The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said it plans to organize more than 1,000 anti-nuclear events before June to raise national awareness of the anti-nuclear movement, which would be instrumental in passing a referendum proposed by the government, scheduled to be held later this year.
The events are being organized by DPP members across the country, including by local offices, legislators and local government officials, and they are to be held in various forms, such as outdoor theaters, film screenings, rallies and bicycle rides, DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said after the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting.
While the DPP has argued that the government should directly order the suspension of construction of the controversial Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮) amid strong public opposition to the project, Lin said the party realizes that it will likely have to fight a battle as the government is insisting on resolving the controversy in a national referendum.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
The party hopes to mobilize at least 10,000 people — a minimum of 100 at each event — so that they can become “seed drill masters” and influence more people by spreading the anti-nuclear message.
Opposition to the power plant has been rising, with 73.8 percent of respondents in the DPP’s most recent survey supporting the suspension of construction, while 14.8 percent supported the completion of the project, Lin said, citing a survey conducted by the party’s Poll Center on Tuesday.
The poll collected 1,031 valid samples and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Meanwhile, the New Taipei City Council yesterday passed a resolution demanding that the central government suspend the construction of the power plant, becoming the first local council to make the demand.
The survey and the resolution in New Taipei City, where three nuclear power plants are located, shows that a high degree of consensus has been reached on the issue and that the anti-nuclear movement is now a campaign, DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said.
As the entire country has been engaged in a heated debate over the use of nuclear energy as a source of electricity, the nation should step up its efforts to save energy, which is of equal importance to abandoning nuclear energy, Su said.
The DPP’s support for “green” energy is clear, Su said, adding that the utilization of solar energy and light-emitting diodes, among other things, are attainable goals.
“It is also important to break Taiwan Power Co’s monopoly of electricity production, distribution and sale,” Su said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS