Bayer Plant in Taiwan Cancelled

From Mark Munsterhjelm, Taipei, 19 March 1998

Greetings,

A pleasant bit of news from here in Taiwan. After a long struggle the local citizens of Taichung county in central Taiwan through a combination of the ballot box and protest have been successful in their attempts to stop the proposed construction of a TDI (toluene di-isocyanate) plant. Today the chemical giant Bayer officially withdrew after the Taichung county government had recently announced a delay in issuing permits pending a local referendum scheduled for June 1998. Bayer plans to change the site to Texas.

Here in Taiwan the environment is a mess and the local people are getting fed up. Earlier this month there were clashes between police and protesters against the construction of a large garbage incinerator in the north of Taipei city. However such actions are sporadic and there are no large national environmental organizations here. Hopefully Taiwanese can develop such popular based organizations soon.

Anyways I thought I pass a long a bit of good news about local people beating a transnational corporation.

Sincerely yours,
Mark Munsterhjelm
Shihlin, Taipei, Taiwan
e-mail: gustav88@ms13.hinet.net