Control Yuan members Fan Sun-lu (笵巽綠) and Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊) on Tuesday said that they are petitioning to investigate if strict regulations on activities near water are infringing on the public’s right to recreational activities.
The pair said they have received complaints from the Taiwan Allow Activities on Open Waters Alliance and other organizations that their request to the Taipei City Government to hold a recursive rowing event in Dahu Park (大湖公園) in Neihu District (內湖) was denied.
Taiwan has many lakes and rivers, the Control Yuan members said, adding that it is a rising trend among international cities, such as New York, Tokyo and Amsterdam, to promote water-related recreational activities to promote economic development.
Photo: Cheng Ming-hsiang, Taipei Times
Regulations in Taiwan seem to stand in the way of popularizing recreational water activities, they said.
The Control Yuan is within reason to launch an investigation into the issue, as it believes questions on whether standing regulations are anachronistic or whether the Taipei City Government’s refusal to approve the event was targeted should be answered, they said.
Competent authorities and local city governments have differing regulations on open water activities, making it difficult for practitioners to follow the law, Fan and Su said.
The pair said they would determine whether the Taipei City Government’s decision observes the principle of proportionality and whether its standards are appropriate.
Definition of open water areas and what locations fit these criteria should be inventoried and local regulations reviewed to encourage the public to take part in aquatic activities, they said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas