The government could hand down prison sentences of between six months and five years, as well as fines of between NT$500,000 and NT$20 million (US$15,313 and US$612,520) if proposed amendments to the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法) are passed.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲), who has long been pushing for the amendment, said it would allow for the preservation and utilization of heritage sites, such as the Taiwan Railways Administration maintenance shed in Taipei, the “old city” in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District (左營) and Tainan’s Anping Fort (安平古堡).
The draft amendments seek to get rid of the loopholes in the original act, which did not offer any penalties for the destruction of or damage to historical buildings, DPP Legislator Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書) said.
Photo: Huang Chi-hao, Taipei Times
The Ministry of Culture had referred to an incident involving the century-old Sioucai House in New Taipei City’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), saying it was burned down prior to being named a heritage site and the perpetrator was handed a prison sentence of four months that could be commuted to a fine, which then-minister of culture Hung Meng-chi (洪孟啟) said was too light.
The amendments include a fine of between NT$300,000 and NT$2 million for any damage done to historical buildings or their subsidiary buildings, Huang said, adding that the amendments would prevent developers from destroying or damaging heritage sites.
The proposed amendments would also recognize any sites in the process of being approved as heritage sites for the duration of the process, lawmakers said.
The proposed amendments also stipulate that if local governments expropriate land for the Executive Yuan’s national heritage preservation project, the price of the land would not be capped at the market price, as stipulated under the Regulations for Land Expropriation (土地徵收條例).
Any public building that has been standing for more than 50 years must have its cultural asset value assessed before its jurisdictional office or unit disposes of the building, according to the proposed amendments.
If the amendments are passed, any public building built during the Japanese colonial era would be covered by the legislation, making it more difficult for them to be bought, sold, demolished or restructured, the lawmakers said.
The proposal has passed a legislative committee’s review and would pass if it clears the legislative floor.
The amendments being reviewed are the most significant revisions made to the legislation since its establishment 35 years ago, Kuan said after the completion of the review.
“I could almost see our ancestors smiling,” Kuan said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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