A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker yesterday accused the Ministry of National Defense (MND) of blocking a planned trip by lawmakers to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島), but a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker said that the fault lay with the trip’s organizer.
KMT Legislator Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍), convener of the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee, had announced on Saturday last week that the group planned to make an inspection visit to the Pratas Islands, but the trip was canceled yesterday on the grounds that there was not enough time between the official statement that Chen sent to the ministry and the date of the visit.
Chen yesterday accused the ministry of obstructing the trip by exploiting a technicality.
Photo: Lin Liang-sheng, Taipei Times
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) had made arrangements for the trip, but the ministry told the committee that the inspection should be classified and its excuse that there was not enough time to prepare for the visit bordered on inefficiency, she said.
The committee was more than willing to comply with the ministry’s request that the trip be classified, and the committee’s request to visit the islands was the same as previous requests and had been submitted within the same six-day timeframe, she said.
The ministry’s rationale for canceling the trip did not stand up to scrutiny, as an Ocean Affairs Council summer camp for college students in the Dongsha Islands recently took place, said Chen, who represents Kinmen County.
DPP Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) disputed Chen’s timeframe claims, writing on Facebook that she had not submitted her request to the ministry until Tuesday.
He had asked the ministry about Chen’s trip request and was told that the air force had only received the request on Tuesday, so it had to decline the visit due to insufficient preparation time, Wang said.
Ministry spokesperson Major General Shih Shun-wen (史順文) said the ministry would provide any help the committee needs to facilitate the visit, and had given it maps and a briefing on the political situation.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS