A coalition of environmental groups earlier this week demonstrated outside the Yunlin County Government building, calling for a direct and transparent selection process for the future director of the Environmental Protection Bureau to end a perceived collusion between the county government and operators of the naphtha cracker in the county’s Mailiao Township (麥寮).
Dozens of protesters called for a direct and democratic appointment process to allow county residents to vote for worthy candidates, while saying that they had collected about 600 signatures to nominate Changhua Medical Alliance for Public Affairs consultant Yang Joe-ming (楊澤民) for the post.
Following the Sept. 24 resignation of former bureau director Tseng Chun-mei (曾春美), the county government said Tseng’s successor would be determined through a public vote.
Describing the selection process as a “black-box” operation, environmental campaigner and leader of the coalition Wu Sung-lin (吳松霖) said the county has refused to reveal the identity of candidates or the criteria for selection.
“How could [Yunlin Commissioner] Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) honor his pledge to put the naphtha cracker under strict monitoring if he is not willing to disclose information on the selection process of the bureau director? What is Lee hiding from the public?” Wu said.
“Lee has nothing to hide if he is not worried that a directly elected bureau director would root out illicit financial activities or disclose the secrets of emissions licenses illegally issued by the county government,” Wu added.
Wu added that former bureau directors were inactive in dealing with air pollution caused by the naphtha cracker, while issuing or renewing operating licenses for the cracket plant without due process.
If the county bureau is really determined to combat air pollution and regulating oil refinery emissions, it would not have issued only one fine to the Formosa Plastics Group — owner of the cracker plant — totaling only NT$100,000 in the past five years, he said.
The coalition called for the disclosure of the selection process and the identity of applicants, as well as public debates, with the final result to be reached by a direct election.
The county government said that it has been following due procedure in announcing the candidacy standards and selection process for the position, but it must withhold disclosing the identity of candidates, as personal information must be protected.
Lee later said that four qualified candidates have applied for the position so far, and the county government would reach as soon as possible.
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