Nearly 100 residents of Taipei’s Huaguang Community (華光社區) and their supporters yesterday clashed with police outside the Executive Yuan during a protest against a forced demolition of their houses scheduled to take place next week.
“Premier, come out,” the residents and their supporters chanted as they pushed forward and clashed with police officers holding riot shields.
“The land on which our community stands used to be unwanted, but now that real-estate prices are going up, we’re facing forced eviction,” Chu Yi-chen (朱義珍) said. “We are not trying to make some illegal profits, we just want a home where we may stay without any worries.”
Photo: CNA
The residents are angry because despite their protests and petitions, the government has decided to start the demolition on Thursday and has filed lawsuits against residents for “illegally profiting” by occupying government property.
Chen Wei-hui (鄭偉慧), a resident and spokesman for the movement to save the community, said that in addition to some people who have lived in the community for generations, most of the residents are low-ranking soldiers who retreated to Taiwan with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime in 1949 after it lost the Chinese Civil War against the Chinese Communist Party.
“They came with the KMT government, they had nowhere to stay and were told that they may settle where they live now because the government had nowhere else to settle them,” Cheng said. “Despite the living conditions, most of the residents and their families have lived in the community for decades without any problems, they are provided with electricity and water, and they pay taxes.”
“All of a sudden, they are told to leave without any settlement plan — although the Taipei City Government once promised them a new community — and those who are unwilling or unable to move are being sued and will have to pay millions of New Taiwan dollars in compensation to the government,” Cheng said. “How does that make any sense?”
Not having received a positive response from the government, the protesters vowed to launch larger protests on the days the demolitions are scheduled.
Separately yesterday, the Taipei City Government said it would provide public housing units for Huaguang Community residents and help them with their relocation.
Taipei City Government spokesman Chang Chi-chiang (張其強) said the city government would take the initiative to offer 57 public housing units in Nankang District (南港) and Shilin District (士林) to residents of the community and would relax limitations on applications to help the residents settle in their new homes.
The Taipei City Government’s Department of Urban Development has given information about the housing units to the central government, and the city government would start preparing to move people after the central government provides a list of eligible applicants, Chang said.
“The city government has also urged the Executive Yuan to delay the demolition of the community until the city government comes up with a relocation plan,” he said.
Chien Se-fang (簡瑟芳), a division chief in the department, said the department would relax regulations on applications for the public housing as most of the residents are aged 45 years and older.
The regulations on the public housing rentals state that applicants must be between 20 and 45 and have their household registered in Taipei. The applicants should also be recently married and have children, and should not own any property, while their annual income must be less than NT$1.7 million.
Chien said the department would ignore the regulations relating to age and marital status for residents of the community, and would assist eligible applicants moving to public housing units.
The monthly rent of the housing units ranges from NT$12,500 to NT$13,800.
The city government would also help six low-income families move to low-cost housing units in Wenshan District (文山) and Wanhua District (萬華), she said.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS