Illegal Factories in Changhua County: Environmental Groups Slam "Guidance" Approach as Perfunctory, Leaving a Mess for the Next Generation

With the central government having set "May 20, 2016" as the cutoff date for demolishing all newly built illegal factories across Taiwan, the first wave targeting 17 of them in order to put an end to the illegal occupation of farmland, the Changhua County Government has responded several times with a policy of "on-site guidance" and proposed the "five noes and one absolute" principle, arguing that "September 12, 2017" should be the cutoff date for demolition, otherwise it would be difficult to comply.

In response, several environmental groups gathered in front of the Changhua County Government today to protest, stressing that if the county government wants to steer industry toward proper legalization, it should conduct a full inventory, factoring in operators' willingness and land area, and achieve the goal in phases, rather than externalizing costs and letting everyone compete over who pollutes more. Otherwise, simply loosening the rules on illegal structures is a perfunctory move that leaves the mess for the next generation to bear.

Homemakers United Foundation: Illegal factories on farmland are the biggest culprit destroying the source of food safety and reducing total farmland area

Tang Lin-hsiang, a researcher at the Homemakers United Foundation Environmental Protection Foundation, analyzed the issue from a food safety perspective. He pointed out that the government values source management of food safety and maintaining total farmland area, but "illegal factories on farmland" are the biggest culprit undermining both, and that illegal structures swallow nearly 30 hectares of farmland on average each year. If the problem is not properly confronted, Taiwan will face a gap in food security, so Wei Ming-ku must align with central government policy and stop defying county residents.

Finally, Hsu Wen-feng, a member of the Taiwan Rural Front, cited real examples to prove that the growth of illegal factories is closely tied to policy. He noted that when temporary factory registration was announced earlier, brokers in the Lukang area hung banners stating that applications for illegal factories on farmland were about to be legalized and that farmland for sale should be bought quickly, causing farmland prices to rise by 20 percent. Recently, when the central government declared May 20 as the cutoff date and said all new illegal structures must be demolished, construction sites immediately halted work, but when the "five noes and one absolute" principle was announced, the machinery started up again.

This shows that if local policy fails to stay in step with the central government, keeping farmland for farming is just wishful thinking. He therefore called on the Changhua County Government to carry out central government policy, as only then can change happen; otherwise, evading the issue will only earn it a bad name and turn Changhua into a polluted place.

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