A proposed land act to ensure sustainable development remained stalled yesterday as members of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee bickered over the passage of two separate draft land acts.
The two bills are the proposed national land planning act (國土計畫法), which would seek to reorganize the system for planning and designating use of national land, and the national land restoration act (國土復育條例), which would limit developments in ecologically fragile areas.
However, Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) told the legislative committee that the articles on guarantees of rights and compensation found in the draft national land restoration act had already been incorporated into the draft national land planning act per the instruction of the Executive Yuan in 2009.
As such, there is no longer a draft national land restoration act that needs to be discussed by the committee, he said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) said she would not review any land act unless the ministry revives the draft national land restoration act.
RESCUE
“Our land is in need of emergency rescue, therefore we need to pass both acts at the same time ... Supplementary measures must be implemented to ensure the rights of Aborigines,” said DPP Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), who has also proposed one of the two versions of the national land restoration act in the committee.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉), who represents Aboriginal constituencies, said he opposed the national land restoration act because its designation of “no development zones” generally applied to altitudes of 1,500m or above, as well as reservoirs in nearby areas, both of which are often Aboriginal land.
Independent Legislator May Chin (高金素梅), who also represents an Aboriginal constituency, said that while she did not oppose the national land restoration act, she feared the current version would deprive Aborigines of their rights and that it would run counter to the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民族基本法).
Because of a difference of opinion on which act should be adopted, KMT Legislator and committee chairman Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) called for roundtable negotiations.
In the end, despite the fact that technically there is no longer a land restoration act from the Executive Yuan, the committee decided that it would deliberate both draft acts first and then conduct an article-by-article review on the second day.
Jiang said the ministry would seek to incorporate the lawmakers’ suggestions into the draft act for submission to the Executive Yuan within a month.
SKEPTICISM
Legislators expressed skepticism that the national land restoration act would be passed in the current or next legislative session, with the presidential and legislative elections approaching, and a budget review scheduled in the next session.
Nevertheless, they called on Jiang to ask the Executive Yuan to send the draft act to the legislature before the next session begins.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
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,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift