Before he passed away, former Yilan County commissioner Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) told Formosa Plastics Group that Yilan did not want the petrochemical industry there because it was highly dangerous and would pollute the environment. These remarks made many residents question the future of Yilan. However, without the petrochemical industry, Yilan has relied on its natural resources and become internationally known for its annual Children’s Folklore and Folkgame Festival.
Now, a similar situation is happening on the banks of the Jhuoshui River (濁水溪.) More than a decade ago, Yunlin County welcomed Formosa Plastics Group into Mailiao Township (麥寮) and the county government guaranteed local residents this would make the area prosper. However, this was soon proved wrong by endless industrial safety accidents, environmental pollution, losses incurred by farmers and fishermen, large numbers of residents leaving the area and local residents getting cancer.
After Kaohsiung residents kicked out Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co from their city, the company become interested in the beautiful intertidal zone of Dacheng Township (大城) in Changhua County. The company started using slogans about increasing local prosperity, local population and consumption to trick local residents and cover up the damage that a petrochemical plant could have on the local environment. These slogans are very similar to the ones used by Formosa Plastics Group before it built the sixth naphtha cracker plant in Mailiao Township.
Dacheng is also located at the mouth of Jhuoshui River. It is a poor rural town that the petrochemical industry now has its eyes on. Petrochemical companies could not care less about whether this area is home to the humpback dolphin or the beautiful ecology of the intertidal zone. Nor do they care about Wanggong Township (王�?ysters, the focal point each year of the Wanggong festival. Nor do they care about the livelihoods of fish farmers and the elderly who have lived there generation after generation by gathering oysters after the tidewaters recede every day.
After the 921 earthquake rocked Taiwan, researchers issued a warning to towns in areas suffering from serious ground subsidence, saying that ground water functions as a super shock absorber and that it can help absorb the energy released by an earthquake and minimize the damage.
Changhua County lacks water resources and ground water is needed to meet the demands of daily life, farming and fishing. A large part of Jhuoshui River has been redirected at Jiji for use by the sixth naphtha cracker and farmers along the river have no choice but to take even more ground water for irrigation uses. The government plans another barrage in the upper parts of the Dadu River (大度) to provide the Kuokuang petrochemical plant with water for its daily use.
This means farmers along the river will have to dig even deeper wells to get water for irrigation. If one day a major earthquake were to happen along the west coast, after having lost all the natural protection offered by the ground water, Changhua would be in a terrible state.
The past suffering of Mailiao residents cannot be erased, but the fate of Dacheng residents can still be changed. Once land and habitats are lost, they can never be regained. We would be looking forward to a much brighter future if we could manage to preserve the natural beauty and purity of Dacheng.
Lin Hong-jung is a Presbyterian pastor in Dacheng Township in Changhua County.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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