Asia Cement Corp (亞泥) yesterday denied that it has been expanding mining operations in Hualien County.
“We have been conducting a large-scale afforestation project in the region for several years and the efforts have begun to bear fruit,” the company, one of the biggest cement makers in the nation, said in a statement.
The comments came after the death on Saturday of documentary filmmaker Chi Po-lin (齊柏林) in a helicopter crash, which raised public questions about the scope of the firm’s mining operations in Hualien because of his footage.
Asia Cement has been mining in eastern Taiwan for 60 years. Its mine once extended 25 hectares into Taroko National Park, but it said it reduced its mining area in the park at the end of last year.
Asia Cement is a unit of Far Eastern Group (遠東集團), which also operates Far Eastern Department Stores Co (遠東百貨) and textile maker Far Eastern New Century Corp (遠東新世紀).
The Ministry of Economic Affairs in March approved an extension of Asia Cement’s mining rights in Sincheng Township (新城) by 20 years, allowing it to bypass an environmental impact assessment.
“The ministry has completed the draft amendment to the Mining Act (礦業法) and would require outdated projects to pass environmental impact assessments in the future,” Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) said yesterday.
The ministry is to discuss related details with the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), Shen said, without providing a timetable.
The Department of Mines said in a statement that the nation’s cement supply chains might be affected if Asia Cement halts production at its Hualien plant.
The Hualien plant contributes nearly 29 percent of Taiwan’s total cement production, it said.
In late March, Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan, initiated a petition to abolish the extension of mining rights, which collected about 42,000 signatures until the first week of this month.
After Chi’s lastest aerial photograph of the company’s activity was revealed on Saturday, about 40,000 signatures were added to the petition over the weekend, bringing the total number of signatures to 87,867 as of 8:30pm last night, foundation researcher Pan Cheng-cheng (潘正正) said.
Once the petition has 100,000 signatures, the foundation will deliver it to authorities and press them to re-examine the company’s mining permit, Pan said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said on Facebook yesterday that the EPA should ask the company to conduct a new environmental impact analysis and submit response strategies, based on Article 28 of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (環境影響評估法).
Pan said a new analysis might change the firm’s mining scope, but added that “it would be a difficult decision for the EPA.”
The EPA had not responded to Lin’s call as of press time last night.
Additional reporting by Ines Lin
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or
RSS