they will join the protest on Ketagalan Boulevard on Saturday.
Lin’s campaign is also drawing support outside Taipei.
In New Taipei City, several activists showed their support for Lin by holding a sit-in protest in front of the New Taipei City Government building, while in Haulien City, activists announced that they would hold an anti-nuclear evening event at a public square every night until Lin’s fast is over.
In Yilan County, unknown anti-nuclear advocates scattered apple snail shells in front of the KMT’s branch headquarters and hung an anti-nuclear flag on the wall.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS