Last year, about 890 tonnes of ocean waste — mainly from China — washed up on Lienchiang County, accounting for 15 percent of the islands’ waste that year, some of which the local government is now looking to return.
The Matsu Islands are only 54 nautical miles (87km) from the Minjiang River estuary in the Chinese province of Fujian, from where a large amount of ocean waste has originated since about 30 years ago. The Lienchiang Bureau of Environmental Resources said that 888.5 tonnes of ocean waste were collected last year, accounting for 15 percent of the county’s total waste of 6,092 tonnes.
Other than some degradable waste that can be sent to incinerators in Taiwan, the slowly degrading waste is kept in landfills across the islands, bureau chief Chen Chung-yi (陳忠義) said on Wednesday.
Photo: CNA
Nangan Township (南竿) Tieban (鐵板) community development association head Lee Chin-mei (李金梅) said that it and similar local organizations have applied for subsidies from the county government to clean up local beaches.
Local residents conduct up to eight beach cleanups a month on Tieban beach, Lee said.
Chen said that county officials have visit Fujian to discuss the issue every year, and the county government is to raise the issue again during a cross-strait trade event in Fuzhou next month.
Theaters and institutions in Taiwan have received 28 threatening e-mails, including bomb threats, since a documentary critical of China began being screened across the nation last month, the National Security Bureau said yesterday. The actions are part of China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty, it said. State Organs (國有器官) documents allegations that Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities. From last month to Friday last week, 28 incidents have been reported of theaters or institutions receiving threats, including bomb and shooting threats, if they did not stop showing the documentary, the bureau said. Although the threats were not carried out,
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: China continues to build up its military capacity while regularly deploying jets and warships around Taiwan, with the latest balloon spotted on Sunday The US is drawing up contingency plans for military deployments in Japan and the Philippines in case of a Taiwan emergency, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported. They would be incorporated in a first joint operation plan to be formulated in December, Kyodo reported late on Sunday, citing sources familiar with Japan-US relations. A US Marine Corps regiment that possesses High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — a light multiple rocket launcher — would be deployed along the Nansei Island chain stretching from Kyushu to Yonaguni near Taiwan, Kyodo said. According to US military guidelines for dispatching marines in small formations to several locations,
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday confirmed that Chinese students visiting Taiwan at the invitation of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation were almost all affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). During yesterday’s meeting convened by the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) asked whether the visit was a way to spread China’s so-called “united front” rhetoric, to which MAC Deputy Ministry Shen You-chung (沈有忠) responded with the CCP comment. The MAC noticed that the Chinese individuals visiting Taiwan, including those in sports, education, or religion, have had increasingly impressive backgrounds, demonstrating that the
As Taiwan celebrated its baseball team’s victory in the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Premier12 on Sunday, how politicians referred to the team in their congratulatory messages reflected the nation’s political divide. Taiwan, competing under the name Chinese Taipei (中華台北隊), made history with its first-ever Premier12 championship after beating Japan 4-0 at the Tokyo Dome. Right after the game, President William Lai (賴清德) congratulated the team via a post on his Facebook page. Besides the players, Lai also lauded the team’s coaching and medical staff, and the fans cheering for them in Tokyo or watching the live broadcast, saying that “every
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