Former residents of the Tunghsing Building (
The 12-story complex, situated on Taipei's Pateh Road, collapsed in seconds, killing 87 residents during the earthquake last year. The casualties and property damage at the Tunghsing Building are claimed to be the most serious in Taipei City.
Former residents of the ill-fated building, accompanied by lawyers and human rights activists, rallied at the Taipei District Court yesterday to file the suit against the management of the Hung Kuo Group, Lin Hsieh Han-chien (
Tunghsing residents said they are seeking compensation of NT$2.5 billion from the group as they believe the collapse of the building was due to poor structural design.
Reports conducted by the Control Yuan and by the Taipei Civil Engineers' Association have indicated the collapse resulted from structural and design problems inherent in the building, according to Cheng Wen-lung (
The report conducted by the civil engineers' association found that 60 percent of samples of debris taken from the building's ruins pointed to substandard building materials.
Cheng successfully assisted the residents of the Doctors' Home in Taipei County, which also collapsed in the quake, in reaching a settlement in September with the builders of the complex.
The lawyer said the Tunghsing Building was constructed in 1980 by Hung Gu Construction (鴻固營造), which he said was an affiliate of the Hung Kuo Group.
Hung Kuo has always claimed, however, that it did not become a shareholder in Hung Gu until 1981 and that it was not involved in the construction of the Tunghsing Building.
Hung Kuo has also stated that neither Lin Hsieh Han-chien nor her two sons are responsible for deaths and injuries of the former Tunghsing residents.
Tiffany Lee (
She said that she and other residents had been present at the district court exactly a year ago to file a criminal charge against Hung Gu Construction. Although a year has passed, none of those being blamed for the tragedy have accepted any responsibility, she said.
"Not a single word of apology, let alone any compensatory acts," she said.
Apart from legal action, the residents have pressed the Taipei City Government to mediate so that the disputes, and other similar ones, might be resolved as soon as possible.
According to Lee, the city government has told them it has invited three defendants of the Hung Kuo Group to negotiate with former Tunghsing residents on Nov. 6. Residents, however, said they thought it was unlikely the three representatives would show up for the meeting.
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
RSS