Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/04
By: Hau Hsueh-chin and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Nov. 4 (CNA) A former U.S. Air Force pilot and local environmentalists on Monday called on Taichung City government to reverse its recent decision to raze an abandoned former U.S. military hostel to make way for a modern building housing local NGO groups.

James Patrick Dwyer and a group of environmentalists said the compound located at Meicun Road in Taichung's West District was built in 1962 and served as the Foreign Affairs Services Department Hostel used by the U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) stationed in the country.

With the withdrawal of MAAG after the U.S. ended official diplomatic ties in 1979, the compound was taken over by Taiwan's military which later commissioned a private company to turn it into a privately-run guesthouse.

The guesthouse closed its doors in 2006 and the building has been abandoned ever since.
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