Building a bridge connecting Taiwan’s outlying Kinmen island and Xiamen port in China’s Fujian Province is not appropriate as it is a politically sensitive matter, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said yesterday.
Wu Hsing-chien (吳行健), chief editor of The Journalist weekly, quoted the premier as making the statement after attending a seminar sponsored by the Taiwan Competitiveness Forum on Kinmen’s development as a free trade city.
Wu Hsing-chien had also accompanied Wu Den-yih to Kinmen on Thursday and interviewed the premier on the planned bridge.
Taiwan would not build a bridge connecting Taiwanese and Chinese territory at this stage because of its political implication, Wu Hsing-chien quoted the premier as saying.
However, the premier said a proposed 4km bridge linking Kinmen island with Little Kinmen island would be built by the end of next year as it is a major part of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) presidential platform.
Chang Ya-chung (張亞中), a political science professor at National Taiwan University, said the government’s stance on building a Kinmen-Xiamen bridge showed its “lack of vision.”
Given Kinmen’s geographical proximity to Xiamen, Chang said building a bridge would be a boon for residents on both sides. Despite the government’s wavering, he said the bridge would be an unavoidable development.
Tung Chih-sen (董智森), a journalist from Kinmen, urged the central government to support the project, saying political motives and funding should not be obstacles to building the bridge.
Given improving cross-strait ties and Kinmen’s proximity to Xiamen, Kinmen has long hoped to play a leading role in boosting Taiwan-China exchanges on the tourism, financial and educational fronts.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
Taiwan next year plans to launch its first nationwide census on elderly people living independently to identify the estimated 700,000 seniors to strengthen community-based healthcare and long-term care services, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said on the sidelines of a healthcare seminar that the nation’s rapidly aging population and declining birthrate have made the issue of elderly people living alone increasingly pressing. The survey, to be jointly conducted by the MOHW and the Ministry of the Interior, aims to establish baseline data and better allocate care resources, he
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