A netizen’s petition to change Taiwan’s time zone from the same as China’s to that of Japan and South Korea has gathered enough signatures on an official Web site to prompt an official response, the National Development Council said on Thursday.
When petitions receive more than 5,000 signatures within 60 days on the online public policy participation platform, which the council created in 2015, a government agency must be designated to issue a public response via the platform within two months.
Council Director of Information Management Chuang Ming-fen (莊明芬) said an agency would be appointed to the petition within seven days and would have to respond by Dec. 19.
“The netizen’s proposal touches upon the jurisdiction of several ministries. The council is coordinating with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the Ministry of the Interior and others,” Chuang said.
The netizen who launched the petition said that the country should leave the GMT+8 time zone, which it shares with Malaysia, China and parts of Indonesia and Australia, to the GMT+9 time zone, which covers Japan and South Korea.
The petition had garnered 7,879 signatures at press time last night.
“In the past, Taiwan belonged to GMT+9. North and South Korea, which are at similar latitudes with Taiwan, are also in the GMT+9 timezone. Switching time zone from GMT+8 to GMT+9 symbolically removes Taiwan from China and will serve as a subconscious reminder to Chinese and other foreign tourists in Taiwan that the country is not subordinated to China,” the petition said.
Moving the clock forward one hour would also save sunlight, the petition said.
A change of time zone would compel airports and airlines to change flight schedules, and systems for ticketing and sales, Civil Aeronautics Administration Air Transport Division Director Han Chen-hua (韓振華) said.
“The cost would be substantial and it would affect domestic airlines as well as foreign airlines that operate in Taiwan,” Han said.
Changing flight schedules would likely be troublesome because doing so would affect domestic and foreign airports, travel agencies, as well as hotels at the origin, destination and layover points for all of the country’s inbound and outgoing flights, an airline manager said on condition of anonymity.
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Co spokesman Lee Chien-kuo (李建國) said changing the country’s time zone would confuse travelers and disrupt the way of calculating time they are familiar with.
“This will cause difficulties, particularly with layover flights,” Lee said.
The airport handles 600 flights per day to and from 157 destinations and is used by 86 airlines, Lee said.
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS