At the request of lawmakers, the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC) will conduct a survey to assess the public’s views on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮) within one month and release its results in the next two weeks.
The motion that demanded an official survey was sponsored mostly by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and was approved at a meeting of the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee yesterday.
The request came amid mounting calls for the government to rescind its decision to put the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant to a referendum and order an immediate halt to its construction following major anti-nuclear demonstrations on Sunday that attracted as many as 200,000 people nationwide.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
According to the approved proposal, the commission, which is in charge of large-scale national public opinion polls on government policy, has to complete the survey within one month and send the questionnaire and its results to the legislature within the next two weeks.
RDEC Minister Sung Yu-hsieh (宋餘俠) that requested three or four months to perform the task, but that timetable was not accepted by lawmakers.
“Don’t procrastinate any longer. [A decision on the issue] has to be fast and clear, otherwise the issue will continue to consume the nation and the public,” said KMT Legislator Liao Cheng-ching (廖正井), who is co-chair of the commission.
If the survey finds that more than 50 percent of survey respondents would vote in favor of halting construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, then there would be no need to have a referendum, Liao said.
In response to lawmakers, Sung said that the commission has not yet carried out a poll specifically related to the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, but said that some related questions had been included in previous surveys.
He refused to reveal details of the previous polls.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻) said that recent polls released by Taiwan Indicator Survey Research and Taiwan Thinktank, Sunday’s rally and public opinion as presented by the media have all shown “overwhelming popular support for the construction [of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant] to be halted.”
“If the RDEC is to conduct a survey, make sure that you refrain from asking leading questions that would mean survey results that do not reflect public opinion,” Wu said.
More KMT lawmakers have joined calls for the government to halt construction of the plant.
KMT Legislator Wang Huei-mei (王惠美) said that Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) has suggested the possibility of the government halting construction.
The commission should present a survey on the issue to the Cabinet so that it may consider whether to halt construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, Wang said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai