Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday courted controversy at an academic forum by proposing to remap the country's administrative regions.
In her proposal, Lu suggested moving the capital south or appointing another capital in the south to reduce the development gap between northern and southern Taiwan.
Apart from making the suggestion that Taiwan should be divided into four major parts -- northern, central, western and eastern Taiwan -- to replace the current 22 administrative regions governed by local governments, Lu also proposed to establish two "special administrations" -- one governing the nation's high mountainous regions and the other governing Taiwan's off-shore islands.
"As an initiator of remapping the country's local administrations, I want to say that we must have an overall change in the existing situation, which is not suitable anymore for the country to maintain a sustainable living environment", Lu said.
Lu used the High-Speed Rail (HSR) network as an example, which is scheduled to start operating this year. The HSR would greatly influence the areas it passes through, she said.
"As the HSR would shorten the geographical distance and save transportation time, it would be meaningless to have so many small administrative divisions," Lu said, noting that that's why she suggested dividing Taiwan into four major parts.
Responding to the vice president's idea, Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎), the Interior Ministry vice minister -- whose ministry is in charge of the country's administrative divisions -- said that he's not sure whether Lu's proposal can replace current policy.
"The vice president has the right to express her opinions, but I am not sure whether they will be adopted as the government's policy or not," Chien said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
"My idea is to merge the administrative divisions into northern, central and southern metropolitan areas. The three areas will serve as a development engine driving the country forward," Ma said yesterday.
Ma said that there would be more details to work out on the issue, such as if the title "province" should be retained.
However, KMT caucus whip Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said that "it seemed to me that Lu's proposal was a preparation for declaring the country's independence in the future."
The Democratic People's Party government should enhance its ability to implement policies, not remap the nation, said Hwang Yih-jiau (黃義交), the People First Party caucus whip.
additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.