Hualien County’s Fuli Township (富里) has attracted media attention for spending big to reverse a population decline of more than 25 percent since 2001.
Fuli is offering parents childbirth incentives and subsidies totaling NT$120,000 per newborn, the highest of any administrative area in the eastern county.
Hualien County Government data showed that the population of Fuli has dropped to 9,627 as of last month, down from 9,714 a year earlier and 9,840 in 2021.
Photo courtesy of Mennonite Christian Hospital
The population declined significantly in January 2021, when it fell to 9,983 from 10,004 a month earlier, the data showed.
The township had 13,510 registered residents at the end of 2001.
To raise the birthrate and encourage people to move to the agricultural township, the Fuli Township Office increased subsidies for new children to NT$80,000 on July 1 last year.
With a NT$20,000 nutritional supplement subsidy provided since January this year and a NT$20,000 childbirth subsidy offered by the county government, parents of a newborn in Fuli are entitled to up to NT$120,000 in government subsidies, which is also believed to be the highest in the country.
To qualify for the NT$80,000 subsidy, a new parent must be a resident of Fuli for at least six months and live in the township for at least three years after receiving the subsidy, the township office said.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS