President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday defended the government’s decision to allow industrial production to continue at the Central Taiwan Science Park’s Houli (后里) site, despite a court order to suspend the development project.
Ma said the decision was based on the principle of “legitimate expectations,” which he described as the most important foundation of countries governed by the rule of law.
“We are abiding by the law rather than playing with words,” Ma said during the Seventh National Industrial Development Conference held in Taipei.
The Taipei High Administrative Court ruled last month that all development work at park sites in Taichung County’s Houli Township and Erlin (二林) in Changhua County must be stopped until environmental impact assessments were completed and approved.
The park administration agreed to stop work on infrastructure development, but opted against shutting down companies that had already started production or were in the process of building plants at the Houli site.
Pointing to the constitutional stipulation that “environmental and ecological protection must be given equal consideration with economic and technological development,” Ma said this means legitimate interests will be weighted against each other to determine which one should take precedence.
Ma said economic development and environmental protection are equally important to Taiwan, and there are ways for them to co-exist.
For example, he said, there has been a long-running fight between environmentalists and Hualien residents over whether to proceed with the Suhua Freeway project tabled a few years ago, after it failed an environmental impact assessment.
The dispute was later resolved following the development of an alternative project to build a new expressway, Ma said.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
RSS