The National Police Agency special police second headquarters has taken the lead in countering anti-nuclear activities and become a thug for Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) said yesterday.
Cheng said the headquarters’ Web site included an articled titled “The anti-nuclear trend is no longer fashionable”, which claims that anti-nuclear activists are irrational, use false data and base their views on the slim chance that a nuclear disaster might happen.
It cites the German Green party — a main proponent of anti-nuclear policy in Germany — as an example of the waning popularity of anti-nuclear views as it has often been defeated in elections.
“The economy is the lifeline of a nation and electricity is the lifeline of the economy. When our primary [economic] competitors are all fully committed to nuclear power, are we supposed to be led by the nose by the anti-nuclear activists who uses false data and threats of nuclear disasters?” the article says.
The article also mentions that due to the electoral failure of the German Green Party and the pressure of signatory countries to adhere to the Kyoto Protocol — an addendum to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change calling for the “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system” — that many advanced countries are reconsidering their anti-nuclear policies.
Cheng said she wondered if the police force was using funding from Taipower to cover its personnel and administrative fees, effectively turning the national police into a “security force for Taipower” or its “political warfare department.”
The special police second headquarters is a professional police task force founded in accordance to the Nuclear Power Law (原子能法) and Taipower has commissioned it to send some of its men to stand guard around its three operational nuclear power plants, as well as the one still under construction, for NT$850 million (US$28.6 million).
The article on the headquarters’ Web site goes against the majority consensus of anti-nuclear policies and ignores the aftermath of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan in March last year, and uses outdated concepts and cites government Web sites to advocate keeping nuclear power on Taipower Co’s behalf, Cheng said.
Cheng added that Article 23 of the Basic Environment Act (基本環境法) stipulates: “The government must establish plans to gradually achieve the goal of becoming a nuclear-free country,” adding that the headquarters’ Web site article has already violated the act and that the police agency should apologize for this and discipline those responsible for it.
Cheng also said that she would be inspecting the headquarters’ budget estimate to see if it contains evidence of a hidden agenda, adding that if there was such evidence she “would not let them get off without consequences.”
Meanwhile, Taiwan Green Party spokesman Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said police should be neutral and not endorse “brainwashing” efforts.
Pan added that the German Green Party’s defeat in the elections was because it had not been anti-nuclear enough to gain the support of the German people, adding that after the party made an amendment to its guidelines, it has regained popular support.
Green parties in Europe have been “receiving great amount of support” over the past few years, and even the pro-nuclear party Christian Democratic Union of Germany has also begun to show signs of leaning toward ab anti-nuclear stance, Pan said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS