Huaguang Community (華光社區) residents and other activists yesterday rallied outside the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) against its demand that residents who lost their homes pay fines for benefiting from their illegal occupation of government land.
“It is ridiculous that the government has not only torn down their houses, but also wants them to pay fines for ‘illegal gains’ from their ‘illegal occupation,’” activist Ho Yu-lun (何友倫) said in front of the ministry. “It’s nonsense for the ministry to say that they have illegally benefited from illegally occupying government land, because these residents had been given house numbers by the government, provided with water and electricity, and had paid property taxes for the past 30 years.”
Ho said these facts show that the issue with Huaguag Community is complicated.
Photo: J. Michael Cole, Taipei Times
“If you build a house in the middle of Daan Forest Park, do you think you would be given a house number, utilities and asked to pay taxes?” Ho said.
Huaguang resident Sun Hsiu-mei (孫秀美) said fines have placed a heavy burden on the families.
“I have three kids to raise, and you are asking me to pay NT$700,000 [US$23,000] — with the interest increasing daily,” Sun said. “There is also a man, surnamed Yu [余], who is in his 60s with two children and he has been asked to pay NT$1 million. However, his youngest child is the only one who is able to make money to feed the family.”
“Now that our homes have been torn down, there is nothing we can do, but can the government at least stop trying to get money from us?” Sun said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) attended the rally to show her support for the residents.
If the government is determined to pursue fines from the residents, “it should be just as determined to pursue the ‘responsibility’ of the civil servants who made the decision to provide utilities and house numbers, and collect taxes from people who ‘illegally’ occupied government land for more than 30 years,” Tien said.
She criticized President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for breaking a promise made when he was mayor of Taipei to help the residents resettle before their homes were demolished.
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
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
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard