A meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee yesterday to hear a report by the Atomic Energy Council on comprehensive safety checks at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮) was postponed after legislators quarreled over whether members of the public should be allowed to attend the meeting.
The committee chair for the session, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), had invited Gongliao residents and members of anti-nuclear energy groups to attend the session, but the move drew objections from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Chen Shu-hui (陳淑慧) and Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉).
Fearing a repeat of an incident involving National Tsing Hua University student Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), a co-convener of the Youth Alliance Against Media Monsters — who attended a committee meeting earlier this month and caused controversy by using strong language while addressing Minister of Education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧) — Chen Shu-hui stepped up to the inquiry podium at the beginning of the meeting and asked the committee chair to vet the participants before opening the meeting.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Chen Shu-hui’s request prompted DPP legislators to question the constitutionality of identifying the participants and the dispute devolved into a quarrel between KMT and DPP legislators, culminating with Chen Shu-hui and DPP Legislator Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純) shouting loudly at each another and banging on the podium.
“None of us legislators want to see these incidences of violence in the committee” and “We only want to know who these participants are,” Chen Shu-hui shouted as he was surrounded by several legislators from both parties, adding that the meeting should not be allowed to proceed.
Cheng said the members of the public were only registered to listen to the meeting and will not speak at the podium, and stressed that the Legislative Yuan should not seal itself from the public, which would be a setback of democracy.
After the meeting was suspended, one of the participants from the civic sector, Yenliao Anti-Nuclear Self-Help Association secretary-general Yang Mu-huo (楊木火), asked if it was possible for those who live near the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant to be present when matters directly affecting their livelihoods and health are discussed.
“Can’t we even listen to the meeting?” Yang asked.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS