Several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers yesterday urged the military to reconsider its plan to reconfigure a section of road in Taitung County for use as an emergency airstrip, saying that the change could destroy nearby farmland.
The Ministry of National Defense is reportedly planning to upgrade a portion of Provincial Highway No. 9 in Taitung County’s Guanshan Township (關山) so that the road can be used as a military runway in the event of war.
KMT lawmakers Huang Chien-pin (黃建賓), Sra Kacaw and Huang Jen (黃仁), as well as Taitung County Commissioner Yao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴), Guanshan Township Mayor Peng Cheng-feng (彭成豐) and about 100 local residents expressed their opposition to the plan, which they said could affect residents’ livelihoods.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
“Is it reasonable to destroy an important granary in Hualien and Taitung on the east coast of Taiwan to build an emergency runway even though there is no war yet?” Huang asked at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Huang said that while he supports enhancing Taiwan’s national defense capabilities, he is opposed to building an emergency runway in Guanshan without thorough communication with local residents and proper planning.
The air force said it has worked with the Taitung County Government to convene two coordination meetings and two briefing sessions to address public concerns, and would continue to take public feedback into account.
The airstrip proposal is part of broader improvements to the highway that have been made in coordination with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ Highways Bureau, the air force said.
The plan is designed to minimize any impact on residents’ livelihoods, and is in response to a potential enemy threat, the air force said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
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
RSS