The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said it was determined to engage the government head-on in a “referendum war” over the referendum proposal on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市).
“The Executive Yuan did not submit the proposal to resolve the controversy, but to cover up the construction of the plant with unreasonable legislation,” DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) told a press conference, titled “No nuke, no fear,” held at the party’s headquarters yesterday.
The DPP’s Central Standing Committee (CSC) passed a resolution yesterday to engage the government, which had presented “a politically calculated and dishonest referendum question,” on two fronts — in the legislature and through civic movements, Su said.
The DPP, which argues that the current Referendum Act is a “birdcage” piece of legislation because of its unusually high threshold, will try to amend the bill by lowering the current threshold, whereby a referendum is only valid if more than half of the electorate vote and half of those voters support it.
The proposed referendum is an obvious political maneuver and an abuse of administrative power, former premier Yu Shyi-kun said.
He said the DPP had decided to “go to war with reckless abandon” because an anti-nuclear stance had always been one of the party’s core values and the battle would give the DPP an opportunity to highlight its beliefs.
As the referendum question has become the focal point of the dispute and a crucial factor in the battle, Yu said the DPP should work with civic groups on submitting a separate referendum to rival the government initiative.
Given the high threshold, almost all supporters of the anti-nuclear movement say that if a referendum is to be held, the question should be: “Do you support the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant?” rather than “Do you support suspending construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant?”
A DPP CSC resolution supports the proposition, but it was decided that the party should only play a supporting role if civic groups decided to launch a petition for a rival referendum, DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said.
However, the DPP was ready to work on the immediate establishment of four task forces — advocacy, communication, organization and social movement — to work with civic groups for better integration of the anti-nuclear movement and to win the referendum, Lin added.
The DPP legislative caucus echoed the same position at a press conference yesterday morning, saying that the referendum question should be framed as: “Do you support the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant?”
The caucus would focus on four issues in negotiations in the Legislative Yuan next week, DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said.
Those issues would be the threshold and the framing of the referendum question; whether it would be a national referendum or a local referendum; and whether there would be two simultaneous referendums, he said.
DPP Legislator Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said that Taiwan Power Co should disclose all available information on electricity production and reserve capacity in Taiwan, so that the referendum would be fair.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to