Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Environmental Rights Foundation
ENVIRONMENTAL AND HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS held two days of events in Taipei in June to call attention to the fact that Taiwan has now become the fifth-largest importer of coal from Russia. This occurs despite the official shows of support by the Taiwanese government for Ukraine, partly as a result of the actions of Formosa Plastics and Taiwan Cement.
Civil society groups including the Environmental Rights Foundation, Amnesty International Taiwan, and European Values Center for Security Policy held a press conference on June 21st, while also attending the general shareholders’ meeting of Formosa Plastics on June 20th to speak of Taiwan’s complicity in human rights abuses as such.
Photo credit: Environmental Rights Foundation
Among the speakers was Vladimir Slivyak, founder of the Russian environmental organization Ecodefense, who spoke of how the war in Ukraine has killed tens of thousands, while domestic authoritarianism in Russia also continues under the rule of Vladimir Putin. Slivyak highlighted how coal serves as a crucial means of economic support for the Putin regime, as well as how coal mining contributes to human rights abuses and environmental damage in the Kuzbass region.
According to Environmental Rights Foundation researcher Hsin Hsuan Sun, from January 2023 to April of this year, Taiwan purchased 11.05 million tons of coal from Russia. This amounts to more than 100 million USD, with Formosa Plastics and Taiwan Cement purchasing from internationally sanctioned Russian companies such as Suek, Blacksand, and Kru. Taiwanese companies themselves risk falling afoul of international sanctions through cooperation with such companies.
To this extent, the amount of coal that Taiwan purchases from Russia actually increased after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In 2022, Taiwan was reliant on Russia for 12% of coal supply, which will increase to 18% by 2024.
Father Peter Van Nguyen further spoke about the environmental destruction caused by Formosa Plastics in Vietnam. In April 2016, millions of fish began washing ashore, dead, due to the environmental impact of a steel plant owned by Formosa Plastics’ subsidiary Formosa Ha Tinh Steel. Formosa denied wrongdoing, despite that this was likely the largest ecological disaster in Vietnamese history, affecting the livelihood of fishing villages across the hundreds of kilometers of affected shorelines. Despite this, the Vietnamese government acted to defend Formosa’s investment in Vietnam, repressing protests that broke out against efforts to cover up the causes of the incident.
This has proved similar with regards to Formosa Plastics plants in “Cancer Alley” in St. James Parish, Louisiana. High rates of cancer in the area are linked to facilities owned by Formosa. This, too, is true in Taiwan itself around the No. 6 Naphtha Cracker. Even so, this has also been a case in which the state acted to defend Formosa’s investment, with Formosa being the world’s sixth-largest petrochemical company.
Photo credit: Environmental Rights Foundation
Complicity by Taiwanese companies in human rights abuses in Russia and Ukraine, as a result of buying coal from Russia, is ironic. The Taiwanese government has thrown its support behind Ukraine, facilitating donations of medical supplies, aid, and drones, while civil society has also fundraised for Ukraine, contributing ambulance purchases and otherwise seeking to assist those in need of aid. Namely, in spite of claiming to uphold universal human rights causes, Taiwanese companies are often still willing to do business with authoritarian regimes, even when their refusal to do business could prove a powerful source of pressure on authoritarian regimes.
It is to be seen if negative press leads Formosa and other Taiwanese companies to change their ways, however. Similarly, it is unlikely that the Taiwanese government itself will be motivated to take action on the issue without the potential for such actions to impact Taiwan’s international relations. After all, the Taiwanese government also seeks to strengthen international ties given the geopolitical threats that Taiwan faces from China, and it has positioned itself as aligned with Ukraine and other democratic countries in the face of authoritarian aggression, whether from China or Ukraine. But making statements to that effect is a very different matter than following up with action.