Hualien County Commissioner Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁) yesterday urged president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to withdraw Hochen Tan’s (賀陳旦) appointment as minister of transportation and communications following his perceived opposition to “traffic improvement projects for Hualien.”
“Hualien residents are not second-class citizens. We just want a safe way home,” Fu said, while leading more than 100 councilors, borough wardens and civic group representatives in a protest outside the county government’s offices.
Saying that Hualien’s transportation infrastructure development already lags lagged behind that of the rest of the country, the protesters criticized comments by Hochen opposing adding a tunnel between Dongao (東澳) and Nanao (南澳) as part of the Suhua Highway improvement project.
Photo: Wang Chun-chi, Taipei Times
“It is extremely difficult to get a ticket for trains to Hualien, and the Suhua Highway, the major road linking Hualien to the outside world, is so patchy,” he said.
He asked the incoming Tsai administration “whether other major traffic amelioration plans for Hualien would also be put on hold.”
“We ask that the incoming Tsai government pay full attention to the issue,” he said. “Otherwise, we will not rule out besieging the Presidential Office after May 20,” when Tsai and other Cabinet members are to be sworn in.
The picturesque Suhua Highway, known for its narrow, windy roads carved into cliffs perched above the Pacific Ocean, is the only roadway connecting southern Yilan County’s Suao (蘇澳) to northern Hualien County.
The 118km highway is particularly vulnerable to landslides and is often shut down during typhoons or periods of heavy rain.
To improve road reliability and safety, the government launched a project in 2011 to upgrade the highway by building three new road sections consisting mostly of tunnels and bridges between Suao and Dongao, Nanao and Heping (和平), and Hejhong (和中) to Hualien’s Dacingshuei (大清水).
There has also been talk of further bypassing the existing highway and improving traffic safety by adding a tunnel between Dongao and Nanao in Yilan County.
In an interview with the Chinese-language China Times published on Saturday, Hochen opposed the idea, saying that gravel trucks speeding on Suhua Highway, not the conditions of the roads, are the main culprit behind the many fatal accidents that have occurred.
“The key is to examine whether Hualien should continue to have a cement industry, instead of spending billions of New Taiwan dollars building a tunnel,” he said.
He also voiced his opposition to a proposed direct rail route between Taipei and Yilan that would cut travel time to all of eastern Taiwan.
His comments sparked concern among Hualien residents, who fear that other major traffic improvements plans for the area, including the Huatung Expressway project and a three-line rail project for eastern Taiwan, might also be suspended.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard