Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Cho Jung-tai/Facebook
POLITICAL CONTENTION over Typhoon Ragasa has already begun in Taiwan. In particular, the typhoon is currently thought to have left fifteen dead, while 34 are still missing.
The majority of the confirmed deaths to date occurred after the Matai’an Creek Barrier Lake overflowed. Barrier lakes form a natural barrier against flooding, but can be unstable. The Matai’an Creek Barrier Lake formed after the impact of Tropical Storm Wipha in July.
The overflow of the barrier lake has led to a number of deaths. These were mostly elderly individuals on Dunhou Road and Fozu Street in Guangfu, who were unable to evacuate in time and were on the first floor of their residences.
The Matai’an Creek Barrier Lake was previously monitored by the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture, which viewed the barrier lake as stable. In the wake of Typhoon Ragasa, this evidently turned out not to be the case.
Still, with fingers pointed after the fatalities and after images of the flooding have circulated across Taiwan, political contention follows a familiar pattern. Specifically, this takes the form of contention between the central DPP government and the local KMT government. KMT legislative caucus leader Fu Kun-chi represents Hualien as legislator. His wife, Hsu Chen-wei, is the Hualien county magistrate. This contention between the central and local governments, with KMT-controlled local governments seeking to blame the central government and accusing it of withholding resources or information, was especially visible during the COVID-19 pandemic. One sees this again in the wake of the typhoon.
For example, there were a number of allegations online that the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency had not warned the Hualien local government. The suggestion would be that the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency deliberately did not inform the Hualien county government to create a troublesome disaster for the KMT in Hualien.
The Hualien branch of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency later released documentation showing that it had issued a recommendation to evacuate residents at 7 AM. The fatal barrier lake overflow occurred around 2 PM.
Fu later lashed out at the Forestry and Nature Conservancy Agency, stating that it should have blown up the barrier lake ahead of time. The Forestry and Nature Conservancy Agency later released a video showing why the barrier lake could not be diverted or blasted ahead of time, though more seriously, some have suggested that there could have been greater monitoring of the barrier lake.
In another widely publicized incident, while inspecting damage from the typhoon alongside Premier Cho Jung-tai of the DPP, Fu accused the Executive Yuan of not doing enough to help. Cho responded that “Everyone is helping,” emphasizing that the response was above partisanship. The two then had a heated exchange.
In the meantime, the Lai administration has hoped to convey swift action. President Lai Ching-te has stated that the government will provide housing for the displaced, as well as that broken levees would be repaired within one month.
It is to be seen whether the fallout of Typhoon Ragasa impacts Fu and Hsu. Fu has a reputation for political corruption, as the leader of a political dynasty that controls Hualien. When Fu was previously jailed on corruption charges during an earlier stint as county magistrate, he divorced Hsu and named her deputy county magistrate so that she would become county magistrate in his stead once he was serving jail time. This reputation for graft has led Fu to be termed the “King of Hualien.”
Past natural disasters have not impacted Fu’s reputation, particularly after Hualien was struck by earthquakes and typhoons. It was hotly watched in the course of the Great Recall Movement as to whether the attempt to oust Fu from office through a recall would be successful, with Fu seen as responsible for many of the controversial initiatives of the KMT in the past two years. Fu has also come under scrutiny over a series of trips to China, as part of which he met with high-ranking Chinese government officials.
Even if this push proved to be unsuccessful, one notes that there is increasing pushback against Fu. This does not only occur because of anger against Fu over the perception that he acts as a proxy of China in Taiwanese domestic politics, but also as a result of the view that Hualien infrastructure is decaying under the governance of Fu and Hsu, and that this has worsened the impact on Hualien from natural disasters. It is to be seen if Fu continues to maintain power, then.