Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

It is safe to say that few career civil servants, serving or former, have had as much of an impact on Taiwan as Ministry of Transportation and Communications employee-turned-documentary filmmaker Chi Po-lin (齊柏林), who died on June 10.

Since his untimely death in a helicopter crash, there has been an outpouring of grief and tributes to a man who almost single-handedly made it impossible for the average person — or the government — to ignore the devastation wrought by decades of unchecked development, feeble environmental regulations and even feebler enforcement, as well as societal disregard for the nation’s land, rivers, forests and coastline.

New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) has proposed establishing a representative office for the city in Beijing to facilitate cross-strait exchanges.

Chu has said that he is open to discussion and negotiation of his proposal, but in responding to a statement by the Mainland Affairs Council on Monday that it was inappropriate for local governments to deal with such matters, he maintained that providing a service to Taiwanese expatriates living in China can be “carried out in accordance with the framework of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例).”