President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) called for the enactment of a national land planning law yesterday as part of an effort to prevent a repeat of the disaster that followed Typhoon Morakot in August.
The law should put public safety first and prohibit or restrict the development of vulnerable areas, Ma said in his National Day address at the Presidential Office.
Morakot claimed at least 700 lives in early August and caused Taiwan’s worst flooding in 50 years. Ma was forced to reshuffle the Cabinet early last month over criticism of his government because of its slow response to the Morakot aftermath. Then-premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) resigned to take responsibility for the delayed evacuation of people living in mountain villages.
Ma yesterday said that climate change should be taken into consideration when reconstructing Morakot disaster areas and rebuilding waterways, as well as in land management planning.
Another lesson that Taiwan has learned from the typhoon is that disaster preparedness is more important than disaster relief, he said.
The government has therefore launched reforms of current disaster preparedness systems, with a focus on strengthening coordination and communications between central and local governments, training and drilling local government units in disaster preparedness measures and raising awareness of the importance of disaster preparedness, Ma said.
“If we prepare for every typhoon as a possible Morakot and every outbreak of infectious disease as another SARS epidemic, then the damage can certainly be reduced,” he said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard