Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation owns 29 plots of land in a geologically sensitive area in Taipei, and it might have exchanged benefits with a private firm during its acquisition of the land, an environmentalist said yesterday.
A dispute is raging between environmental groups, including Treasure Our Land, Taiwan — a nongovernmental organization — and Tzu Chi over the foundation’s request to set up a logistics center and a factory on a 4.4-hectare plot of land in Neihu District (內湖).
Treasure Our Land, Taiwan secretary-general Lin Tzu-lin (林子凌) said that Tzu Chi owns 29 plots of land in the geologically sensitive area, posting a chart on Facebook purporting to show the land owned by Tzu Chi and saying 15 plots were purchased by the foundation from 1997 to 2003, while 14 were donated.
The donor was Shuang-Bang Industrial Corp general manager Hsu Yu-chuan (許瑜娟), Lin said, adding that she is on the foundation’s list of honorary directors.
Shuang-Bang Industrial is a subsidiary of Singtex Industrial Co Ltd, which works with the foundation to manufacture blankets and clothes by processing recycled plastic bottles, Lin said.
The plots of land account for 14.8 of the 16.3 hectares owned by Tzu Chi in the protected area and consist mainly of forests, ponds and farmland, the chart shows.
The plots have a combined market value of more than NT$1.3 billion (US$41.2 million), according to the chart.
Lin said that Tzu Chi was unconcerned about the Lincoln Mansions landslide in New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止) in 1997, which killed 28 people.
Just four days after the disaster, the foundation bought three plots of land in the area believed to contain dip slopes — which were blamed for the landslide — she said.
Furthermore, a deserted mine cuts through the area, making it a geologically sensitive zone, Lin said.
Lin said that Shuang-Bang Industrial used the land as a tax shelter and said the foundation should reveal the reasons behind its purchases, its relationship with Hsu and whether Hsu was simply a proxy to allow the transactions.
Hsu denied the accusations, saying that she is not affiliated with Tzu Chi and she has never owned property in the protected area.
She said Shuang-Bang and Singtex are two separate firms and she did not know the details of the dealings between Singtex and Tzu Chi.
“How could there have been so many coincidences?” Lin said in response. “For the same site and project, we have one Tzu Chi director named Hsu Yu-chuan. The person who donated the land is also called Hsu Yu-chuan, and the general manager of its business partner happens to have the name Hsu Yu-chuan.”
“Since the Agricultural Development Act (農業發展條例) prohibits a foundation constituted as a juristic person to purchase farmland, Hsu stepped in to buy the land and donated it to Tzu Chi,” Lin said.
She said assurances that Shuang-Bang is not affiliated with Singtex contradicts information on Singtex’s Web site and urged Hsu to prove that she is not on Tzu Chi’s board of directors and did not donate the land.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
China Airlines Ltd (CAL) yesterday morning joined SkyTeam’s Aviation Challenge for the fourth time, operating a demonstration flight for “net zero carbon emissions” from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Bangkok. The flight used sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at a ratio of up to 40 percent, the highest proportion CAL has achieved to date, the nation’s largest carrier said. Since April, SAF has become available to Taiwanese international carriers at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), Kaohsiung International Airport and Taoyuan airport. In previous challenges, CAL operated “net zero carbon emission flights” to Singapore and Japan. At a ceremony at Taoyuan airport, China Airlines chief sustainability
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
RSS