About a dozen environmentalists yesterday rallied outside the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in Taipei to protest a plan by the Changhua County Government to develop an industrial park dedicated to precision machinery in Erlin Township (二林).
A fifth review of an environmental impact assessment for the proposed park was scheduled to be held at the agency yesterday.
Since 2014, the project has undergone four reviews spanning three county commissioners: Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源), Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷) and incumbent Wang Hui-mei (王惠美), Changhua Environmental Protection Union representative Jenny Wu (吳慧君) said.
There are about 3,800 hectares of idle industrial land in Taiwan, she said, adding that at the Erlin Science Park next to the site of the proposed project, a large portion of the 101 hectares of land earmarked for the precision machinery industry remains unused.
One of the reasons developers cited for not utilizing the science park was that paying rent there for 20 years would be the equivalent of buying land, she said.
However, based on the union’s calculations, the cost of purchasing land would be “eight to 19 times” that of renting, she said.
Developers should prioritize the use of the existing land at the science park instead of continuing to “sacrifice agricultural land,” Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association attorney Tsai Ya-ying (蔡雅瀅) said.
People might think that agricultural land “does not matter,” but if there is a global food shortage, Taiwan would have to find a way to maintain its food security, she said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
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