Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday voiced support for Academia Sinica’s plan to turn a disputed piece of land in Taipei into a national biotechnology park.
Wang told a forum in Taipei that turning the 202 Munitions Works into a biotechnology park was far better than maintaining it as a military factory. He also said Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠) had told him that he would like to attract more biotechnology companies to the planned technology zone, using Academic Sinica’s facilities to attract biotechnology talent.
“The plan was not initially controversial until individuals in art and literature circles and environmental protection activists said they would like to turn the land into a park or ecological reserve,” Wang said.
The speaker said he believed the government would be able to strike a balance between environmental protection and economic development.
The 202 Munitions Works, located in Taipei’s Nangang District (南港), became the subject of controversy after essayist Chang Hsiao-feng (張曉風) urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to reject a proposal.
Following Chang’s call, a group of academics, artists and environmental protection advocates launched a signature drive last week to urge Ma and Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) to turn the site into Taipei’s “Central Park.”
Armament Bureau Director Liu Fu-long (劉復龍) said last week that the planned biotech park would occupy 9.6 hectares of the site.
In response to the activists’ protests, Wu referred the development plan to an environmental impact assessment by the Environmental Protection Administration on May 13.
Meanwhile, members of the Education and Culture Committee went to inspect the land with Wong.
Committee head Chao Li-yun (趙麗雲), a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker, said the visit was meant to help legislators understand why the plan to set up the park had become so controversial.
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
RSS