Asia Cement Protests

A friend took this in Buenos Aires

Brian H at New Bloom on the recent protests over Asia Cement's occupation of indigenous lands this weekend:

The systematic injustices against Taiwanese indigenous in the past came at the hands of the ROC state and past exploitation of Taiwanese indigenous by Han Taiwanese businesses was oftentimes carried out with the aid of local KMT government officials, a means by which the KMT serviced the clientelist business networks which provided the vital support they needed to stay in power during the authoritarian period. However, as demonstrators also pointed out during the demonstration today, while the Tsai administration promised to realize transitional justice for Taiwanese indigenous, it, too, has not taken substantial action to benefit Taiwanese indigenous with continued back-and-forth on the Taroko Gorge mine since it took power.

President Tsai's apology needs to be backed by action, and kicking off Asia Cement would be a great symbolic move. Apparently President Tsai has forced action on the matter, as Asia Cement's mining right renewal is going to be reviewed.

Premier Lin Chuan (林全) said on Tuesday that the Cabinet will review the legality of approval issued by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) for a major local cement producer to extend its mining rights in eastern Taiwan.

Lin told the media that the review will be conducted in one week and if the approval issued to Asia Cement Corp. (亞泥) is found to lack due process, the Executive Yuan will hold the persons responsible accountable.

Readers may recall that Legislature moved on this only to learn that underlings in the MOEA had already granted a 20 year extension of the mining rights, which triggered protests back in March.

I have a long backgrounder on the issue here.

Let's hope the DPP government does the right thing and removes Asia Cement from that land.
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