Following the passage of controversial reform bills to expand the power of the legislature, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (?) has publicly vowed to pass so-called “money pit” bills and push for three transportation infrastructure projects for Hualien, Fu’s electoral district, and Taitung.
However, the bills have not only sparked public criticism, but have even been opposed by some of his KMT colleagues.
The proposed infrastructure projects — a Hualien-Taitung expressway, a high-speed rail link between the east and west coasts, and an extension of Freeway No. 6 to Hualien, to be completed within 10 years of the bills being passed, are estimated to cost at least NT$2 trillion (US$61.9 billion), which would use up most of the public infrastructure budget, estimated to be about NT$600 billion per year, and exclude other projects.
Fu has argued that the projects could be built via build-operate-transfer (BOT) bids to recruit international private investment, using Taiwan’s first BOT infrastructure project, the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) line along the west coast, as an example. He has claimed the government would not need to spend anything.
However, THSRC has long faced funding deficits, including the cost of construction doubling to NT$500 billion and operating losses caused by the repayment of loans. The government in 2015 had to invest public funds to gain a more than 60 percent stake in THSRC and extend the company’s operation concession to 70 years from 35. The government was forced to terminate indebted THSRC’s BOT business model and nationalize it to save it from bankruptcy.
Compared with the high-speed rail’s 73,086,668 passengers last year, the number of travelers, including those taking trains and driving to Hualien and Taitung was only 28,440,000. That would inevitably leave the proposed high-speed rail link in the red.
Even the National Policy Foundation, a KMT think tank headed by KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), has advised putting a hold on these projects.
Its report listed at least five challenges facing the projects: difficulty raising such a construction budget without government funding; engineering obstacles, not only construction passing through mountains, but also maintaining safety systems; low chances that they would pass environmental impact assessments; potential adverse influences on the local economy, with more residents leaving Hualien than travelers visiting; and a lack of a legal basis for the legislature to decide transportation projects, risking a breach of the constitutional separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches.
Although the KMT at a caucus meeting decided to put the three east coast transportation projects on hold ahead of more discussions, the controversial bills have not yet been withdrawn from the legislative agenda, meaning the opposition parties could still push for their passage.
The debates within the KMT have turned into a potential political tussle between Fu on one side and Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and Chu on the other.
The KMT needs to be aware that the controversial bills have not only damaged the party’s image, they could also undermine its chances of doing well in the local elections in 2026.
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