Review committee members for the Taiwan Knowledge Park case require the Hsinchu County Government to supplement and correct information again
The Ministry of the Interior held the 8th special task force meeting on the Taoyuan-Hsinchu Knowledge Economic Flagship Park (Taizhi Park) today (the 4th), drawing supporters and opponents to shout at each other in front of the Construction and Planning Agency. Supporters argued that the park's plan integrates production, living, and ecology quite comprehensively, and that the plan has been delayed so long that opportunities to attract manufacturers to move in have been missed; they also said the opponents are all "fake farmers" and "outsiders," and that the area is already full of factories, so farming can no longer be carried out.
Opponents solemnly stated that the vast majority of the area is still kept in agricultural use and is not teeming with factories; moreover, the whole plan is the government leading the way in real estate speculation, and how are farmers who lose their farmland supposed to produce food? At the same time, the actions of Yang Wen-ke and Fan Chen-tsung, who are connected to the plan, are both problematic, and the scope of expropriation in this case is 3 times that of the Miaoli Dapu case that shocked the whole country, with an enormous impact, so administrative hearings should be held.
At the end of the meeting, it was concluded that the Hsinchu County Government should thoroughly understand the opponents' "reasons for opposing" and compile the pros and cons by October for submission to the Ministry of the Interior; it also needs to supplement and clarify the explicit scope of "major national construction."
Avoiding the Land Expropriation Act, Taizhi Park expropriation stirs controversy
"Of course they are landlords," said Chen Ping-hsuan, a researcher at the Taiwan Rural Front. Real estate agents who buy low and sell high become local landlords through market manipulation, and of course they long to "turn things around" through urban planning; Chen Ping-hsuan also admitted that illegal factories do exist on farmland, but by no means in the "everywhere" situation alleged by the promotion association.
What's more, special agricultural zones should be managed under the Regulations on the Use Control of Non-Urban Land, and it is the government that has let illegal factories proliferate, then used urban planning as a wrapper, effectively legalizing them on the spot and encouraging illegality.
"It is precisely because I am an outsider that I can see the whole picture clearly." Taiwan Rural Front secretary-general Tsai Pei-hui stressed that excessive land expropriation is a nationwide problem, and Taizhi Park is not a single case. Looking back at the Miaoli Dapu case, "of the 8,000 job opportunities promised at the time, how many have actually materialized? 0, not a single one."
The well-known real estate speculator "Shuai Guo Tou," who moved in after the Dapu case, even "threw up his hands in surrender" during a recent media interview, clearly showing that land speculation ultimately ends only in being trapped.
Puyu Self-Rescue Association: Guarding the homeland until the entire case is revoked
After a full day of meetings, the special task force made 3 resolutions. They were: the explicit scope of "major national construction" must be confirmed before review can continue; the Hsinchu County Government should understand the reasons of residents opposing expropriation and adopt appropriate measures; if the Hsinchu County Government insists on expropriation, it should explain the reasons for expropriation in detail and, by the end of October, compile the opinions of both sides and submit them to the Urban Planning Committee.
Because the special task force did not revoke this case, Chen Ping-hsuan held a "neutral" view of the meeting result; therefore, as long as the case is not revoked, members of the self-rescue association must set aside their busy farm work and go north to protest, and this is also the 8th "battle" that Zhubei residents have personally taken part in.