A Control Yuan member yesterday described the construction of the Taiwan High Speed Rail as a “scandal” and vowed to probe the responsibility of government officials under the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration.
“The construction of the high speed rail system is not only a failed BOT [build-operate-transfer] case, it was fraud from the very beginning,” Control Yuan member Yeh Yao-peng (葉耀鵬) told reporters.
Yeh said the Control Yuan would focus on why the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s original shareholders were able to undertake a project whose cost exceeds the amount they had invested.
Yeh said a previous Control Yuan investigation showed that the five original shareholders only invested around NT$30 billion (US$926 million), but had undertaken construction projects worth around NT$82 billion.
The five original shareholders are Continental Engineering Corp, the Pacific Electric Wire & Cable Co, the Evergreen Group, Teco Electric & Machinery Co and the Fubon Group.
“We cannot let this go. We need to investigate if the government neglected its duty,” Yeh said.
Fielding questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Daniel Hwang (黃義交), Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said the government would leave the investigation to the Control Yuan and prosecutors.
Wu again rebutted media speculation that Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp chairwoman Nita Ing’s (殷琪) resignation, which was confirmed on Sunday, had anything to do with the visit of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama earlier this month.
“This speculation is ridiculous,” Wu said.
He said the company had sought the assistance of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications six months ago to become involved in managing the high speed rail.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said he had talked to Ing on five or six occasions about the company’s operations and that the talks would stand up to public scrutiny.
Also See: Ou Chin-der replaces Ing at THSRC
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan