Farmers from Siangsihliao (相思寮) in Changhua County’s Erlin Township (二林) yesterday urged the government to preserve the farming community within the planned Erlin section of the Central Taiwan Science Park.
The farmers said they refuse to be removed from their homes and farmland to make way for the science park even though the Changhua County Government had proposed accommodating them in a housing complex next to the park.
“Losing the farmland means losing our jobs. Even though we will receive cash compensation, what are we going to do after we use up the money?” one farmer, surnamed Hung (洪), asked at a press conference at the legislature.
The farmers said an evaluation report provided by the Central Taiwan Science Park Administration on Feb. 8 showed it was possible to preserve the farming community if the administration adjusts the construction plan of the Erlin section’s roads and sewage system.
However, the government still rejected the farmers’ suggestion to preserve their community, saying that changing the plan would affect the timetable for companies to set up factories in the Erlin section, the farmers said.
John Liu (劉可強), a professor at National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, said the government and the farmers could reach a mutually beneficial solution if the government keeps the Siangsiliao community intact.
In response to Changhua farmers’ petition, however, Yang Wen-ke (楊文科), director-general of the central science park administration, dismissed the possibility of preserving the community, saying that Siangsiliao’s farmland was located in the center of the planned Erlin section of the park.
Yang said the government would have to submit the development project for another environmental impact review if the government revises the project.
The farmers’ campaign against land expropriation has made headlines after footage and photographs of the land seizure at Miaoli County’s Dapu Borough (大埔) attracted millions of hits on the Internet.
The Executive Yuan tried to resolve the controversy on Thursday by promising the farmers farmland equal to their original land off the Jhunan Science Park. Although Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said the government would not take changing the status of specific agricultural areas for granted when drawing up policy, a number of land seizure projects, including Siangsihliao’s, remain under way.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
RSS