Sunday, September 25, 2005

Taiwan News Forum on Redistricting in Taiwan

The Taiwan New website regularly offers forums that take an in-depth look at important Taiwan issues. This week's forum is on redistricting and government in Taiwan. Although most people dismissed Annette Lu's remarks that the capital of the island should perhaps be moved, she put her finger on a problem that plagues many nations: administrative districts that do not reflect economic and social realities:

After Taiwan revised its Constitution in 1997 and eliminated its provincial status, the status of the Fujian Provincial Government set up by the Republic of China in Taiwan became vague. In point of fact, the status of the Fujian Provincial Government and the Taiwan Provincial Government were always a bit different. The Fujian Provincial Government in Taiwan had its offices in Sindian, Taipei County before, but after a farm rental reduction land reform movement, the provincial offices were moved back to Jincheng in Kinmen. The Fujian Provincial Government and the Taiwan Provincial Government had corresponding organizational structures, but there was never a Fujian Provincial Legislative Assembly, which made its status very peculiar.
Read on. This is a two-part forum, so you'll have to wait for the back end.