On Sept. 18, civil organizations, doctors, teachers, students and local residents protested in Changhua City against Formosa Chemicals and Fibre Corp (台灣化學纖維). The protesters were not only putting pressure on the Changhua County Government, they also said that they were acting as a backup for local officials.
Late last month, the company’s Changhua plant, which was established more than half a century ago at the birthplace of Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑關係企業), announced that a permit renewal for the coal-fired operation of a cogeneration plant had been rejected by the Changhua County Government, so it would not be able to continue operations of its three boilers. To environmentalists, this was a rare victory.
For several decades, the environmental, health, political and economic situation has been changing, but many company and factory bosses have not, as can be seen from the attitude of Sandy Wang (王瑞瑜), director of FPG’s management office.
She said the Changhua County Government was not qualified to function as “parent official” — an old term for local magistrates that used to have direct jurisdiction over local residents.
One can only wonder if Wang’s idea of what it is to be a qualified official means to have bowed to Formosa Chemicals’ demands and allowed it to continue to emit sulfur dioxide.
After company cofounder Wang Yung-ching (王永慶) passed away, the second generation of FPG leaders have given the impression that, apart from their fighting over inheritance and power, nothing has changed, while there have been no declarations or changes concerning social responsibility and environmental awareness.
In addition to a couple of explosions at the company’s naphtha cracker in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮), the company has also been involved in environmental pollution and work safety-related issues overseas.
In April, widespread deaths among marine animals occurred in the coastal areas of four provinces in central Vietnam, following which Vietnamese authorities fined Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp NT$15.6 billion (US$493 million), which FPG quickly paid without even complaining.
Last week, more than 10,000 Vietnamese demonstrated at the factory, protesting against its pollution of the sea and calling loudly for the company to “give us back our clean seas” and to “get the hell out.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the protests would affect other Taiwanese businesspeople in Vietnam and perhaps even put the safety of Taiwanese in the country at risk.
Pollution by FPG companies is not only restricted to Taiwan and Vietnam. Recently an FPG plant in Delaware was fined the equivalent of NT$7.5 million. After FPG took over the plant, it has been fined on several occasions by the US Environmental Protection Agency for air and water pollution, and job-safety issues.
Sandy Wang is now shamelessly threatening the central government, saying that the company is moving overseas. She still does not understand that one of the things that Taiwanese are unhappy about is that industries are operating at the cost of the environment and excel at pushing down salaries and keeping worker holidays short.
In the past, the government cooperated and helped provide land, financing, water and electricity, and let businesses off easy when it came to environmental regulations, penalties and enforcement. The result has been that rivers, streams, canals and ditches across Taiwan have become polluted, that the air is polluted and that there is land subsidence, which, for example, is putting the high-speed rail at risk.
Most of the products these companies make are aimed at export markets. In other words, the protection from the government and courts in the past has created a lack of sense of responsibility among business leaders and in the local corporate culture.
Formosa Chemicals’ coal-fired plant might not be the biggest emitter of sulfur dioxide in Taiwan, but because the plant is in the urban area of Changhua City, the effect of the pollution ranks second in all Taiwan and first in central Taiwan. Over the past three years, the incidence of lung cancer in Changhua has seen a sharp increase of 232 percent. Lung cancer deaths among women in Taiwan has also been increasing sharply, from a one-to-three ratio against men to closer to a one-to-one ratio. While this is partly a result of legislation banning smoking and raising tobacco taxes, a lack of effective air pollution controls has made it the No. 1 killer in Taiwan. The health of Changhua residents has been sacrificed for the sake of Formosa Chemicals.
Over the past half-century, the smell of Formosa Chemicals’ Changhua plant has been the smell of Changhua. Environmental Protection Administration Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) says that when he took the train from Yunlin to Taichung in the past, the smell from the plant was the sign that told him that he had reached Changhua.
Lee is an alumnus of National Taiwan University’s College of Public Health, Deputy Minister Thomas Chan (詹順貴) is a renowned environmental lawyer and Changhua County Commissioner Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷) received a great deal of support from pro-environmental circles prior to his election. In addition, the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has been clear on its stance regarding the issue of relocating Syucuo Elementary School in Mailiao.
If in this atmosphere, Formosa Chemicals and Sandy Wang’s counterattack turn out to be effective, it might be true that the Tsai administration is in crisis. While the issue of Chinese tourists is dependent on the Chinese government, maintaining a healthy environment and bequeathing a sustainable environment to our children is truly a domestic issue.
Chiang Sheng is an attending physician in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Mackay Memorial Hospital.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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