The result of the first round of legislative cross-party negotiations yesterday on a draft bill designed to compensate leprosy patients who were mistreated when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government was in power was welcomed by Losheng Sanatorium preservationists.
The negotiated draft stipulates that the Losheng Sanatorium be preserved for its patients.
The draft bill obliges the nation to safeguard the rights of patients who live in the sanatorium and to prevent the eviction of residents from the leprosarium.
Tearing down the sanatorium would not be an option.
Leprosy patients and preservationists will constitute the majority of a new committee responsible for the protection of leprosy patients' human rights, the draft bill stipulates.
The committee will also be put in charge of the compensation for mistreated leprosy patients.
The negotiation of the draft bill, however, was not completed yesterday, leaving the amount of national compensation to be paid to patients undecided.
A final version of the bill will need to be endorsed by all parties' caucus whips before being put to the legislature for a second reading.
Six different versions of the draft bill were recently proposed by various parties. The proposals were designed to offer protection and compensation to leprosy patients who were quarantined by the government in 1929 because leprosy was at the time believed to be easily contagious and incurable. The patients were effectively quarantined for life.
Freedom of movement for leprosy sufferers has only been permitted since the 1950s.
The preservation of Losheng recently sparked conflict between the leprosarium's residents and supporters and the Taipei County Government, which had given residents at the sanatorium until April 16 to move out.
In order to build a maintenance facility for the extended mass rapid transit (MRT) system, the government had decided to move residents at the sanatorium to a newly built home nearby and demolish most of the buildings at Losheng.
About 10 representatives from the Youth Alliance for Losheng were allowed to attend the closed-door negotiations yesterday, according to a source present at the meeting who wished to remain anonymous.
The source said that KMT Legislator Tsai Chia-fu (
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS