I feel like my head is ready to explode. Taiwan… where your life can fall apart when you least expect it.
This post is a rather long and may sound a bit confused but I am really under a lot of pressure and tired…
For the last 3 plus years I have been running a restaurant on the beach in ChaiShan area of Kaohsiung/GaoXiong. I would probably not exactly fall into the new to Taiwan category of foreigners to say the least. I have been here about 12 years, most of the time doing other business so I have some sense of how things work (or don’t as the case may be). Anyway my restaurant has been here for a VERY long time before me. Note our address does not have the word “Lu” (road) in it. The road to here was built about 3 and half decades ago. The restaurant was once very successful as a seafood restaurant when the area was first opened up about 15-20 years ago. For the first few decades of KMT rule this area was under military rule. When the area was turned over to city government control the GongWuJu (construction bureau?).Anyway the one that controls buildings) came here and took photos of buildings in the area. The old buildings were allowed to remain. Enlarging them or building on new construction sites etc was not. Old buildings could be repaired. In theory more than 50% at one time would mean people should make an official application with approval etc for it but in the real world this virtually never happened. In the real world a number of other buildings were constructed near by and have never been pulled down in recent times at least.
In the time we were open we went from having very little business in the first 6 months to VERY good business after about 1.5 years to two years of being open. We lost money for the first 6 months, but were starting to make it back very fast after about a year of being open. If we had kept at that rate we would have made our money back after less than 3 years. But then the big typhoon hit on 8/8 last year. We lost money again for about 8 months partly because we did not fire workers etc when the business suddenly collapsed for a while. We also made the mistake of opening a second food place which I really was not free enough to run between my main restaurant and my original import/export business.
Anyway lately things had started to look good again. We had begun to make money again and things were going fairly smoothly.
Then how your life can fall apart for no sane reason… On Thursday LianHeBao newspaper (unification newspaper?) ran an article reporting some woman from a group calling itself the “ChaiShan HuanBao Hui” (ChaiShan environmental protection group) claiming that in the ChaiShan a number of completely illegal, newly constructed buildings were being used as restaurants, destroying the environment and that they are built on unsafe land etc etc. The article showed a picture of my place without stating the name of it. It is true that a number of buildings built illegally in the area after 1996 exist, but that is nothing to do with me. The next day the GongWuJu (construction bureau) people came here to inspect us. This did not worry me so much. It had happened before. As is often the case in Taiwan for successful businesses we had been regularly reported to the tax bureau (one time this happened every day for a month!), WeiShengJu (hygene bureau), XiaoFangJu (fire safety bureau) etc etc. When the GongWuJu came about a year ago they showed me pics they had of our building from 1995. Very unfortunately I was not given a copy, but I did not think too much of it because although they had pics of 3 sides (one side faces the ocean and without a water proof camera, helicopter or boat I don’t see how you could get a clear pic of it…). Anyway they showed one pic of one area that they found fault with but it was considered relatively trivial and nothing happened.
Then on Friday they came again in the not here. But the original landlord upstairs was in her place and spoke with them. I found out that a number of places in the area had been reported. Some had good reason to worry a lot (ie they are 100% illegal with no government recognition) but ShanHaiZhuang, the seafood restaurant and I should have not needed to worry so much….
But this is Taiwan. People need a scapegoat. The so called HuanBaoHui (environmental group) had been saying how dangerous the area is etc and I am one foreign and two have the biggest place with the best business etc so I am clearly a big scalp. Never mind that the law should be on my side, but hey, who cares? This is Taiwan. Before we opened under my control I had not one but two separate engineers check the place and the company that gives us business insurance also checked it for safety. Then today the GongWuJu came again. With their leader for the area. He pretty much said they were under a lot of pressure because the so called environmental group is claiming to the media we were working with them which is why we had been allowed to exist for so long. Absolute lies.
But now it seems like they are clutching at straws like any little change (say a new nail) would count as illegal construction…
I don’t even really know why this environmental group as it in for us so much, and
they reported many people, but now we have become the big target for the media who are ignoring the other places around us who are definitely on far more shaky legal ground than us…
Today TVBS ran a story about us. Again I think not naming us. I have only read it on line and had several Taiwanese friends call me about it. It seems terrible. And some of what they said is clearly factually inaccurate. One half of me thinks hmmm can I sue them over that? It is clearly defamatory and clearly wrong. No other way to look at it. Maybe that is just too western thinking. They have money, they have power… they can say whatever they like. Who cares about the truth?!
I am really wondering if any foreigner has successfully sued media like this without huge resources? Or what can one do about it when the media are doing a negative story and acting like a pack of wolves?
