More opposition lawmakers yesterday joined several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in criticizing the question proposed by the KMT for a referendum to determine the fate of the controversial Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮).
However, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said the wording of the question in the proposal was “excellent” and in accordance with the Referendum Act (公民投票法).
If the KMT proposal is approved by the legislature, the public will be asked in a referendum: “Do you agree that the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant should be halted and that it not become operational?” (你是否同意核四廠停止興建不得運轉)
Since the government proposed holding a referendum to ask the public if they support halting the construction of the power plant, the idea has been blasted as a “trick” to thwart a growing anti-nuclear power sentiment, because the government would otherwise have asked the public if they support building the facility because it is the government’s policy.
After the KMT proposal was unveiled on Thursday, more doubts over the legitimacy of the referendum initiative emerged, mainly over two issues allegedly being addressed in the same referendum question.
During a question-and-answer session at the legislature yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said the way the question was phrased was in violation of Article 9 of the Referendum Act, because it asked people to decide on two issues.
The article states that a proposal for a referendum must be raised about one issue only.
“Whether to halt the construction is one issue, and whether the power plant can become operational is another. You can’t mix the two matters together in one question,” Kuan said.
Disagreeing with Kuan, Jiang said: “I do not think they are two different things.”
Kuan said that Atomic Energy Council (AEC) Minister Tsai Chuen-horng (蔡春鴻) has attested to her critique of the KMT proposal in his earlier reply to Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Huang Wen-ling (黃文玲), when he was asked by Huang how he would vote in the plebiscite.
In answering Huang’s question, Tsai said that “there were two issues in the question: Whether I support that the plant’s construction be halted and whether I support that the plant not be operated.”
In his defense, Tsai yesterday said the referendum proposal appeared to him like a question containing two issues because he, as head of the AEC, is responsible for a decision to allow the power plant to become operational or not.
When asked by Huang, Jiang said that the KMT’s referendum proposal was “excellent” and that the referendum question was “in plain language.”
Jiang dismissed criticism that the referendum proposal was a “trick” to complete construction of the power plant and for it to become operational.
“The Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is a facility under construction. If a referendum is to be held to decide whether an ongoing policy should be overridden, people are therefore asked a negative question. This is the practice used by most countries when a referendum is initiated on an existing law or a policy which is being implemented,” Jiang said.
People First Party legislative caucus whip Thomas Lee (李桐豪) called on the KMT to give up the proposal “if the KMT is really sincere in resolving the issues regarding the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant through a referendum.”
Lee said his party does not support the KMT’s proposal. The text of a referendum proposal should be jointly decided upon by all four parties in the legislature, he added.
KMT lawmakers Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) and Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) on Thursday both expressed discontent with the proposal.
They said that the way the question was phrased made it appear more like a proposal calling for the construction to be completed than to be halted.
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
SENATE RECOMMENDATION: The National Defense Authorization Act encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s navy to participate in the exercises in Hawaii The US Senate on Thursday last week passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026, which strongly encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s naval forces to participate in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, as well as allocating military aid of US$1 billion for Taiwan. The bill, which authorizes appropriations for the military activities of the US Department of Defense, military construction and other purposes, passed with 77 votes in support and 20 against. While the NDAA authorizes about US$925 billion of defense spending, the Central News Agency yesterday reported that an aide of US
NINE-IN-ONE ELECTIONS: Prosecutors’ offices recorded 115 cases of alleged foreign interference in the presidential election campaign from August 2023 to Dec. 13 last year The National Security Bureau (NSB) yesterday said that it has begun planning early to counter Chinese interference in next year’s nine-in-one elections as its intelligence shows that Beijing might intensify its tactics, while warning of continued efforts to infiltrate the government and military. The bureau submitted a report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of a meeting today of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. “We will research situations in different localities and keep track of abnormalities to ensure that next year’s elections proceed without disruption,” the bureau said. Although the project is generally launched during election years, reports of alleged Chinese interference
RSS