As an island on the Western edge of the Pacific Ocean, Taiwan is vulnerable to tropical cyclones that develop into typhoons, while its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” makes earthquakes a frequent occurrence. We cannot avoid natural disasters such as these; we can only respond to them.
What about man-made disasters? Industrial development involves hidden dangers. How serious the risks are depends on how well the government manages industrial growth, as well as the social conscience and responsibility of business leaders. Nuclear power and petrochemicals are particularly risky. They are like bombs that could explode at any time.
The government insists that nuclear power is a necessity for power generation and economic development. It wants to go on building nuclear power plants, no matter how much opposition to their construction there may be. Were it not for the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant after a massive earthquake and tsunami in the region in March 2011, opposition to nuclear power could not make any difference to official policy. The halt to construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) is only meant to set people’s minds at ease.
The petrochemical industry is another sector that the government often presents as essential to economic prosperity. Taiwan’s six naphtha crackers are all huge sources of pollution, but industrialists want to build even more. Greater Kaohsiung, in particular, has long been a key industrial base where pipelines carrying toxic and dangerous petrochemical gases run through residential neighborhoods
Two weeks ago, huge explosions tore open a section of Kaohsiung’s Kaisyuan Road and adjoining roads and streets. The blasts are thought to have been caused by propene leaking from pipelines owned by LCY Chemical Corp that were laid stealthily and not properly maintained. As a result, 30 people lost their lives and many more were injured. Adjacent roads and buildings also suffered serious damage, adding up to scenes of death and devastation. This calamity highlights the absurdity of having industrial zones mixed in with residential areas.
This industrial disaster has whipped up a political storm. Dangerous gases should never have been piped past homes and stores, and the pipelines were not subject to standard operation and control procedures. The ensuing political storm involves intrigues and power struggles between various parties and factions. Which officials should take the blame? Who will resign and when? There is no rhyme or reason to it.
Many years ago, residents and activists besieged LCY’s factory in Hsinchu County for more than a year because of its poor safety record. LCY is a big corporation with an annual turnover of more than NT$50 billion (US$1.67 billion), but its attitude following the propene blast has been far from admirable. How can companies get away with such poor management and lack of social responsibility? Over and over again, incidents such as these have exposed a sickness in our nation’s mode of development.
We live in an abnormal country, whose government has always trumpeted development and sees everything from the perspective of its seat of power in Taipei.
Beneath the flashy surface lie all kinds of crises and risks. It is a style of politics that prefers power struggles to building reliable systems.
When man-made disasters strike, ordinary people can only tend to their injuries and console one another.
Lee Min-yung is a poet.
Translated by Julian Clegg
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
It is being said every second day: The ongoing recall campaign in Taiwan — where citizens are trying to collect enough signatures to trigger re-elections for a number of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators — is orchestrated by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), or even President William Lai (賴清德) himself. The KMT makes the claim, and foreign media and analysts repeat it. However, they never show any proof — because there is not any. It is alarming how easily academics, journalists and experts toss around claims that amount to accusing a democratic government of conspiracy — without a shred of evidence. These
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
RSS