Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Lin I-hsiung(林義雄) yesterday announced that he is to go on a hunger strike on Tuesday next week to urge the government to halt construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮).
In a press release, Lin — who is well-known for his advocacy for the anti-nuclear movement, condemned the government for insisting on continuing building the plant — despite most public opinion polls showing that the majority of Taiwanese are against the plant being put into operation.
“The controversy has been there for almost three decades. More and more people are now starting to realize that electricity is in abundant supply in Taiwan and the plant is a meaningless squandering of time and money,” said Lin, who recently joined a group of academics and politicians who are seeking to establish a political group called Taiwan Citizen Union.
“If the majority of the public supports stopping construction of the Gongliao plant and those in power still ignore their calls with sinister measures, then I would say that our democracy is in crisis,” Lin said, adding that the issue of nuclear power in Taiwan is one of “life and death,” citing the 2011 disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
The 73-year-old Lin said he had originally planned to start his indefinite hunger strike on March 24, but postponed it due to the Sunflower movement protests.
Lin will conduct his hunger strike at Gikong Presbyterian Church (義光教會) on Taipei’s Xinyi Road.
The church was converted from the Lin family’s former residence after his mother and twin daughters were murdered there on Feb. 28, 1980, by an unknown assailant.
His eldest daughter, Lin Huan-chin (林奐均), then nine years old, survived the attack.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but