The head of China’s product quality agency, Li Changjiang (李長江), stepped down yesterday, as the number of confirmed cases of sickened children in a toxic milk scandal skyrocketed to 53,000.
The State Council accepted Li’s resignation, Xinhua news agency said.
The health ministry released new figures yesterday showing that 52,857 children had fallen sick after drinking milk powder contaminated with melamine. Four children have died from the milk powder and 12,892 children remain hospitalized with kidney problems, the ministry said.
Wu Xianguo (吳顯國), the top communist party official of Shijiazhuang — where tainted milk powder first surfaced from the Sanlu brand headquartered there — was removed from his post, Xinhua said in a separate article.
In Hong Kong, meanwhile, the government approved a law yesterday limiting melamine in food.
The regulation on melamine concentration, which takes effect today, was stricter than those imposed by the EU and the US, said York Chow (周一嶽), secretary for food and health.
But he said lawmakers had to allow room for a tiny amount of the chemical because of “migration” from plastic containers and environmental pollution.
Under the law, suppliers or food traders will be prosecuted if they import food products for infants or pregnant women with melamine concentration exceeding 1 milliliter per kilogram.
Chow also said Hong Kong would offer free checks for children who have consumed tainted dairy products at 25 clinics and assessment centers starting today.
Authorities had come under fire yesterday for opening only one hospital for the checks.
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
‘SALAMI-SLICING’: Beijing’s ‘gray zone’ tactics around the Pratas Islands have been slowly intensifying, with the PLA testing Taiwan’s responses and limits, an expert said The Ministry of National Defense yesterday condemned an intrusion by a Chinese drone into the airspace of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) as a serious disruption of regional peace. The ministry said it detected the Chinese surveillance and reconnaissance drone entering the southwestern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone early yesterday, and it approached the Pratas Islands at 5:41am. The ministry said it immediately notified the garrison stationed in the area to enhance aerial surveillance and alert levels, and the drone was detected in the islands’ territorial airspace at 5:44am, maintaining an altitude outside the effective range of air-defense weaponry. Following
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