On Wednesday, several groups of environmental activists and oyster farmers from Changhua County jointly applied to the government to set up a trust fund to purchase coastal wetlands near the estuary of the Jhuoshuei River.
The trust fund for public land — the first of its kind in this country if it is approved — is aimed at protecting the endangered Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins and preserving the area’s unique ecosystem, which hosts a diversity of wildlife off Taiwan’s west coast.
According to the organizers, more than 31,000 people had signed up for the land-purchase drive as of Tuesday, subscribing 1.5 million shares of the fund worth NT$160 million (US$4.9 million) in total, which they said could buy up to 150 hectares of the most sensitive 200 hectares where Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Corp plans to construct a new naphtha cracker.
The first challenge facing the activists, of course, is whether the trust fund will be approved by the authorities, as currently there’s no particular law that could be applied to this fund and no one knows exactly which specific government agency would be in charge of overseeing it.
Without first clearing the legal uncertainties regarding the trust fund, activists may be left only to watch Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Corp proceed with the second stage of its environmental impact assessment of the planned naphtha cracker project.
However, what has caused more concern was a remark by Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) on Wednesday that dolphins should be able to “make a turn” to avoid a planned harbor for the shipment of petrochemical products in the area. According to local media reports, Wu said if the humpback dolphins could “make a turn” when moving toward Taichung Harbor, why couldn’t they do the same when swimming along the coastal area of Changhua County?
Mr Premier, no one would question the dolphins’ ability to learn to adapt to the environment, because they are probably one of the most intelligent aquatic mammals on Earth. Their ability to change course may indicate they are smarter than humans.
However, such remarks simply show the stereotypical mindset and underlying assumption that we human beings are much more important than nature and don’t need to care about how serious the petrochemical project’s impact is on this area.
Clearly, Wu favors the construction of the project. During his interview with two Chinese-language business dailies published on Wednesday, the premier said the Kuokuang project was a must for the nation’s economy. And later the same day, he told reporters that he was also worried that there would be a monopoly in the nation’s petrochemical sector under Formosa Petrochemical Corp without the planned project by Kuokuang, a subsidiary of state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan.
However, he has apparently turned a blind eye to increasing opposition to the project from 280 local academics over concern about its potential negative impact in terms of biodiversity loss, public health risk and increased greenhouse gas emissions, as well as dangers to water resources and the farming sector in the area.
With the whole world cutting greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming, Taiwan’s plan to build the Kuokuang petrochemical complex, coupled with the proposed expansion of Formosa’s sixth naphtha cracker in Yunlin County, looks bizarre and lamentable, only to be topped by the premier making such an absurd remark about dolphins. Of more concern is the nation’s international image over the increasingly important matter of environmental protection.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been expansionist and contemptuous of international law. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the CCP regime has become more despotic, coercive and punitive. As part of its strategy to annex Taiwan, Beijing has sought to erase the island democracy’s international identity by bribing countries to sever diplomatic ties with Taipei. One by one, China has peeled away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners, leaving just 12 countries (mostly small developing states) and the Vatican recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Taiwan’s formal international space has shrunk dramatically. Yet even as Beijing has scored diplomatic successes, its overreach
In her article in Foreign Affairs, “A Perfect Storm for Taiwan in 2026?,” Yun Sun (孫韻), director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington, said that the US has grown indifferent to Taiwan, contending that, since it has long been the fear of US intervention — and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) inability to prevail against US forces — that has deterred China from using force against Taiwan, this perceived indifference from the US could lead China to conclude that a window of opportunity for a Taiwan invasion has opened this year. Most notably, she observes that
For Taiwan, the ongoing US and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets are a warning signal: When a major power stretches the boundaries of self-defense, smaller states feel the tremors first. Taiwan’s security rests on two pillars: US deterrence and the credibility of international law. The first deters coercion from China. The second legitimizes Taiwan’s place in the international community. One is material. The other is moral. Both are indispensable. Under the UN Charter, force is lawful only in response to an armed attack or with UN Security Council authorization. Even pre-emptive self-defense — long debated — requires a demonstrably imminent
Since being re-elected, US President Donald Trump has consistently taken concrete action to counter China and to safeguard the interests of the US and other democratic nations. The attacks on Iran, the earlier capture of deposed of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and efforts to remove Chinese influence from the Panama Canal all demonstrate that, as tensions with Beijing intensify, Washington has adopted a hardline stance aimed at weakening its power. Iran and Venezuela are important allies and major oil suppliers of China, and the US has effectively decapitated both. The US has continuously strengthened its military presence in the Philippines. Japanese Prime
RSS