Taipei police yesterday afternoon removed Green Party Taiwan candidate for the Da-an District (大安) legislative by-election Calvin Wen (溫炳原) from a tree at the Songshan Tobacco Factory after the latter stayed in the tree overnight in an attempt to prevent it from being cut down.
Environmental groups, including Green Party Taiwan, and local residents have opposed the Taipei City Government’s plan to turn the site of the former Songshan Tobacco Factory — which ceased operations in 1998 — into a sports and entertainment complex for fear that the project would damage the local ecosystem and deprive local residents of a green space at the heart of the city.
Left untouched by urban development since its establishment in the 1930s — and especially after it was shut down — the site is now covered with thick vegetation, providing a habitat to many rare species.
Despite the opposition, the city government signed a build-operate-transfer contract with the Farglory Group and began construction.
Removing old trees from the site is the initial step in the project.
Wen was among the environmentalists and local residents who rushed to block the removal of a camphor tree at the site of the factory on Friday.
While police arrested all other demonstrators, Wen on Friday escaped arrest and successfully prevented the tree from being removed by climbing it.
After several physical clashes on Friday between police and protestors, an agreement was reached whereupon four aides would be allowed to enter the site to look after Wen.
However, at about 1pm yesterday, officials from the Department of Education accompanied by police officers showed up and asked Wen’s aides to leave immediately.
As they refused to leave, police removed them by force.
“I refused to leave and the officers dragged me away and took me to the Xinyi Police Precinct Office — my back still hurts from it,” said Amnesty International Taiwan director Wang Hsing-chung (王興中), who was one of Wen’s four aides, after leaving the police station.
Afterwards, Wen, who had tied himself to the tree, was also forcibly removed by police officers who reached him only with the help of a fire truck.
“We will file a lawsuit against Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin [郝龍斌] based on the Environmental Impact Assessment Act [環境影響評估法],” Wen told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Green Party Taiwan accused the city government of violating the law because although the construction project passed the first environmental impact assessment, a second assessment was still in process since Farglory made changes to the project.
The Taipei Cultural and Sports Park — the official name of the future sports complex — executive secretary Lee Kan (李侃) declined to comment, while Department of Education Chief Secretary Lin Hsin-yao (林信耀) could not be reached for comment at press time.
A total of 400 foreign “high- level” professionals have been naturalized as Republic of China (Taiwan) citizens over the past decade as the government has eased nationality rules to attract talent from a wider range of fields, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The 400th high-level professional, who works in the electronics industry, was approved for ROC citizenship on Aug. 26, the MOI said. The MOI quoted the newly naturalized citizen as saying that Taiwan is a leader in fields such as semiconductors, electronics manufacturing, artificial intelligence development and energy technology. He also said
China has warned that it could cancel a planned US-China leaders’ summit if Washington approves new arms sales to Taiwan, a Japanese media outlet quoted sources as saying yesterday. US President Donald Trump, “apparently eager to showcase some diplomatic achievements ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections, places great importance on holding the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平),” Japan’s Kyodo News reported. “While preparing for Xi’s upcoming trip, China has restated its position that the Taiwan issue is a ‘red line’ in bilateral relations,” the report said. The report said that when Xi met with Trump in Beijing in May, Xi said
RARE PEEK: The footage released showed one of the bears staying in a cave for as long as 70 days, providing the first record of Formosan black bear’s overwintering The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday released tracking records of released Formosan black bears for the first time, showing that they get much closer to human settlements than previously thought. The agency said it had captured two bears, Da Qu-ali (達古阿里) and Aziman (阿里曼), in indigenous villages in Hualien County and began to track them with a camera-mounted satellite collar after releasing them back into the wild. The results confirmed that the bears have moved from deep mountain areas into lowland hills closer to human communities, leading to an increase in human-bear conflicts, it said. The agency has introduced artificial intelligence-assisted early
DIPLOMATIC TOUR: Chinese President Xi Jinping began a series of overseas visits last month to Kyrgyzstan, Egypt and India, aimed at securing leverage, an official said Recent Chinese diplomatic and military moves are aimed at creating pressure ahead of a planned meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump, National Security Council adviser Huang Chung-yen (黃重諺) said. Trump when visiting China in May extended an invitation to Xi to visit Washington on Sept. 24. China is yet to officially announce plans for Xi’s visit to the US. In an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) on Thursday, Huang said Xi’s overseas visits, China’s “gray zone” activities along the First Island Chain and efforts to expand its trade surplus with the
RSS