A local self-help association raised up a coffin at the gates of Formosa Petrochemical Corp’s naphtha cracker in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮) yesterday to protest the company failing to compensate for fish farms they say it is responsible for destroying.
The protesters said that Formosa Petrochemical overpumped the sand west of their fish farms on the southern bank of the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪) during construction projects in 1995 and 1996, destroying about 364 hectares of land that 82 association members had rented from the government to set up their farms.
Holding white flags that read: “A father’s debt should be returned by his son” and scattering paper money in the air, the demonstrators said that late Formosa Petrochemical chairman Wang Yung-ching (王永慶) had signed a memorandum of understanding with the association on June 4, 1994, promising to pay damages to those whose fish farms were affected by the company’s construction projects.
Photo: CNA
However, the company has not and is still unwilling to compensate the farm owners, the protesters said.
Association chairman Chou Lien-fu (周連福) said the fish farms were destroyed because the company had pumped sand too deeply and too close to their land, adding that since there is no deadline for adhering to the memorandum of understanding, the farm owners are still hoping that Formosa Petrochemical will honor its promise.
The crowd of protesters clashed with police who tried to prevent them from lifting up the coffin and pushing through gates.
According to one of the company’s managers, the fish farms were actually destroyed by Typhoon Herb in 1996, and Formosa Petrochemical has commissioned research facilities to assess the situation and proved that the damage has nothing to do with its sand-pumping operation.
The company said it is unreasonable that the association is asking for NT$1 billion (US$34 million) in compensation, when damage assessments carried out in 1996 already showed that the sand-pumping did not harm the fish farms.
Given this, it is refusing to agree to the association’s demands and suggested that the farm owners take the case to court if they want to pursue the matter further.
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
A cold surge advisory was today issued for 18 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures of below 10°C forecast during the day and into tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. New Taipei City, Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties are expected to experience sustained temperatures of 10°C or lower, the CWA said. Temperatures are likely to temporarily drop below 10°C in most other areas, except Taitung, Pingtung, Penghu and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, CWA data showed. The cold weather is being caused by a strong continental cold air mass, combined with radiative cooling, a process in which heat escapes from
Snow this morning fell on Alishan for the first time in seven years, as a strong continental cold air mass sent temperatures plunging across Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The Alishan weather station, located at an elevation of about 2,200m in central Taiwan, recorded snowfall from 8:55am to 9:15am, when the temperature dropped to about 1°C, the CWA said. With increased moisture and low temperatures in the high-altitude Alishan area, the conditions were favorable for snow, CWA forecaster Tsai Yi-chi (蔡伊其) said. The last time snow fell at the Alishan weather station was on Jan. 10, 2018, while graupel fell there
RSS