Right now I face the real prostpec that my place and thus my main income, home etc will be literally ripped apart, basically because of some incredibly poorly resarched or even deliberately erroneous reporting. I even wonder if it is worth fighting at all because I feel like the onus of proof is on me to show everything is perfect to the last dot (which becomes pretty much impossible)
even when it should of course be the other way arround for them to act against us.
I can’t quite get out of this what I think should be a salient point. Did the Gongwuju at some point issue a permit to you based on the actual and documented conditions of the property?
Surely you had every t crossed and every i dotted? So you have GOT to have the documentation you need? Don’t you?
My GOD, man! You don’t? What were you thinking? I’m terribly sorry to hear about this because its a place I’ve always wanted to go to and we’ve wanted to play a gig or two, as well.
Man! Surely if you’ve been around the block you GOTTA know you have to keep to the absolute letter.
I hope you can work things out.
I’ve been so envious of your gig down there because its something I hanker after myself. But for me, the lack of clear-cut legality has always put me off. Sure, I have the money and skill to do it, but I’ve always been afraid that, what IF? Hope you at least get your start-up back out of it.
My heart goes out to you.
Naguoning, was that you that I saw tonight being interviewed on TVBS? I didn’t understand it, but got the general gist. Good luck to you, man. 
Learn the law realted to this situation .
It should be easy enough to prove that your place has been there over fifteen years by looking at, I dunno exactly… but if the prvious landlord lives upstairs he should have stuff, tax records, photographs. Anyway there is his testimony and the testimony of other people in the area.
The building code stuff should be easy to document too. There was this complaint, there was this repair, They came many tines to complain about what? Document it, their complaint and a photo of the object of the complaint.
Keep scrupulous video records of EVERYTHING that transpires involving the inspectors and the media, especially the media. What you want is to have created a clear and accurate desciption of this incident and post it HERE at forumosa, send it to small news organiations too, and chinese language blogs with the word “justuce” in the title. Make official complaints to whoever.
The press is making a story about you, make a parallel story about them. If you can get a chinese speaker to do the voice that would be better. Stay calm, organized, and just get the facts documented.
You want to give them the feeling that if they illigally push you out of your business you will have accurate records that proove that was what happen.
You’ll need a lawyer at some point, probbly sooner than later.
I think you have a chance here, unless it’s just abunch of disgrunteled business trying to push you out in whic case you’ll survive till thet think of somethng else to get rid of you
I really feel for you. Your story is awful. I’d bet someone with some connections somewhere lost business when things got better for you, or maybe had no business, but saw your success and now wants you out of the place so that he can take it over himself. He’s using the EPA people to do this. It’s all in the connections. If you fight it and win, you’re likely to be constantly “reported” and set up and harassed ceaselessly. Because the can. And they won’t like being bested by the big nose.
I saw you on TV last night. Good luck, mate!
I’d agree with the ‘can you run a story?’ article.
If the other guys who have everything sorted yet and have been there long enough etc. are getting harrassed too, maybe you guys can get together and name yourselves ‘The Chaishan Heritage Protection Association’ or something. Then you can go around and document the buildings, get some info from local historical societies, get your pictures back from the gongwuju and contact the press saying that sometimes HuanBao gets out of control and they’re trying to take down local businesses and destroy local heritage (along with the Taiwanese language, Aboriginal culture and Traditional Chinese characters).
Not a very serious reply, but I’m sure some of it can be food for thought! Something like this is probably affecting more than just you, and there’s safety in numbers. Just remember to keep saying how much you love Taiwan and get as much media spotlight as possible - then the pressure balance is more on your side.
Courses of action which spring to mind:
Call out the GongWuJu, pinpoint someone high up with a long career and high level of responsibility. Question their professionalism yourself and ask questions about the history of their inspections made to your property. If the photos they took in the past were part of a
Search for publicly available aerial photos as early back as you can. Generally most governments, engineers and many map makers conduct aerial surveys to outline borders, formations, land use, property etc. I have little doubt that the local government would have done this. Check with any geological or planning department. Many of these maps are part of public record in other countries.
A similar thing has happened to my wife recently (Taiwanese). I have a friend (foreigner) whose restaurant has been a subject of police harassment, as well. Although you have it particularly bad with the medias’ nonsense beam directed at you. May the force be with you.
I would get some of the local businesses around you involved, because if they can push you over, they will get to them too.
That would be good leverage to use their guanxi to your advantage.
Google Earth only goes back to 2002 for that part of Taiwan which is a bit of a shame as it doesn’t prove the point.
