Amid controversies over Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation’s proposal to rezone large tracts of land inside a geologically sensitive protection area in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖), a netizen yesterday revealed that the foundation built a medical complex and a meditation hall in a 50-hectare forest area, bisected by a fault line in Taichung.
The medical complex is located on the Chelungpu Fault (車籠埔斷層) in Taichung, which caused the 921 Earthquake in 1999 that killed 2,415 people, a netizen nicknamed “Fant 1408” yesterday wrote on the Professional Technology Temple (PTT) — the nation’s largest online bulletin board system, citing minutes taken during environmental impact assessment (EIA) meetings.
In addition, the minutes show that the development plan could have a negative impact on protected flora and fauna.
Despite these problems, the Ministry of the Interior — just one year after the earthquake — approved Tzu Chi’s request to rezone the forest area into a “charity complex” — saying only that “the structure’s seismic response should be improved in the future.”
Part of Tzu Chi’s charity complex in Taiching’s Tanzih District (潭子), the medical complex covers 27.6 hectares and comprises of a hospital and a skilled care facility.
The EIA report for the project was passed by the administration in 2011, granting Tzu Chi the right to carry out the development plan.
Meanwhile, an article by Academia Sinica research fellow Liu Yi-chang (劉益昌) said the foundation in 2006 denied the Taichung City Government’s request that it avoid damaging the Jyusing archaeological site (聚興) during the construction of the meditation hall, also in the Tanzih charity complex.
“Is the power of charity so great as to flout the law? I beg of Tzu Chi philanthropists to show mercy and stop wreaking havoc on cultural assets, “ Liu wrote.
Treasure Our Land, Taiwan, secretary-general Lin Tzu-lin (林子淩) said that Tzu Chi acquired 36 plots of land totaling nearly 20 hectares in the same fashion that it obtained the disputed land in Neihu, through donation by a person named Liu Ching-an (劉清安), whose name is on Tzu Chi’s member list.
Fourteen farm plots which Tzu Chi owns in the protected area in Neihu — where the foundation plans to establish a logistics center and a factory — were donated by a woman named Hsu Yu-chuan (許瑜娟), allegedly the general manager of Shuang Bang Industrial Corp and an honorary Tzu Chi director.
Lin expressed suspicion that Hsu was the proxy behind land transactions who enabled Tzu Chi to acquire the farm plots.
Citing excerpts from Tzu Chi’s EIA report for the charity complex, which said the foundation is widely known for its care for orphans, elderly people and the disabled and the development plan, therefore, allows no postponement, Lin criticized Tzu Chi for adopting a condescending attitude toward nature.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS