The Executive Yuan yesterday said it has no stance on merging Hsinchu city and county into one municipality, after Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) the day before proposed creating “Greater Hsinchu.”
During an interview on Monday with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister paper of the Taipei Times), Lin floated the idea of merging the two areas, sparking spirited discussion among politicians and commentators.
Hsinchu County Commissioner Yang Wen-ke (楊文科) later proposed that the new “Greater Hsinchu” become the nation’s seventh special municipality, an idea for which Lin yesterday voiced support.
Photo courtesy of the Hsinchu County Government
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) took the proposal a step further, suggesting that Miaoli County be included to boost the area’s population to 1.5 million, past the 1.25 million threshold for forming a special municipality.
Without Miaoli County, creating “Greater Hsinchu” would involve revising the Local Government Act (地方制度法).
Statistics from the end of last month show that Hsinchu County has a population of 573,858, while Hsinchu City has 452,781 people for a total of 1.03 million.
Even if it were not upgraded, the plan would still require the passage of the long-stalled administrative zoning bill, which most recently was submitted to the legislature by the Executive Yuan in 2018 in a bid to improve resource disparities between urban and rural areas.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2018 had also raised the idea of merging all administrative areas into seven special municipalities, but the proposal stalled after the Cabinet reshuffle following the nine-in-one elections later that year.
In response to media queries, an Executive Yuan official yesterday said that the Cabinet has not yet formally discussed the proposal.
Whether achieved through zoning changes or as a special municipality, it would require changes to the law subject to revision by the Ministry of the Interior, the official said on condition of anonymity.
As everyone at the moment seems to have a different opinion, the official said that any action would first have to wait until a consensus is achieved.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) reportedly met with Lin Chih-chien yesterday to discuss the proposal, although details of their discussion are not yet available.
Responding to accusations that Lin Chih-chien raised the proposal to gain an advantage in next year’s local elections, a senior DPP official said that an issue should be discussed if it would benefit the people, regardless of when elections are to be held.
The important issue is whether there is public consensus, the party official said, adding that the laws could be amended soon if the parties could cooperate.
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
RSS