Amid rising controversy over plans for the development of the 202 Munitions Works site in Taipei City’s Nangang District (南港), President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) visited the site on Monday to make an inspection. How he handles this matter will show whether his attitudes have changed now that he is president, from when he was Taipei mayor.
As Taipei mayor, Ma made a policy decision, as part of his urban development plan, to turn the munitions works site into a “park for the whole city” following the closure or transfer of the military facilities. However, his successor, Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), despite having served as environment minister, has not cherished this last remaining forest area in metropolitan Taipei. The Hau administration’s urban renewal plan pays no heed whatsoever to public protests. It quickly approved an investigation conducted over a few months by a special team and has sped up progress toward handing this ready-made forest park over to the clutches of big business. It is hard to imagine that bureaucrats and businessmen could work so closely and efficiently together without getting the nod from top leaders.
The Taipei City Government plans to turn this former military land into a “special zone,” a term that will make anyone who knows anything about land development and environmental laws shudder. It means that in the future the land could be used for just about anything, all to be greenwashed by labeling it an “ecological and environmental science and technology park.”
On June 1 last year, the Foxconn Technology Group wrote to the city government requesting its assistance in obtaining land for a “digital environmental science and technology town.” The group’s proposal allocates more land for housing than for research and development facilities. Newspapers have reported that Foxconn has pulled out, but in fact this only applies to the 25 hectares that have been assigned to the Academia Sinica for use as a biotechnology park, while the remaining 144 hectares offer much greater potential for profit.
Kaohsiung is a different story. Following the downsizing and streamlining of Taiwan’s armed forces, military land in urban areas is being made available for other purposes. In response to public demand, the Weiwuying (衛武營) former military camp in Kaohsiung County’s Fongshan City (鳳山) has been turned into an urban park that enhances Greater Kaohsiung’s development as a maritime metropolis. The aim is to transform Kaohsiung from a sooty industrial city into a green and livable one. Meanwhile, Taipei is turning forests and wetlands that could be easily accessed by its residents into industrial zones, or into private gardens for an elite minority of wealthy businesspeople.
On April 24, amid the clamor of popular protest, a special team set up by the Cabinet to clear up and reactivate disused land decided that over 230 hectares of land in Taipei City, including the 202 Munitions Works site, the Air Force Command Headquarters and the building housing the Ministry of National Defense after it has moved, should be handed over bit by bit to the National Property Administration. Speculation will continue to drive up land prices in central Taipei and those residents who are lucky enough not to be driven out to find homes in distant suburbs will have to climb over the flood defense barriers that border the city’s rivers to enjoy any greenery at all.
The world is engaged in a fight against global warming. If government officials are still stuck in the old concept of development for development’s sake, the public should not hesitate to vote them out in November’s special municipality elections.
Pan Han-shen is co-convener of the Green Party Taiwan.
TRANSLATED BY JULIAN CLEGG
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