Kuomintang Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Ke Zhien criticized the slow handling of the Yongan Waste Chai Mountain case. Kaohsiung City Councilor Qiu Junxian posted a photo to refute and explain the investigation timeline

Kuomintang Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Ke Zhien issued an article criticizing the Yong'an Waste Chai Mountain case as "cannot wait for the civilian investigation to be handled"! Kao City Councilor Qiu Junxian's PO photo details the timeline of the city's investigation, emphasizing that it was handled at the end of last year and has been transferred to the judiciary, which is a slap in Ke's face.

About 13,900 tons of waste wood was illegally piled up on agricultural land in the Baoxing section of Yong'an District, Gao City, which was called "Waste Wood Mountain." The city government stated that it had launched an investigation in 2025, and later fined the perpetrators and related businesses involved in the case and brought them to justice. The deadline is to clear them all before the end of 2026. Ke Zhien issued an article criticizing that one piece of land after another has been destroyed. Is it necessary to wait for local people's petitions, representatives of the people to investigate, or even attract everyone's attention before starting to deal with it? Unacceptable.

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Qiu Junxian said that of course environmental pollution cases must be strictly investigated and handled to the end, and the people's representative also has the responsibility to strictly supervise the city government; however, supervision must be based on complete facts and time series. A case that was investigated last year and transferred to judicial investigation at the beginning of this year cannot be described as "waiting for the investigation by the people's representative to start processing."

He laid out a timeline, explaining that the Environmental Protection Bureau took the initiative to launch an investigation at the end of last year, and took the initiative to transfer it to judicial investigation in February this year. On July 31 this year, it convened relevant industries to propose a cleanup plan, with a deadline to complete the cleanup before the end of the year. On August 1, the city’s AI cloud monitoring system discovered that the site was smoldering and producing obvious granular pollutants. The Environmental Protection Bureau immediately dispatched personnel to deal with it and punished it in accordance with the law. The waste wood on site was gradually removed.

He mentioned that the city government is investigating the flow of waste wood removal and has found out that 44 removal companies are involved in illegal disposal, of which 24 have obtained waste removal permits and 20 have not obtained permits. All of them have been transferred to judicial investigation in accordance with the law, and those involved in administrative responsibilities will also be investigated separately.

Qiu Junxian said that from the timeline, it can be seen that the case investigation, evidence collection, judicial transfer and subsequent clearance work were carried out one after another before September this year. Ke Zhien claimed that "every time he waited for local petitions and civilian investigations before starting to deal with the case", which was obviously deliberately biased and ignored the time and manpower investment required for the investigation.

He believes that where relevant units are not doing enough, the people's representatives certainly have the right to continue to demand improvements; but they should also respect the work of front-line inspectors in tracking down cases, collecting evidence, tracking down business operators, and transferring them to justice.