The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday urged President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to remove Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) from office over comments on the Japanese government’s plan to release processed wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant into the ocean.
The discharge is to begin in two years, Tokyo said on Tuesday last week.
“From my personal standpoint, protesting Japan’s release of wastewater from the nuclear power plant is a very simple and natural thing,” Hsieh wrote on Facebook on the day after the
announcement. “However, from the standpoint of representing Taiwan, I have to consider that the wastewater from Taiwan’s three nuclear power plants is also discharged into the sea.”
At a news conference in Taipei yesterday, KMT Culture and Communications Committee director-general Alicia Wang (王育敏) said that the water discharge from Taiwan’s plants and that from the wrecked plant in Japan is different, citing Atomic Energy Council Minister Hsieh Shou-shing (謝曉星).
Wang also cited Taiwan Power Co as saying on Tuesday that the radioactive contamination of the water from the Fukushima plant was much higher.
In Taiwan, the release of water is part of normal operations, while in Japan, it is in reaction to an incident, she said.
Frank Hsieh’s statement was to “drag Taiwan down,” Wang said, adding that Tsai should replace him.
Frank Hsieh’s salary is paid by Taiwanese taxpayers, but he is defending Tokyo’s decision, KMT Institute of Revolutionary Practice director Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said, calling the envoy’s statement “nonsense.”
Tsai should summon Frank Hsieh for questioning by lawmakers, he said, adding that the National Police Agency (NPA) should investigate him for allegedly spreading false information.
Frank Hsieh should take political responsibility for his comments, Lo said.
The KMT on Wednesday filed a complaint over the envoy’s statement with the NPA, committee deputy director-general Huang Tzu-che (黃子哲) said.
Under Article 63 of the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), people can be detained for less than three days or fined less than NT$30,000 for “spreading rumors in a way that is sufficient to undermine public order and peace,” Huang said.
Frank Hsieh should apologize, remove his Facebook post and step down from his role, Huang said.
Additional reporting by CNA
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is