The by-election to fill the seat formerly occupied by Taipei mayor-elect Chiang Wan-an has taken on an unusual significance with regard to some of the proposals made to date by candidates. For the by-election, the DPP is running Enoch Wu against Wang Hung-wei of the KMT...
Taipower, Taiwan's state-run energy utility, won out in a recent ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court that exempted it from needing to pay 30 million NT for failing to remove low-level nuclear waste from Orchid Island. Low-level nuclear waste refers to items that have become contaminated with radioactive material or become radioactive through exposure, as distinguished from intermediate-level nuclear waste, high-level nuclear waste, spent fuel rods, or other nuclear waste materials...
Taiwan experienced rolling power outages today after a malfunction at a Kaohsiung substation led to an abnormality in the power grid. This will no doubt become an object of political contestation going forward, with pro-nuclear advocates in particular likely to leverage on the incident to claim that it demonstrates Taiwan's need for nuclear energy...
News that semiconductor manufacturing giant TSMC intends to switch to 100% renewable energy has been welcomed by environmentalists. However, this has also seen controversy, given plans by TSMC to construct a solar farm in Pingtung by clearing reforested land...
After the referendum on nuclear energy held concurrently with nine-in-one elections on November 24th, shifts in Taiwan’s treatment of nuclear energy-related issues are likely to take place. The referendum called for the overturning of current provisions in the law which stipulate that Taiwan is to be nuclear-free by 2025...
There would seem to be no greater indicator of progressive civil society’s defeats in 2018 local elections more than its losses across the board in terms of the referendums it pushed for. However, the situation seems to set to get bleaker in the near future. Conservative groups have now realized that referendums may be one way for them to force their political agendas through...
The results of referendum voting will no doubt come as a great shock to progressive Taiwanese civil society with, quite literally, all of the referendum proposals they championed being voted down. On the other hand, all of the referendums they opposed passed. However, not all of these achieved the necessary 25% of voter participation needed to be legally binding...
Referendum reform has historically been pushed for by progressive civil society groups in Taiwan, as a means to resolve longstanding issues blocked by the KMT and other conservative forces. Progressive civil society groups were finally victorious in amending the Referendum Act last year, lowering the benchmarks needed to hold a referendum in Taiwan. But what if the results of referendum voting tomorrow indicate that, ironically enough, conservatives have managed to hijack the referendum and to use it against progressive civil society?...
The third televised debate on nuclear energy took place on November 12th, with Huang Shih-hsiu (黃士修), the initiator of the referendum on whether Taiwan should remove legal provisions for Taiwan to be nuclear-free by 2025, faced off against Hung Shen-han of the Green Citizen Action Alliance. The debate quite directly reveals how the KMT has been a major force in pushing for the referendum...
A total of ten referendum questions are up for the vote in local elections at the end of this month, during which a nationwide referendum will also be held regarding these ten questions. Some confusion remains about how voters will tackle these questions...