The op is off to talk to some people as of right now, fingers crossed he’ll get the help he needs.
[quote=“naguoning”]…in the ChaiShan a number of completely illegal, newly constructed buildings were being used as restaurants, destroying the environment and that they are built on unsafe land etc etc. The article showed a picture of my place without stating the name of it. It is true that a number of buildings built illegally in the area after 1996 exist, but that is nothing to do with me.
[/quote]
It looks for me as this comes down to what is considered ‘new’, and how exactly is the environment being destroyed by these houses. Maybe they consider buildings after 1990 to be ‘new’, which then would include your place.
Has it been possible to get in touch with this environmental organization to clarify what exactly their allegations are? It’s very ambiguous from what you wrote above.
This may sound odd, but play your cards right and you may be able to take advantage of the publicity.
Best of luck you. Hope to visit your restaurant next time I go to Kaohsiung.
Best of luck. There’s already been some sound advice here from others, so I’m not going to say anything except I hope you’re still there next time I’m in the area.
Best of luck.
Hey dude, you need to calm down and deal with this rationally, regardless of how scared and appalled you are right now.
A media report and some mild bureaucratic harassment is not the same as being sued or evicted. You need to get a lawyer you can trust and figure out the facts here, the relevant laws and how they can be applied. If your building was constructed before 1996 then there should be some proof of that, no? Stick to getting proof and monitoring what the government is doing at all times. If you have evidence, you can fight back in the media. For example, you could call a rival TV channel and hold your own press conference showing the relevant material.
I would be very careful about who you trust. Make sure anyone who wants to help you a) are really competent, know what they are doing and b) is really on your side, i.e. not playing both sides or secretly acting against you. There may well be some mysterious person or persons out to screw you here, either neighbors who need a fall guy or someone who wants to steal your business. Watch your back, and make sure people who “help” you really do that.
Good luck.
Without sounding too apathetic, isn’t this part and parcel of doing business in Taiwan. I mean, I can remember a fellow Forumosan and buxiban owner that was basically “bootfucked” out of a small town in Taiwan after his school had become too successful. That’s why as a foreigner, when running a business, you’ve just got to take that extra care to make sure everything is legal. There will always be some nativist NGO, some cornpone Peter Chen type of cop, some local competitor that will be willing to hit below the belt.
There is a good thread on this somewhere that I can’t be bothered to search for at the moment. Gives examples such as the foreign women that started Hess (who later got shafted big time) etc.
If you want to look into aerial photos, the Forestry Bureau does them for all of Taiwan. They have an office in Taipei where you can get them, but you can probably also order by mail or over the phone. I don’t know what coverage would be like in your area, but the area that I was looking at had photos every year at least as far back as 1998 (didn’t look any farther than that). Last I heard, a just a regular photo was 300 NT. website: http://www.afasi.gov.tw/. the English version has some info, I imagine the Chinese version has a lot more…
Let me begin once again by saying a HUGE thank you to everyone who is supporting us. That is really important to me when I am under huge pressure.
I have had two people contact me with offers of help who are Forumosans.
Right now I am running on 3 hours sleep so I may make even less sense than normal.
I spent the first part of this morning at the office of a local city council person. At least I learnt something. Apparently it is possible to get a temporary injunction in advance against a building being pulled down (we have yet to recieve a formal notice about it). I have sent someone to a lawyer to do that now. At this point I am a little unsure of the next step.
It is clear that we are being scape goated. Yes, as much as I could I did always try to dot the Is and cross the Ts. But it is Taiwan… And I am in an area with a lot of special complications. It is near impossible to do so 100% all the time. The documents regarding my building are now mysteriously missing at the GongWuJu. They have some pics but they are as clear as mud. Yet other places near me that with out doubt should be in a worse legal situation are untouched for now. Hmmm. It is pretty much a certainty that the neighbours are not out to do us over. Too many of them are on much more shaky ground than us about the legality of their buildings. They don’t want attention to be drawn to the area in this way as it could easily affect them. We also know that initially a number of places near by were “jianju” (reported, in the sense of a complaint to a government office) and not just us. But we are the biggest and probably make for the biggest story (well known, foreign run…). So the media is focusing on us. Let’s face it a 100 ping place with good business, a great view, twenty something workers, evil foreign management who are dangerous to innocent Taiwanese customers etc makes for a much bigger story than a 10 ping place run by an O-ba-san (old woman) with almost no customers and that hardly anyone knows of. Because so many of the other places near by are afraid of what could potentially happen to them getting others to work with us is tricky. They don’t want attention to be drawn to them. Many of them are not even paying tax on land use etc (a lot of land in the area is under a disputed ownership situation that goes back to when the KMT came her). We are one of the minority that do pay money to the government. If the media gets their big scalp for the month and moves on to another story of course that would not be such a bad result for many of the neigbours. It is of course ludicrously unfair that the attention be focused on the place that probably least deserves it but hey, TVBS… who said it has to be factual or sane?
