Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
On Wednesday, the Legislature Yuan approved the budget for flood control measures along the Keelung River, but excluded an opposition proposal to finance Taipei City to the tune of NT$1.98 billion for the flood-proofing project.
Lawmakers also suggested that the Cabinet grant Taipei City NT$350 million for the treatment of the Neigou Creek (
After stressing on Wednesday that the legislature was risking the lives of Taipei residents, Ma yesterday leveled more severe criticism at the ruling party, which favors cutting Taipei City out of the NT$1.98 billion budget proposal, saying that the absurdity could be attributed entirely to political struggles.
"If everybody viewed things professionally, we wouldn't be wasting the people's time and money the way we are," Ma said.
In order to ensure the safety of residents and their property Ma said that building floodways along the Huang Creek, which is an upstream affluent of the Keelung River -- is necessary because the river is simply too narrow to absorb floodwaters.
Taking the Erchung Floodway (
In addition, Ma said, the Executive Yuan supports a flood diversion project of building floodways at Juifang (瑞芳), Taipei County. The floodways will funnel floodwaters from the Keelung River to the Pacific Ocean.
If the construction of floodways along the Huang Creek was delayed due to political struggle, Ma said, residents of Peitou (
Hwang Jing-san (
The Keelung River controversy continues to ripple through the campaign for Taipei City mayor.
Wednesday morning, after meeting with DPP Taipei City councilors, the DDP's Taipei mayoral candidate Lee Ying-yuan (
The City government later bashed Lee for his stance.
Yesterday afternoon, accompanied by dozens of Taipei residents, KMT City Councilwoman Li-Keng Kuei-fang (厲耿桂芳) and independent city councilor Chung Hsiao-ping (鍾小平) blocked Lee in a hallway and demanded that he return the budget for the treatment of the Keelung River to city residents.
Chuag claimed that he was hurt in the ensuing chaos after being pushed by Lee's security guards.
Lee remained silent while being blocked by the crowd. Later, he said that he saw the stand-off as the councilors' public show, made to attract voter attention.
"I would like to debate city policies with them in the future at the city council," Lee said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
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