Despite the government’s repeated promises to keep food safe, the nation has again been shocked — this time by the discovery that as many as 116 tofu products, produced by more than 20 food manufacturers, contain toxic industrial-grade dye. The discovery shows that the government’s prior moves on food safety were little more than sops to appease public anger, and that officials do not care about food issues.
There is an old saying that says: “Eating is the heaven for the people.” It seems that in Taiwan, “heaven” is not such a perfect place.
In this year alone, there have been at least 12 food safety scandals, which include false labeling, chemical residue, the illegal addition of chemical substances, revision of expiration dates and the marketing of imported or lower quality foods as locally produced or higher quality foods.
In September, it was discovered that a cooking oil producer in Pingtung County manufactured its products with recycled oil. Before the public was able to recover from that shock, Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團) was exposed for having purchased animal feed-grade oil from Vietnam and selling it as cooking oil.
Every time there is a food scandal, the government has promised to impose stricter inspections, amend relevant laws to impose harsher penalties on violators and vowed to put an end to the scandals.
Less than a month since the government’s latest vow, a new food scandal has erupted, and this time it was Hong Kong’s government that discovered that there might be banned substances in dried tofu snacks imported from Taiwan.
Taiwanese authorities have said they did not know that the chemical dye would be used in food production and “promised” to pay more attention to the issue. However, if Hong Kong’s government could discover the problem, why could ours not do the same?
Another sign of the government’s carelessness about food safety is the recent decision to halt the supply of water for farm use due to a drought, which will affect as much as 5,800 hectares of rice paddies in Miaoli County and Greater Taichung in the spring planting season.
In an effort to promote industrial development in recent decades, a great deal of arable land and water for irrigation has been given over to industrial use, bringing down Taiwan’s food self-sufficiency to about 30 percent.
The government has made repeated vows to improve food self-sufficiency, yet it has never done anything concrete about it. Whenever there are conflicts between the agricultural and industrial sectors over land or other resources, it has always been agriculture that has lost out.
The food safety and self-sufficiency issues may seem unrelated. However, they are actually closely connected, as, from a broader point of view, they both show that the government has scant regard for “the heaven of the people.” Moreover, they show that the government, despite whatever it has promised, regards the industrial sector and large corporations as more important than the lives of ordinary people.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lost badly in last month’s nine-in-one elections. Though the reason behind the election results may be complicated, one of the key factors was the food safety issue.
The government — whether it is run by the KMT, the Democratic Progressive Party or any other political party — should always deal with “the heaven of the people” properly.
China’s supreme objective in a war across the Taiwan Strait is to incorporate Taiwan as a province of the People’s Republic. It follows, therefore, that international recognition of Taiwan’s de jure independence is a consummation that China’s leaders devoutly wish to avoid. By the same token, an American strategy to deny China that objective would complicate Beijing’s calculus and deter large-scale hostilities. For decades, China has cautioned “independence means war.” The opposite is also true: “war means independence.” A comprehensive strategy of denial would guarantee an outcome of de jure independence for Taiwan in the event of Chinese invasion or
A recent Taipei Times editorial (“A targeted bilingual policy,” March 12, page 8) questioned how the Ministry of Education can justify spending NT$151 million (US$4.74 million) when the spotlighted achievements are English speech competitions and campus tours. It is a fair question, but it focuses on the wrong issue. The problem is not last year’s outcomes failing to meet the bilingual education vision; the issue is that the ministry has abandoned the program that originally justified such a large expenditure. In the early years of Bilingual 2030, the ministry’s K-12 Administration promoted the Bilingual Instruction in Select Domains Program (部分領域課程雙語教學實施計畫).
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) earlier this month said it is necessary for her to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and it would be a “huge boost” to the party’s local election results in November, but many KMT members have expressed different opinions, indicating a struggle between different groups in the party. Since Cheng was elected as party chairwoman in October last year, she has repeatedly expressed support for increased exchanges with China, saying that it would bring peace and prosperity to Taiwan, and that a meeting with Xi in Beijing takes priority over meeting
Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman for maritime affairs Rogelio Villanueva on Monday said that Manila’s claims in the South China Sea are backed by international law. Villanueva was responding to a social media post by the Chinese embassy alleging that a former Philippine ambassador in 1990 had written a letter to a German radio operator stating that the Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) did not fall within Manila’s territory. “Sovereignty is not merely claimed, it is exercised,” Villanueva said. The Philippines won a landmark case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 that found China’s sweeping claim of sovereignty in
RSS