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Taiwan town declines homes, fearing toxics

By Xie Yu in Beijing and Chen Hong in Shenzhen (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-20 07:14

A Taiwan town where 700 people were displaced after the island's worst typhoon in 50 years yesterday declined mobile homes from the mainland, fearing they might contain toxic chemicals.

The refusal, triggered by attacks against the mainland donation by some pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians, indicated that politicization has even outshined humanitarian aid badly needed by the island.

The island's death toll from Typhoon Morakot climbed to 136 as of 1:30 pm yesterday, not including the 523 villagers buried alive by mudslides, local disaster response authorities said.

Another 386 were missing and 45 were injured in the worst typhoon to hit the island in nearly five decades.

Chiatung township refused 100 quick-assembly homes after Taiwan's notoriously anti-mainland county of Pingtung, dominated by the DPP, said they might contain formalin, a chemical that can be hazardous in high doses, deputy county magistrate Chung Chia-pin said.

"Although the homes are a humanitarian donation, we need to consider safety first," Chung said.

The homes, which reached Taiwan on Tuesday, should be tested for any contamination, said township chief Lai Hsieh-ho.

But the mainland said the homes had already been checked.

"These mobile homes are strictly produced according to Taiwan's design requirements and technical standards by the mainland's top producers," Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office, told a news conference.

"They fully complied with Taiwan's design standards as well as criteria of its local environmental authority, and related international standards."

She said it was a pity that some people were fabricating criticism in a bid to undermine the affection between people across the Straits.

Liu Dingming, spokesman of Yahgee Modular House, a company based in southern Shenzhen, which produced the prefabricated homes, said the attack against the homes is "completely groundless".

"The prefabricated mobile houses made by Yahgee under the commission of the local government for Taiwan are built on a steel skeleton, which is surrounded by color-coated steel sandwich panels," he said.

"The local quality supervisor tested the products in the factory before shipment and found the random samples all meet the international standards."

Liu said his company is expected to complete producing another 900 sets of mobile homes for Taiwan by the end of this month.

Fan also said that a civilian Mi-26 heavy transport helicopter, owned by a private company on the mainland, can fly to Taiwan "at any time".

Li Qing, chief of China Flying Dragon Special Aviation Co, said his company bought China's only Mi-26 helicopter from Russia after last year's devastating quake in Sichuan. He said that the helicopter can fly to the island at any time if needed.

Chang Wu-ueh, director of the mainland study center of Taiwan Tamkang University, said Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou and his team should be careful in dealing with the mainland's help, and whether to accept the houses or to borrow the Mi-26.

Ma has been criticized by the opposition DPP for being too mainland-friendly.

"But we should also see that the overwhelming majority of Taiwan people are giving positive reaction to the mainland's care and help after the typhoon," Chang said.

Li Jiaquan, a senior researcher with the Institute of Taiwan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said anti-Ma forces in Taiwan are trying to doom him and his positive mainland policy.

"Now, the urgent task is to carry a fair test to these prefabricated houses at once. We could not let some people twist the mainland's love into poison," he said.

Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, yesterday said: "We share the same feeling with Taiwan compatriots, especially the ethnic minorities, who suffered serious life and property loss in the recent disaster. We are very much concerned."

He made the statement when meeting a delegation of ethnic minorities from Taiwan, headed by Kao Chin Su-mei.

Xinhua and Reuters contributed to the story