Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) has two weeks to provide an evacuation plan for the entire Taipei Dome (台北大巨蛋) complex, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
“The original evacuation plan only included the dome itself, without any plan for the surrounding area,” Ko said. “This means there will be problems if construction continues.”
Ko said earlier this week that the city was considering clearing out some of the complex’s planned office space to open up additional evacuation routes. He said yesterday that Farglory had two weeks to submit a new evacuation plan for the entire structure, while the city conducts its own re-evaluation.
Photo: Liang Pei-chih, Taipei Times
Ko added that city is “prepared for the worst-case scenario,” with the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2017 Universiade moved to the Taipei Track and Field Stadium (台北田徑場) if the Taipei Dome is unavailable due to construction delays.
Meanwhile, fighting broke out early yesterday morning between Farglory workers and activists from the Songshan Tree Protection Volunteer Union after the corporation attempted to forcibly begin the transplantation of trees next to the construction site. Environmental activists have camped out next to the site since April last year to prevent the trees from being removed.
“Farglory took Taipei’s extremely tragic airplane crash as an ‘opportunity from heaven’ to conduct illegal construction and commit violence against our volunteers,” union policy director Arthur Yo (游藝) said, adding that the corporation lacked the required permit to conduct night-time construction.
He said hundreds of Farglory workers had streamed out of the construction site at about 1:30am to erect metal paneling around the trees and begin the root-cutting process.
While activists fought to stop the workers, police stood by until daybreak, he said.
Later yesterday, union activists held up medical certificates proving their injuries, displaying scrapes and ripped clothing.
In response, Farglory public relations department deputy manager Jacky Yang (楊舜欽) said the firm’s actions were both legal and in accordance with the city-mandated procedures for tree transplantation, displaying a permit for the trees’ removal issued by the city government immediately following preliminary negotiations late last month.
Taipei Deputy Mayor Teng Chia-chi (鄧家基), who heads the city’s side of negotiations with Farglory, condemned the firm’s actions.
While acknowledging that the city had tentatively agreed to assist the firm in transplanting the trees, he said that city help was conditional on the renegotiation of the firm’s contract being completed and the firm arriving at a “consensus” with environmental activists. He said the firm had thus far failed to meet both conditions.
Teng also called the timing of Farglory’s actions “extremely inappropriate,” being so soon after Wednesday’s plane crash, adding that the city would cancel the previously issued permit and require the firm to postpone the trees’ transplantation.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from