The government's actions to promote sustainable development have been long on style and short on substance, environmentalists and industrialists said yesterday.
Their criticism reflects the outrage demonstrated by hun-dreds of people who left satirical signatures on a Web site set up by the National Council for Sustainable Development so that citizens could voice their support for the Taiwan Declaration on Sustainable Development, which President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) signed last Saturday.
Many people logged onto the council's Web site to protest by using fake names. The names were a combination of homonyms of Chinese surnames and words that suggested the government was good at coming up with slogans but less good at acting on them. Examples included "No Policy" and "Fake Conservation."
The Environmental Protection Administration, the council's secretariat, deleted all the fake names on Monday. As of yesterday, the Web site contained only 60 signatures.
The fake names reflect environmentalists's criticism that the government promotes sustainable development in purely formalistic ways.
"From advertising, inviting the public to sign on the Internet, to holding campaign rallies to show its resolve, we see a government indulging itself in formalism," said Eric Liou (劉銘龍), secretary-general of the Environmental Quality Protection Foundation.
Liou said that the government selectively promotes sustainable development because it is reluctant to change policies involving the exploitation of resources.
"A country aiming to pursue sustainable development would never build so many unnecessary waste incinerators," Liou said.
Niven Huang (
Four factors led to the declaration of a typhoon day and the cancelation of classes yesterday, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. Work and classes were canceled across Taiwan yesterday as Typhoon Krathon was forecast to make landfall in the southern part of the country. However, northern Taiwan had only heavy winds during the day and rain in the evening, leading some to criticize the cancelation. Speaking at a Taipei City Council meeting yesterday, Chiang said the decision was made due to the possibility of landslides and other problems in mountainous areas, the need to avoid a potentially dangerous commute for those
SEMICONDUCTORS: TSMC is able to produce 2-nanometer chips and mass production is expected to be launched by next year, the company said In leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing China is behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) by at least 10 years as the Taiwanese chipmaker’s manufacturing process has progressed to 2 nanometers, National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Minister Wu Cheng-wen (吳誠文) said yesterday. Wu made the remarks during a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee when asked by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) about a report published in August by the Chinese version of Nikkei Asia that said Taiwan’s lead over China in chip manufacturing was only three years. She asked Wu Cheng-wen if the report was an accurate
PRO-CHINA SLOGANS: Two DPP members criticized police officers’ lack of action at the scene, saying that law enforcement authorities should investigate the incident Chinese tourists allegedly interrupted a protest in Taipei on Tuesday held by Hong Kongers, knocked down several flags and shouted: “Taiwan and Hong Kong belong to China.” Hong Kong democracy activists were holding a demonstration as Tuesday was China’s National Day. A video posted online by civic group Hong Kong Outlanders shows a couple, who are allegedly Chinese, during the demonstration. “Today is China’s National Day, and I won’t allow the displaying of these flags,” the male yells in the video before pushing some demonstrators and knocking down a few flagpoles. Radio Free Asia reported that some of the demonstrators
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
RSS