A group of legislators yesterday filed charges with the Control Yuan against the state-run Taiwan Power Company (Taipower,
"As a state-run enterprise, Taipower was transgressing the law knowingly and even taking the lead in breaking the law. This is going to have a severe impact on the government's credibility," said DPP Legislator Chang Ching-fang (
The gravel was intended for the construction of a dock attached to the power plant, located in Kungliao (
The case first aroused the attention of local fishermen on July 24 when two ships were discovered in waters off Yenliao (
Suspecting that the ships were commanded by smugglers, the fishermen immediately notified the coast guard to deal with the matter and demanded the ships leave the waters.
The ships were then found to have sailed into port under the escort of coast guard vessels on July 28. The situation triggered strong protests from local fishermen, who then discovered the ships were carrying gravel intended for the power plant construction project.
Another DPP Legislator Chou Ya-shu (周雅淑), who had helped the fishermen negotiate with Taipower, accused the company of trying to cover up the illegal action.
While the shipper claimed that the gravel had arrived from Fujian province via Hong Kong on a route approved by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, Chou said she checked with the Keelung Harbor Bureau and confirmed that the ships had sailed directly from Wenzhou (
"We strongly suspect that there was some kind of underground collaboration between the construction company and government officials," Chou said.
Jao Yung-ching (
"In addition to violating the ban on direct cross-strait shipping, authorities concerned must check if there was any violation against the National Security Law and other anti-smuggling regulations," Jao said.
Local residents and environmentalists have been bitterly opposed to the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, but the case of illegal shipping has fueled opponents' anger.
This was also not the first time the construction company working on the power project has broken the law. Environmentalists earlier discovered that the construction company had been dumping waste soil into the sea, which they said damaged marine ecology and caused pollution.
Faced with legislators' allegations, Taipower President Kuo Junne-huey (
"According to the commercial contract, the construction company or shipping company is responsible for the ships' sailing route and other details," Kuo said.
"Whether there were any irregularities will be determined by justice authorities."
The DPP is nominally opposed to the power plant, but has not yet moved to stop its construction.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the