The seventh Environmental Im-pact Assessment Committee came under fire during its very first meeting yesterday, with environmentalists accusing its members of being heavily biased toward business interests.
Green Party Taiwan Secretary-General Pan Han-shen (
disguised
Fang Chien (方儉), secretary-general of the Green Consumers' Foundation, said that the five true environmentalists on the committee had been replaced by Democratic Progressive Party "troops" disguised as academics and experts.
These people, Fang said, intended to push through a series of controversial projects.
He said the committee would offer up Taiwan's environment to Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
Fang said the inspiration for the funeral theme had come from committee member James Lee (
Fang said that the "rubber stamp" committee shouldn't waste public funds pretending to deliberate, and instead just go ahead and give approval to the projects.
Protesters brought baskets of flowers and read obituaries at the "funeral" demonstration, saying that "environmental assessment is dead."
professional
Members of the committee, meanwhile, were adamant that they would act according to their professionalism and conscience.
EPA Minister Winston Dang (陳重信) presided over the first committee meeting, saying that in the next two years it would strive toward professionalism, efficiency and simplicity while strengthening policy communication and its legal system.
He said that the EPA was considering commissioning private consulting companies to assess certain cases before being sent back to the committee for deliberation.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
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MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
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