The China Post
Date: December 31, 2016
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Eight months after a steel plant in Vietnam owned by Taiwanese conglomerate
Lai Yong-chi (賴永智), a section chief from the China Steel Corporation (中鋼公司), repeatedly said he had no information on pollution that had resulted from a Formosa Plastics plant in Vietnam at a public hearing on Friday, Dec. 30. CSC holds a 25 percent stake in Formosa’s Vietnam steel plant. (Sun Hsin Hsuan, The China Post / Photo captured from the internet)
Formosa Plastics (台塑集團) caused one of the worst environmental disasters in the country’s history, Taiwanese civic groups demanded answers from the company and the government.
At a public hearing at the Legislative Yuan on Friday, representatives from environmental and human rights groups weighed in on the causes and outcomes of the April disaster, and discussed whether government negligence and legislative loopholes had contributed to the calamity.
The hearing was held by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislators Chen Man-li (陳曼麗) and Wu Kuen-yuh (吳焜裕), who earlier this month invited priests from Vietnam to speak with Taiwanese lawmakers on the matter.
“I would like to apologize to the Vietnamese people because, due to the nature of Taiwanese laws, our government could neither supervise nor punish local companies who brought their businesses as well as disasters to foreign countries,” Chen said. [FULL STORY]
