The pan-blue camp yesterday said it was determined to complete construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and restart a suspended dam project in the south if it wins the March 20 election. That statement drew criticism from both environmentalists and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators.
No choice
At a press conference held by several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to review the two camps' policies on sustainable development, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Bill Sun (孫國華) said the country has no choice but to rely on nuclear energy as a source of energy.
"We can't deny the fact that 97 percent of Taiwan's energy sources come from abroad," Sun said.
Sun argued that the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant had to be completed in order to ensure national security.
In a report produced by the pan-blue camp, it argues that more reservoirs need to be built in order to prevent water shortages in central and southern Taiwan. Pan-blue camp representatives said that building new reservoirs would be crucial, especially in the south, to ensure water supplies.
Asked if the dam project the pan-blue camp wanted to start was the controversial Meinung dam project in Kaohsiung County, which President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) suspended in July 2000, pan-blue representatives were reluctant to give a clear answer.
"The proposed site can be further discussed. If it's not in Meinung, it would be somewhere else," Hu Szu-tsong (
Sun, however, said the Meinung dam should be built anyway.
DPP Legislator Lai Chin-lin (
Unnecessary
"That means that the KMT's favorite project, the Meinung dam, would be totally unnecessary," Lai said.
As for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, Lai said that the DPP had decided to have the plant's future decided upon through a referendum, which would be held at the end of this year when the legislative elections are held.
Liang Chi-yuan (梁啟源), a research fellow at the Institute of Economics at the Academia Sinica, said the financial costs of scrapping the plant must be considered.
"The topic can't be discussed only from environmental angle. Cost/benefit analyses should be released by the government too," Liang said.
Shih Shin-min (施信民) of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union said the former KMT government had not only exaggerated the financial losses that would result from halting the plant's construction but also underestimated the potential prosperity of renewable energy.
"Why hasn't the KMT been willing to discuss the cost of treating nuclear waste?" Shih said.
Inconsistencies
Cheng Hsien-yu (
Chang Hung-lin (
"We are trying to urge about 1 million cancer sufferers -- whose illnesses could be attributed to the deteriorating environment -- to vote for a camp in favor of improving the environment," Chang said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods