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.
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