Plans to link Kinmen County and China’s Xiamen with a bridge raise too many national security concerns to consider putting it to a referendum, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said yesterday, after the Chinese Nationalist Party’s presidential candidate backed the idea in a speech on the outlying county.
DPP caucus director Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said that most Taiwanese believe there are too many national security risks regarding New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi’s (侯友宜) plan to hold a referendum on building the so-called “Kinmen-Xiamen Peace Bridge.”
“If someone says this project would raise no national security concerns, they are lying,” Liu said. “Hou is defrauding people for votes.”
.Photo: CNA
“If the bridge project is feasible, it would have been completed during the administration of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the KMT, as he always claimed he was the best person to communicate with the Chinese government,” she said.
“Hou must inform the public about the national security issues that would be raised by the project,” she said. “He has evaded such questions, despite the worries and misgivings of the public.”
“As a presidential candidate, Hou must not gloss over these issues,” Liu said.
She added that a referendum on the issue could not be left to Kinmen.
“Building a bridge linking Kinmen and Xiamen city would have implications for the entire nation’s national security, so it could not be a local referendum for Kinmen County residents alone,” Liu said.
Hou earlier yesterday presented his “six major programs” at an event in the county, saying that if elected president, he would support a referendum in Kinmen on the bridge plan, as well as approve plans to build electricity and natural gas connections to Xiamen.
DPP caucus secretary-general Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said that Hou’s proposals were clearly to abide by the policies of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), which would lead to the eventual takeover of Taiwan by China.
Xi on Jan. 2, 2019, proposed the “new four links” plan to supply Kinmen with “water, electricity, natural gas for fuel and a bridge connecting to Xiamen,” Chuang said.
That was part of a major policy address by Xi on his blueprint for cross-Strait development based on the “one country, two systems” model, he said.
Hou earlier said that Xiamen supplying electricity and natural gas would be good for the long-term economic development of Kinmen.
If there are no national security concerns, he would launch negotiations between the governments of Taiwan and China, he said.
If a referendum garnered the approval of a majority of Kinmen residents, he would initiate studies on the feasibility and economic benefits of a bridge link, if he added.
A proposal from a few years ago said that a bridge of 6km to 11km, depending on the route, would cost up to NT$13.2 billion (US$413.46 million at the current exchange rate).
Meanwhile, Taiwan People’s Party Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) backed the bridge plan.
“It is a good plan, which is why other people have also proposed it,” he said, apparently referring to himself, as he has previously pushed for such a connection.
“It is certainly feasible — and it would be beneficial to have a bridge up and running, along with links for water, electricity and natural gas, as well an improvement to garbage disposal for Kinmen,” Ko said.
“I am certain that a referendum, if it could be held, would be backed by local voters,” he said.
“Kinmen County is a good place to operate a pilot economic zone, to test whether Taiwan and China can cooperate,” he said.
Xiamen is close to Kinmen, so it would be the best place to test a “cross-Strait peace zone,” where the governments of Taiwan and China could deal with each other,” Ko added.
Kinmen County is a few kilometers from Xiamen.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS