Taiwan Church News
3434 Edition
18 – 24 December, 2017
Headline News

Mass Rally Agianst Air Pollution Held In Taichung And Kaohsiung

Reported by Simon Lin and Lin Wang-ting

On December 17, over 10,000 civilians took to the streets of both Taichung and Kaohsiung city in order to protest the severe air pollution occurred increasingly across Taiwan in recent years.

Over 10 civilian groups of central Taiwan, including Air Clean Taiwan and others, urged all Taiwanese to stand up and unite together, fighting against the unjust environmental policy slammed as “Two Taiwan under One Sky” and terminating the deteriorating air qualities in central and southern Taiwan.

Noteworthy was that the county magistrates in central Taiwan and Taichung City Mayor all came up to attend this big rally and pledged their strong support for the rally’s four major appeals: i.e. relocate central government southbound, rescind the working permit of Taichung Power Station realizing its previous promise to reduce 40% of raw coal demand, control the most pollutant 30 air pollution factors to decrease 20% of coal emission before the end of 2018, and a request of EPA to monitor air quality across the island in real time.

In the meantime, chanting the slogan as “I want breathe, I want good air”, thousands of citizens and over 40 civilian groups also participated in a street parade, asking some leading major state-run enterprises, like China Steel, CPC Corp(petroleum), Taiwan Power Company and etc located around Kaohsiung city, to reduce 50% coal emission within three years.

Translated by Peter Wolfe