Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) on Sunday once again brought up the issue of building a “Little Palace” public housing complex in the heart of Taipei, a proposal that has not received the approval of Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺).
“Little Palace” is the nickname people have given to a plan proposed by Hau last month to build social housing for disadvantaged families and individuals using a plot of land currently housing the Air Force Headquarters on Renai Road.
The nickname stems from the fact that the plot of land is located in an area where real estate prices are very high and is very close to The Palace luxury hotel complex.
Immediately after Hau announced the plan last month, central government officials voiced opposition, whereupon the Ministry of the Interior selected five other plots of land in Taipei city and county for construction of public housing.
However, Hau reaffirmed his support for the “Little Palace” plan during a televised campaign agenda announcement on Sunday night.
Asked to comment on Hau’s announcement after a legislative meeting yesterday morning, -Jiang did not directly turn it down, but his lack of enthusiasm was obvious.
“We fully respect local governments’ plans for social housing, but I don’t think the Taipei City Government considers [the Little Palace plan] a short-term plan to be accomplished anytime soon,” Jiang said. “If it’s a long-term project, then I don’t think it conflicts with the central government’s plan to build five social housing projects at the locations previously announced.”
Jiang said the Air Force Headquarters occupies a large surface area and is not well suited to build public housing.
“The five locations we’ve chosen so far are smaller plots of land outside the city center, but with very convenient transportation,” he said. “I think it’s easier to build social housing projects at such locations.”
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods