Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-feng (蘇治芬) and a group of Mailiao Township (麥寮) residents yesterday appealed to Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and the government to listen to their complaints about pollution from a naphtha cracker in their town.
Braving the scorching sun, the protesters knelt in front of the Executive Yuan during their protest. They also threw dead fish and clams that had been found days after a fire broke out in a residual desulphurizer at Formosa Petrochemical Corp’s petrochemical complex on Sunday night.
On July 7, the company had also shut a naphtha cracker after a fire at the complex.
PHOTO PROVIDED COURTESY OF YUNLIN COUNTY GOVERNMENT
“This was what the water looked like in our fish farm,” said one protester as he held a bottle of black water in his hands.
The protesters said they had turned to the Executive Yuan for help because they had not had a response from the government to their request that the environmental impact assessment on the plant’s fifth stage expansion be stopped.
However, Wu did not appear. Liao Yaw-chung (廖耀宗), chief of the Executive Yuan’s fifth section — the unit that deals mainly with economic policy — received the protesters and said he would relay their appeal to the premier.
While Wu did not meet the group led by the Democratic Progressive Party’s Su, he did meet for half an hour on Wednesday with a group of Mailiao residents led by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chang Chia-chun (張嘉郡).
Before heading to the Executive Yuan, Su’s group attended a public hearing held by DPP lawmakers Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) and Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) on the two fires.
Su said the premier should visit Yunlin County to gain a better understanding of the safety issues surrounding the naphtha cracker.
Pollution from the recent fires seriously damaged the agricultural and fisheries industries in the area and exposed Yunlin residents to seven times the level of pollution in other parts of the country, Su said.
She was also unhappy the Executive Yuan only sent low-ranking officials to the hearing.
“I was once a lawmaker. I know public hearings do little to resolve problems. It was such a humble request to have officials come and listen to us. However, what we learned at the public hearing was that the Executive Yuan will continue to review the expansion plan,” Su said, referring to remarks made by Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Hwang Jung-chiou (黃重球) yesterday morning.
Hwang told a press conference following the weekly Cabinet meeting that the recent fires would not interfere with the environmental impact assessment process.
“We were of the opinion that the environmental impact assessment should be delinked from the accidents,” Hwang said in response to a question.
“Maybe the members of the Environmental Protection Administration’s Environmental Impact Assessment Commission will demand that Formosa Plastics meet more requirements because of the accidents,” Hwang said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
SOLIDARITY: A group of European lawmakers condemned China’s aggressive moves, while the foreign minister of Lithuania said Taiwan ‘cannot become a second Ukraine’ A German parliamentary delegation would visit Taiwan in the first week of October, German lawmaker Holger Becker on Monday told visiting Democratic Progressive Party legislators Fan Yun (范雲) and Lin I-chin (林宜瑾) at the Bundestag in Berlin. Asked by Fan whether he is worried about possible reprisals from Beijing, such as banning him and his family from entering China, Becker said he is more interested in visiting Taiwan, as “now is the time for democracies to stand together.” Fan and Lin also met with German officials to exchange views on digital education and governance. Investing in digital infrastructure and protecting equal rights to
ANNEXATION PLANS: Remarks by the Chinese ambassador to France showed that Beijing seeks to normalize genocide, re-education and gulags, a US official said European and US officials condemned comments from Chinese Ambassador to France Lu Shaye (盧沙野), after he on Wednesday said that Taiwanese would be “re-educated” after any annexation by China. In an interview on French television, Lu accused the Democratic Progressive Party of “extremist” propaganda and turning Taiwanese against “reunification” with China. “We will re-educate. I’m sure that the Taiwanese population will again become favorable of the reunification and will become patriots again,” Lu told BFM TV. The term “re-education” has been used to describe Chinese authorities’ treatment of Uighurs and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang. European Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defense Chairwoman
‘SIMULATED ATTACKS’: Ten warships each from China and Taiwan were maneuvering at close quarters in the Taiwan Strait, with some Chinese vessels crossing the median line Taiwan yesterday reiterated that it would not succumb to pressure from Beijing after China carried out its most provocative military drills in decades in retaliation for US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan last week. “We will never bow to pressure. We uphold freedom and democracy, and believe Taiwanese disapprove [of] China’s bullying actions with force and saber rattling at our door,” Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday. China had “arrogantly” disrupted regional peace and stability, he said, calling on Beijing to not flex its military muscles. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has also called on the international community to “support
As China waged extensive military exercises off Taiwan, a group of US defense experts in Washington was focused on their own simulation of an eventual — but for now entirely hypothetical — US-China war over the nation. The unofficial what-if game is being conducted on the fifth floor of an office building not far from the White House, and it posits a US military response to a Chinese invasion in 2026. Even though the participants bring a US perspective, they are finding that a US-Taiwan victory, if there is one, could come at a huge cost. “The results are showing that under
RSS