I have heard a number of why people would be out to get us theories but none that I can confirm. My initial reaction would be someone jealous of our business personally but a number of things point to it being something different or bigger than that.
Several people have suggested getting pro-green media involved and trying to spin the media the other way. The government here is all green, and the media that are reporting against us are pro-blue. This would of course make it into an even bigger story than it is now. Interestingly the local city government legislator’s office people did not think we should do it this way. They suggested that using the injunction would buy time and things would blow over with the media until after the next city election and that we could use the time to try to get whatever things were needed to dot any undotted i etc. I can see the sense in this too. Don’t have attention focused on a problem in Taiwan and it will go away because the media have gone on to some story about which famous person is cheating on their spouse, which Hello Kitty doll is popular now etc etc. Then maybe sell out some time well before the next election…
To answer Tempo Gain’s question I think we don’t have a copy of original GongWuJu documentation of here (although I could be wrong). We do however have one that pre-dates it from when the area was under military control before it was turned over to the city government. Unfortunately it does not provide pictures of the building etc. That is critical. Because it does not prove that the building is not bigger etc. And even if it did it does not prove more than 50% differently repaired from before.
Now it has seemingly become some kind of onus for me to prove everything is in my favour, rather than for them to prove my guilt.
Housecat, actually the “huanbao hui” are not an official organization like an EPA. They are just some person or people call herself or themselves (we only know of one woman speaking for them so it could really be only one person). It would appear that they are not specifically against us alone since it was not us alone who was reported to the government. It is just the media focusing on us, and thus in turn now the GongWuJu is being pressured to follow. The GongWuJu people pretty much straight out said this to me and I think completely understand how ridiculous this is. But they are covering their own back sides now.
Unfortunately ariel photos would not help. Firstly they would not be considered detailed enough at this point. Secondly until during the 1990s the area was under military control. Because of this such photos are not freely available from that time.
The idea that we are some kind of huge environmental danger is absurd. Ummm have you seen any of the major chemical plants at NanZi or on the way between Kaohsiung and Kending??? I am sure a better target… but hey, those guys have power, money….
Right now I would SO love to sue TVBS. They did SO many things that were questionable in their story. Some of them are difficult to quantify in my favour (eg the building is on unstable land, ummmm yes, so are all the other buildings in Taiwan, it is an earthquake zone…). They showed pics of another place which appears to have fallen down but was actually knocked down several years ago and just left like that. The inference was obvious that this was about to happen here but it is actually a completely separate place and it did not just fall down… But they did specifically state two things (about the size of the cracks and rubbish disposal) that are just quantifiably wrong. As much as I am tempted to, I think I can not sue them now. I am worried about my own money situation since I stand to loose my main income and I think they could just keep pushing to a higher court with good lawyers until I run out of money and keep
Yes, Chewycorns you may be right. We were more careful than most but it is us who is being shafted. Big time. That said I am not 100% sure. It could also have happened to a successful Taiwanese business, and may be less about being foreign than all the other factors.
Maybe don’t post such stuff here… someone who is your enemy could read this and use this inside knowledge 
[quote=“naguoning”] TVBS… who said it has to be factual or sane?
Right now I would SO love to sue TVBS. They did SO many things that were questionable in their story. Some of them are difficult to quantify in my favour (eg the building is on unstable land, ummmm yes, so are all the other buildings in Taiwan, it is an earthquake zone…). They showed pics of another place which appears to have fallen down but was actually knocked down several years ago and just left like that. The inference was obvious that this was about to happen here but it is actually a completely separate place and it did not just fall down… But they did specifically state two things (about the size of the cracks and rubbish disposal) that are just quantifiably wrong. As much as I am tempted to, I think I can not sue them now. [/quote]
be careful in confronting TVBS directly, they are very well connected and rarely need to defend themselves in court, plus they would win against you anytime.
get another TV station involved in it, perhaps by building a story about TVBS corruption if you want… but it’s hard. Pretty much anyone in TV in Taiwan has worked for TVBS at some point. It is not for nothing that they are called TV BullShit.
I agree with your sentiment that the situation is dire: TVBS stories are true and the right thing to do immediately they hit the air. Whether or not they are true or well researched is completely beside the point.