Clashes erupted yesterday as environmental activists tried to observe a meeting at the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to review the Central Taiwan Science Park’s Phase-3 zone development.
Scores of environmental activists first protested by pounding on the windows of the conference room where the meeting was being held, accusing the agency of trying to settle the dispute in secret. When some of the activists tried to break through a police cordon, they were blocked and several were carried away by police officers.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) spoke in support of the environmentalists and asked the meeting’s chairman, Lee Ching-chang (李俊璋) of National Chang Kung University, to let the protesters observe the session.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
“The Environmental Protection Administration should not be a tool used by the Executive Yuan to hide its shame,” Tien said. “It [not letting the activists enter] will only make people despise the environmental impact assessment system.”
In January, the Supreme Administrative Court ruled against the EPA’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) review of development of the science park’s Phase-3 zone in Houli Township (后里), Taichung County. The EPA had approved the plans.
The Taipei High Administrative Court ruled last month that construction work at the park’s Phase-4 zone in Erlin Township (二林), Changhua County, had to be stopped until further EIAs were conducted and approved.
The EPA and National Science Council, the agencies that oversee development at the nation’s science parks, appealed the cases to the Supreme Administrative Court on Monday. While agreeing to stop work on the infrastructure of the two sites, they said they would not shut down companies that had already begun production or were building their plants at Houli.
Lee intially turned down Tien’s request, although he later allowed some of the activists to enter the meeting room and give their opinions. A representative from Houli’s Gongguan Village (公館) knelt down and begged the EPA to stop operations at the Central Taiwan Science Park.
The protesters said that any development at Cising Farm (七星農場) in the Phase-3 zone should stop immediately. The EPA should order AU Optronics (友達光電) and Sunner Solar (旭能光電) — two companies in the Phase-3 zone — to stop operations and any construction there. If the companies refuse, the EPA should fine them NT$1.5 million a day each, the activists said. The developer of the Phase-3 zone should also have to redo the environmental impact assessment, they said.
Meanwhile, Cabinet officials said allowing AU Optronics and Sunner Solar to continue their operations was “legally defensible.”
Minister Without Portfolio Kao Su-po (高思博) told a press conference the government “had not distorted the rulings,” but had made its decision to allow the companies to proceed “in accordance with the text of the Taipei High Administrative Court.”
The court ruled development work in Phase-3 and Phase-4 must be suspended, but “the ruling did not extend to firms operating in the park, neither did it mention if their operations should be suspended,” Kao said.
When asked if the ruling demanded the Central Taiwan Science Park Development Office stop issuing planning permission, Kao said that the ruling prohibited the office from issuing new planning permission, but “did not have retroactive effect on the operational licenses that had already been issued to the two firms.”
Deputy Minister of Justice Wu Chen-huan (吳陳鐶) told the press conference that the decision to allow the two firms to continue operations was legally sound.
“If the Supreme Administrative Court disagrees, it can force a halt to the operations of the two firms,” he said. “Officials will not be held responsible [for allowing the firms to continue operations].”
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
A bipartisan group of US representatives have introduced a draft US-Taiwan Defense Innovation Partnership bill, aimed at accelerating defense technology collaboration between Taiwan and the US in response to ongoing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill was introduced by US representatives Zach Nunn and Jill Tokuda, with US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar and US Representative Ashley Hinson joining as original cosponsors, a news release issued by Tokuda’s office on Thursday said. The draft bill “directs the US Department of Defense to work directly with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense through their respective
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
RSS