President Chen Shui-bian (
Su, while answering a question asked by a nominee for this year's National Youth Public Participation Award, was caught off-guard at the Taipei Guest House yesterday morning when a man accused him of lying.
The man, Lee Chun-da (
Su responded by saying that some people might think that he did not care much about the relocation of the facility, but that was not the case. He added that the government has offered compensation to patients and built a new sanitarium for them, many of whom found the environment quite satisfactory.
"Liar!" Lee shouted.
Visibly stunned by Lee's jeering, Su paused for a moment before he went on to say that the Executive Yuan did not have the authority to approve or disapprove the decision of the Taipei City and Taipei County governments, which plan to take the hospital apart and reconstruct part of it somewhere else.
On whether the hospital should be preserved, Su said that he would leave it to the experts and government agencies in charge.
While the Taipei County Government is responsible for affairs of cultural preservation, the Taipei City Government is in charge of traffic construction projects. Su said the two governments notified the Executive Yuan of their decision last year.
"It is not easy to strike a balance between cultural preservation and construction," he said.
The sanitarium was built in 1930 in Sinjhuang (
The Japanese government has admitted its inhumane treatment of the patients and victims have taken their battle for compensation to the courts. They won a victory last year when a Japanese judge ruled they were entitled to redress.
The Taipei City and Taipei County governments had originally planned to demolish the 70-year-old facility to make way for the Xinzhuang Line of the mass rapid transit (MRT) line.
Patients and human-rights advocates, however, refuse to give up the hospital, and the Council for Cultural Affairs would like to see it preserved as an historic site.
Chen said yesterday that he believed both the central and local governments have exerted themselves in the matter, and if some people still find their behavior unsatisfactory, he would like them to talk to Su face-to-face to prevent any further misunderstandings.
also see story:
Indie-music scene mobilizes with concert to protest land grab
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS