Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday voiced support for a plan to appeal against a Taipei High Administrative Court ruling that suspended two Central Taiwan Science Park expansion projects.
Wu again cast doubt on the professionalism of the Taipei High Administrative Court in the case, saying that cases such as these needed to be handled by judges who had a high level of knowledge in a related field of expertise.
“There has never been any case in the past in which administrative courts have ruled on a case related to [the thoroughness of] an environmental impact assessment [on a development project,]” Wu said. “If there is a medical [controversy] in the future, will the court also rule how deep the surgical cut should go [during an operation] and how many stitches should be made?”
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
Whether it was appropriate for administrative courts to judge an environmental impact assessment should be discussed, he said.
The court on Friday ordered the park to suspend all expansion activities in Cising (七星) in Houli Township (后里), Taichung County, as well as in Erlin (二林), Changhua County, because the environmental impact studies were incomplete.
Late last night, Wu said in a press statement that the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and the National Science Council had decided to appeal the case to the Supreme Administrative Court.
National Science Council Minister Lee Lou-chuang (李羅權) said the injunction handed down by the court was controversial and should be challenged.
He said the council would ask the EPA to conduct another environmental impact assessment within a month for the Houli expansion, as required by law.
If everything goes well, Lee said, the assessment would be completed by October and hopefully construction at Houli would resume.
The government would try its utmost to prevent businesses from suffering losses, Wu said yesterday.
“It is necessary to respect the court’s judgment, but the most important issue is to keep government policies consistent and coherent and to avoid investor losses,” he said.
Corporations decided to invest in the park because they had confidence in the government, therefore the government was obliged to protect their interests, he said.
“This is a case of concern for the nation’s economic development, investor confidence in Taiwan’s investment environment and environmental protection,” Wu said.
Wu said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians should sympathize with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government instead of making sarcastic remarks about the court ruling.
The opposition should remember that the two expansion projects, as well as the Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology plant, were all approved under the former DPP administration, he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
Auckland rang in 2026 with a downtown fireworks display launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, making it the first major city to greet the new year at a celebration dampened by rain, while crowds in Taipei braved the elements to watch Taipei 101’s display. South Pacific countries are the first to bid farewell to 2025. Clocks struck midnight in Auckland, with a population of 1.7 million, 18 hours before the famous ball was to drop in New York’s Times Square. The five-minute display involved 3,500 fireworks launched from the 240m Sky Tower. Smaller community events were canceled across New Zealand’s
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it is closely monitoring developments in Venezuela, and would continue to cooperate with democratic allies and work together for regional and global security, stability, and prosperity. The remarks came after the US on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was later flown to New York along with his wife. The pair face US charges related to drug trafficking and alleged cooperation with gangs designated as terrorist organizations. Maduro has denied the allegations. The ministry said that it is closely monitoring the political and economic situation
‘SLICING METHOD’: In the event of a blockade, the China Coast Guard would intercept Taiwanese ships while its navy would seek to deter foreign intervention China’s military drills around Taiwan this week signaled potential strategies to cut the nation off from energy supplies and foreign military assistance, a US think tank report said. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted what it called “Justice Mission 2025” exercises from Monday to Tuesday in five maritime zones and airspace around Taiwan, calling them a warning to “Taiwanese independence” forces. In a report released on Wednesday, the Institute for the Study of War said the exercises effectively simulated blocking shipping routes to major port cities, including Kaohsiung, Keelung and Hualien. Taiwan would be highly vulnerable under such a blockade, because it
UNRELENTING: China attempted cyberattacks on Taiwan’s critical infrastructure 2.63 million times per day last year, up from 1.23 million in 2023, the NSB said China’s cyberarmy has long engaged in cyberattacks against Taiwan’s critical infrastructure, employing diverse and evolving tactics, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday, adding that cyberattacks on critical energy infrastructure last year increased 10-fold compared with the previous year. The NSB yesterday released a report titled Analysis on China’s Cyber Threats to Taiwan’s Critical Infrastructure in 2025, outlining the number of cyberattacks, major tactics and hacker groups. Taiwan’s national intelligence community identified a large number of cybersecurity incidents last year, the bureau said in a statement. China’s cyberarmy last year launched an average of 2.63 million intrusion attempts per day targeting Taiwan’s critical
RSS