Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) yesterday accused the Government Information Office (GIO) of lowering the status of a proposed national film culture center in Kaohsiung for political reasons.
Kuan, who previously served as director of the city’s Bureau of Cultural Affairs and then its information office, issued a press release accusing the GIO of diminishing the status of the center by placing it under a similar facility to be built in Sinjhuang, Taipei County, despite the former DPP administration’s decision to give the two centers equal status with the aim of developing Taipei and Kaohsiung’s film industries.
MERGED
Kaohsiung’s information office was merged with the city’s Tourism Bureau last month.
The GIO proposed the plan to build the two centers to the Council of Economic Planning and Development for review on Wednesday.
Under the plan, a main center would be built in Sinjhuang next year, while a branch would be built in Neiweipi (內惟埤) in Kaohsiung in 2014. Construction is scheduled for completion by 2018.
The construction work is expected to cost NT$5.6 billion (US$174.2 million).
Kuan said the GIO’s proposal showed that total floor space of the branch in Kaohsiung would only be equal to one quarter the floor area of the center in Sinjhaung.
The center in Kaohsiung would not have any rooms for book collections, auditoriums, film studios or sets available to crews filming in the city, Kuan said.
EFFORTS
In terms of budget, the construction of the center in Kaohsiung would only account for NT$1.1 billion of the NT$5.6 billion total budget, Kuan said, adding that this showed the Cabinet was completely ignoring the city’s efforts to develop a local film industry.
Kuan described the GIO’s proposal as “a typical example of favoring northern Taiwan over southern Taiwan” and “a national policy based on political differences.”
Although the city’s Bureau of Cultural Affairs director Shih Jhe (史哲) gave the GIO credit for proposing to build one of the centers in Kaohsiung, he said the Kaohsiung center would be “too small.”
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
RSS