The Yunlin County Government’s ban on visits to a section of beach near Taisi Township (台西) has prompted opposition, with netizens saying the county government was choking off a rare opportunity to develop local tourism.
The beach is at the outlet of the Youcailiao Drains (有才寮大排) and was formed by long years of accumulated silt.
On July 3, Yunlin County Commissioner Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) and Taisi Township Mayor Chao Jui-ho (趙瑞和) declared the beach a danger zone and prohibited further activity in the area.
Lee cited past drownings due to people getting stuck in “quicksand” on the beach as the reason for the ban, adding that it was a decision made with the public’s safety in mind.
However, netizens were divided on the announcement, with critics accusing the county government of depriving people of the right to admire the beautiful coastal scenery.
According to netizen Chao Yuan (趙源), it is rare for Taisi residents to be able to point out a scenic spot in the area, adding that the county government should look to Pingtung County’s Kenting Township (墾丁) and Chiayi County’s Dongshih Township (東石) for inspiration.
Both Kenting and Dongshih host excellent beaches, with Kenting’s waterfront being the most popular tourist attraction by far, Chao Yuan said.
Other netizens said that if the beach in Yunlin County was dangerous, then so are Kenting’s beaches, asking whether all beaches should be closed down after an accidental death.
Another netizen, who goes by the pseudonym of Lingchenshun (凌晨訓), said they lived for decades near Yunlin County’s Haikou Village (海口) and never heard of anyone dying from being stuck in sand at low tide.
One supporter of the decision, a man named Huang Chin-feng (黃進風), said that shutting down the beach to prevent accidents was a good thing, adding that the county government would then have more time to properly plan and design a local tourist attraction that would be safer.
Life Insurance Association of the Republic of China chairman Hsu Hsu-po (許舒博) said that if the county government was willing to make plans to stimulate coastal tourism, he would gladly be of assistance.
“We hope the county government gives the people of Taisi Township an alternative source of income,” Hsu said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods