Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) filed a lawsuit this week against the director of the clinical research division of the National Health Research Institutes, Su Ih-ren (
Earlier this week Su said that the government's plan to build the park was primarily to coordinate with the development of THSRC's station in northern Hsin-chu.
He also said that the project has turned into a "black hole" as it has proved unprofitable to date and that Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), the president of the Academia Sinica, was partly responsible as he was the coordinator of the case.
In response to Su's claim, Lee said he was not involved in the decision-making process behind the scheme and demanded an apology from Su.
THSRC chairman Nita Ing (
The real problem, she said, extends from rivalries between different factions in the medical field.
The purpose of the legal action is to present and clarify the facts, she added.
Su said earlier that the establishment of the science would help finance THSRC's operation.
Wang, on the other hand, claimed that the National Science Council purchased the land from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) for NT$4 billion (US$125 million).
The ministry, however, did not list the revenue on the year-end balance sheet, he said, and claimed the proceeds might go to THSRC's account.
Independent Legislator Lin Wei-chou (
Lin said he believes Su did so to help the person in charge of the preparation of the park who is reluctant to yield the power.
Lin called Su's claim "a product of struggling for the authority to lead the case."
Meanwhile, the launch of Taiwan's first bullet train could be delayed after lawmakers released records about subsidence discovered in track sections in Miaoli County.
Yesterday the company invited lawmakers of the legislature's transportation committee and the media to personally examine some of the sections in question.
The company said 35 instances of subsidence had been detected and repaired. The company will continue to monitor the tracks and promised to improve the situation before he train is scheduled to begin operating in October.
"The train is our bread and butter," said Ted Chia (
Wu Fu-hsiang (吳福祥), director general of MOTC's bureau of high speed rail, said the contract signed later between the high speed rail bureau and THSRC dictated that the company has to gradually increase the number of trains and passengers within six months of the facility opening.
The contract also said that both parties have to set a definite date at some point during the six months, after which the company will run 60 trains a day.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
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,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift