The Control Yuan is to launch an investigation over medical waste from China washing up on beaches in Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to assess security and environmental concerns, Control Yuan member Pao Tsung-ho (包宗和) said.
The problem is becoming more serious with each passing day, Pao said.
We hope by the results of our investigation to call Beijing’s attention to the issue and launch negotiations via the Straits Exchange Foundation and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) to resolve the problem together, Pao said.
According to Control Yuan member Wang Mei-yu (王美玉), materials floating in from China include used hypodermic needles and empty medical containers, which endanger Kinmen residents.
Wang said that the Control Yuan received a call from a representative for Beigan Township (北竿) residents in Matsu County, saying that trash on the island was piled up higher than a person, adding that it was an intolerable situation.
Despite representatives repeatedly bringing the issue to the Chinese government’s attention, with Kinmen and Matsu both sending officials to China’s Fujian Province to talk about the matter and urge the Chinese to stop dumping trash in the sea, the Matsu residents have not received a reply, Wang said.
Pao, Wang and Chiang Chi-wen (江綺雯) said they visited the area and decided to make the investigation an official case in the Control Yuan because of the severity of the situation.
Trash dumped into the sea is affected by the season, ocean currents and the lay of the land where it washes up, Chiang said, adding that while most of the trash on Kinmen and Matsu originated from China’s Fujian Province, there was some that appeared to have drifted from as far as away as Heilongjiang Province.
We hope that the matter could be discussed by the foundation and ARATS and a resolution reached, Chiang said.
The trash that is blighting the shorelines of Kinmen and Matsu is affecting tourism, Wang said, adding that Kinmen residents collect the trash and send it to Kaohsiung to be incinerated.
The Mainland Affairs Council is obligated to work through the foundation and communicate with ARATS to find a resolution to the matter, Pao said, adding that he hoped Beijing would take this matter seriously and instruct the Fujian provincial government to work with Taiwan to resolve the issue.
Meanwhile, other Control Yuan officials said that the matter has been listed by both the foundation and the ARATS for preliminary talks, but they were not sure when such talks would be held.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS