The family of an elderly farmer who committed suicide last weekend by consuming herbicide to protest government expropriation of his land on Tuesday publicly denounced the Taoyuan Aerotropolis project and called for an end to forced expropriation of private land.
Lu A-yun (呂阿雲), 83, killed himself by drinking highly toxic herbicide on Saturday. His body was found by relatives when they came home after participating in a protest rally against forced land appropriation for the government-initiated NT$463 billion (US$15.8 billion) aerotropolis project.
The farmer owned property and farmland in Kuolin Village (菓林) in Taoyuan County’s Dayuan Township (大園), close to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, the nation’s most important air transport hub.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Carrying a portrait of the deceased farmer, the family went to the Ministry of the Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency building in Taipei on Tuesday to express their grievance, saying that Lu’s death was the direct result of the government project.
“Our family’s property, farmland and our ancestors’ cemetery plots were all expropriated by the government. Our father committed suicide because he felt ashamed toward our ancestors for not being able to protect the family inheritance,” said one of Lu’s sons, Lu Wen-chung (呂文忠).
The core region of the Taoyuan Aerotropolis project covers an area of 6,859 hectares, of which 3,073 hectares needed to be expropriated from private land owners.
Under the project’s construction plan, 31 households in the area would have to make way for a 60m wide access road and a park.
Lu Wen-chung, a professor at the Taipei National University of the Arts, said the family were originally agreeable toward the government’s proposal to exchange the family’s agricultural land for land suitable for construction use.
“However, we never wanted to sell our family land,” he said. “Later we were surprised when the government’s new plan was tabled. In return, our family got our ancestors’ burial plots.”
Lu Wen-chung said his father felt that his whole life’s work had gone up in flames.
“He was distressed that his family had to move to the cemetery plots,” he said.
Wu Chi-ming (吳啟民), head of Taoyuan County’s Urban and Rural Development Bureau, said he regretted what had happened.
He admitted the project’s planning may have some oversights such as the delineation of cemetery plots into residential development zones.
“Future land allocation to original land owners will be done by drawing lots. The Taoyuan Government will also provide its opinions to the Ministry of the Interior to modify certain aspects of the aerotropolis project,” Wu said.
Additional reporting by Cheng Su-ting, staff reporter.
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
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS