On Earth Day 2011, Taiwan's president, Ma Ying-jeou, held a press conference. He stated that the Chinese Petroleum Corporation of Taiwan, the state-owned enterprise that holds a majority stake in Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology, would withdraw its support of Kuokuang's plan to build a petrochemical industrial zone that was to include the island's eighth naphtha cracker in Changhua County's Tacheng Wetlands. The announcement marked the victory of a campaign environmentalists had led against the project. Two months later, a social scientist and an engineering scholar completed Ba jing you Taiwan: Guoguang shihua de gushi. Shieh Jyh-Cherng is a scientist in bio-industrial engineering who had been active in the successful movement in the 1990s to halt development of the Binnan Industrial Zone (which was to include the island's seventh naphtha cracker), and Ho Ming-sho is a sociologist who has established his reputation with studies of environmental politics and social movements. Based on archival documents, newspaper articles, and interviews (most of these conducted with activists), the book is written in the style of a historical story, with the authors' views present only between the lines. It traces the changes in the proposed site of Taiwan's eighth naphtha cracker, which was renamed Kuokuang Petrochemical in 2005. Through a historical review, the authors describe how the state-led plan for this development was shaped by political, economic, and social forces over two decades. This book is a must-read for those who are interested in development studies, the environmental movement, and politics in Taiwan.
