Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) questioned Premier Simon Chang (張善政) yesterday over a Chinese official’s remarks that a project to build a high-speed rail system connecting Beijing and Taipei has gone through “multiple meetings” between China and Taiwan.
The Beijing-Taipei railway project was announced as part of China’s five-year plan at the annual National People’s Congress in Beijing on Saturday last week.
Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) said on Tuesday that it is not China’s call to decide whether such a railway is to be built.
“It is within our purview,” Hsia said.
Chang said China’s unilateral announcement was not welcome.
Chiu yesterday cited Wang Mengshu (王夢恕), a Chinese National People’s Congress member and a railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, as saying in an interview with Hong Kong media that the project has been discussed with staff and experts from Taiwan’s transportation and construction departments “more than 10 times.”
“According to a Chinese news report from October last year, Wang, along with [professionals from other countries] in September 2015 invited entrepreneurs and experts from Taiwan’s RSEA Engineering Corp (榮工工程), Sino Geotechnology, Inc (富國技術工程), Sanli Geotechnology Consulting Co (三力技術工程) and National Chung Hsing University for a discussion about building an underwater tunnel and a possible plan for the construction of the tunnel,” Chiu said.
Chang said there were no officials among the visiting group, but Chiu interrupted him to say that RSEA Engineering Co, “while now a privatized company, sold its shares to L&K Engineering Co (亞翔工程), whose chairman, Kenneth Yao (姚祖驤), has a particularly close relationship with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).”
“I highly suspect that Ma has known about the plan all along,” Chiu said.
The lawmaker said that in November 2012, another seminar about a possible tunnel in the Taiwan Strait was held in Taipei, which Sinotech Engineering Consultants Ltd (中興工程顧問公司) chairman Tsao Shou-min (曹壽民) attended.
“[According to another report,] Tsao then said that the construction of an underwater tunnel connecting China and Taiwan would help cross-strait interaction and unification,” Chiu said.
“Who is Tsao? He is a former KMT legislator and was the director of the Taipei Department of Transportation when Ma was the Taipei mayor. His appointment to the chairmanship of Sinotech was also made by Ma,” Chiu added.
Chiu said it therefore could be said that the so-called Beijing-Taipei railway is definitely not “appearing out of nowhere.”
“Wang even said there is yet another meeting about the railway to take place later this month in Chengdu, China,” she added.
Chang said even if there were discussions, “I believe that they were all about the technology itself, as a kind of challenge to be overcome, rather than involving political considerations.”
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported