The government has invited 69-year-old author Chang Hsiao-feng (張曉風) to inspect a plot of land which is to be transformed into a biotech research park after she asked the president to save “Taipei's last piece of green land,” Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said yesterday.
Asked about Chang's appeal, in which she knelt in front of television cameras and begged for the preservation of the wetland on Monday, Wu said he was “very touched” and expressed his respect for the retired Chinese literature professor.
Wu said, however, that her pleas “can't change everything” and that the government should try its best to find a balance between environmental conservation and national development.
“If Taiwan preserved all its wetlands, would it be able to develop the economy or create employment opportunities? “ Wu asked. “You cannot just look at one part of the picture.”
Chang will attend a press conference to be held today at the military factory complex in Nangang District (南港), known as the 202 Munitions Works, where related government officials will give a briefing on the planned biotech park to be developed by Academia Sinica.
Academia Sinica was given the green light in 2007 by the then-Democratic Progressive Party administration to use 25.3 hectares of the 185 hectare site, coming up with a proposal to use an area of 9.6 hectares to build a biotech park, pending Cabinet approval.
Describing the military zone as “Taipei's last plot of green land,” Chang wrote a letter to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on May 5, urging him to not to develop the land or the wetlands, but to preserve its pristine and natural conditions.
Despite the appeal, Ma decided to stick with the biotech park plan after he visited the site on Monday, but he instructed the government to invite experts and opinion leaders to form a supervisory committee to oversee the development process, prompting Chang to make her plea with a stronger gesture.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
RSS