Taoyuan County will become the nation’s sixth special municipality, effective Dec. 25 next year, the Cabinet decided at a meeting yesterday.
Taiwan currently has five special municipalities after the upgrade of New Taipei City (新北市), previously named Taipei County, the upgrades of a merged Taichung County and Taichung City and a merged Tainan County and Tainan City and the incorporation of Kaohsiung County into Kaohsiung City, which all took effect in December 2010, along with Taipei.
The Cabinet meeting yesterday approved the proposal submitted by the Ministry of the Interior to upgrade Taiyuan County, after which it will enjoy greater autonomy and a larger budget.
Upgrading Taoyuan County, with more resources directed to its government, is expected to spur regional development in neighboring Hsinchu and Miaoli counties, Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) told the Cabinet meeting.
Taoyuan County first applied for upgraded status in 2009, but it was passed over in favor of Greater Taichung, Greater Tainan and Greater Tainan.
After it reached a population threshold of 2 million in June 2011, the county government adopted the same administrative and budgeting rules as special municipalities to show its determination to upgrade its status.
Aborigines in Fusing Township (復興) opposed the upgrade plan because they would lose some of their autonomy. Under the Local Government Act (地方制度法), administrative heads of sub-units of a municipal city, namely districts, are designated by the mayor of the municipality.
Currently, residents of townships in a county select their administrative chief and township representatives by popular vote.
Chen has instructed the Ministry of the Interior to ensure that Aborigines have the right to participate in political affairs after the upgrade, Executive Yuan spokesperson Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said. She did not elaborate.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS