Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday told residents of Hualien and Taitung counties that the government would definitely deliver on its promise to construct an alternative route to the dangerous Suhua Highway as soon as such a project passes an environmental impact review, but this failed to deter an angry county commissioner from promising to go ahead with a protest in Taipei today.
Accompanied by Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chih-kuo (毛治國) and Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏), Wu traveled to Hualien and Taitung to explain the government’s plan to build an alternative route providing a safe link to residents in the eastern part of the country. Their trip came after mudslides on the highway caused by torrential rain on Oct. 22 killed at least three people and left 23 missing.
Wu defended the government’s decision to build the alternative route even as participants at a meeting, organized by the Hualien County Government, accused President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of backtracking on his promise, made during last year’s elections for county commissioner, to begin construction on the project this year.
PHOTO: YANG YI-CHUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Wu told residents he was sorry about the government’s failure to properly maintain the highway, which is the most important route connecting Hualien and Taitung with other parts of the country.
However, Wu said he could not force members of the EPA’s Environmental Impact Assessment Committee to pass the review of the alternative route.
“Can I take a knife and threaten to kill myself if [the committee] fails to pass the environmental impact review?” he asked.
Hualien County Commissioner Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁), who last week said he would come to Taipei to protest the lack of action regarding the alternative route, remained critical of the premier’s promises.
Fu told a press conference after Wu had left that it was the government’s responsibility to build a safe road for residents of eastern Taiwan and that it should not pass the buck to members of the EPA committee, adding that the recent tragedy on the highway should serve as a wake-up call for the government.
Fu said he still planned to bring thousands of Hualien residents to the Executive Yuan today to demand a safe road for Hualien residents to travel home.
Fu said he would join protesters on tour buses traveling along the Southern Cross-Island Highway to Taipei.
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
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents
RSS