President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday reiterated the government’s goal to make Taiwan a nuclear-free country by 2025, Presidential Office spokeswoman Lin Yu-chan (林聿禪) said.
Tsai also expressed hope that a transition project for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) would be finalized before the end of her time in office, Lin said.
“There is no need for the public to worry,” Tsai told a meeting with 12 environmental advocates at the Presidential Office, Lin said.
Photo courtesy of the Presidential Office via CNA
“Restarting the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is not an option, because a referendum in 2021 vetoed the proposal,” she said.
Tsai also expressed hope that a plan to transform the mothballed power plant could be worked out with a consensus from local residents before she steps down as president in May next year, Lin said.
Tsai’s remarks were meant to alleviate concern after Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate in next year’s presidential election, last month said that Taiwan’s nuclear reactors might be reactivated in an emergency, such as a war or a blockade — which suggested a departure from the party’s 2025 nuclear-free homeland goal.
Tsai on Monday said Lai was outlining an “extreme” situation.
While ruling out the likelihood of an imminent conflict with China, Tsai said the government needs to consider all sorts of “extreme” scenarios and consequences, because national security cannot be compromised.
In a historic first, Taiwanese officials participated in this year’s Riga Strategic Communications Dialogue in Latvia from Wednesday to Friday last week, which debuted a breakout session focused on Taiwan The event organizer, the NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence, displayed Taiwan’s national flag and the officials’ formal titles on their Web site. Taiwanese attendees included National Security Council (NSC) Deputy Secretary-General Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) and deputy head of the Taipei Representative Office in the UK, Chiang Ya-chi (江雅綺). In addition to the session discussing Taiwan titled “Taiwan: Navigating Strategic Communication in a Tense Environment,” the dialogue also included sessions
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to suspend its automated Skytrain service connecting Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 starting on July 1 to facilitate connection works for the upcoming Terminal 3, the airport operator said today. Passengers and staff who need to travel between the two terminals after the suspension can instead use the Taoyuan MRT or the airport's 24-hour shuttle bus service, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. The Taoyuan MRT Airport Line directly links the two terminals, while the shuttle buses are to operate around the clock, the company added. The Skytrain provides free transportation between the airport’s two terminals for travelers and
Taiwan ranked 42nd in terms of peacefulness among 163 countries, down five places from last year, according to this year’s Global Peace Index. With an overall score of 1.751, Taiwan dropped from 37th last year, the report published by the global Institute for Economics and Peace showed. The overall score measures a country’s level of peacefulness using 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators across three domains — ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security, and militarization. While Taiwan ranked 42nd worldwide, it was listed in ninth place among the 19 Asian-Pacific countries in the report, after New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia,
Through analyzing fossil evidence, a research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) discovered the largest endemic bird to have lived in Taiwan, naming it Pavo miejue, or extinct peafowl (滅絕孔雀). The Mikado pheasant, which is printed on the back of the NT$1,000 bank note, was previously believed to be the biggest endemic bird to Taiwan. The research team’s findings suggest that Pavo miejue lived during the Pleistocene epoch tens of thousands of years ago. It is the first endemic extinct bird species discovered and formally named in Taiwan. The study was coauthored by NTU Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修),
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