President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) proposed setting up a hotline with Beijing yesterday to ensure food safety and public health in Taiwan.
Ma said China’s milk producers should be condemned for making tainted milk powder and that while they were drastic measures, he supported the Executive Yuan’s effort to request compensation from Chinese milk firms and to recall Chinese-made milk powder and vegetable proteins.
“In the long run, the government must have a sound understanding of China’s food safety and consumer protection mechanisms and set up a hotline to obtain information from China,” he told members of the Taiwan Medical Association at the Presidential Office.
Ma said the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration had allowed the import of milk products from China, but that as a responsible government the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration would take up the responsibility of protecting the health of the Taiwanese public.
“I would like to remind civil servants around the country that it is the responsibility of the government to address the public’s concerns,” he said. “We must deal with it, not walk away from it, because it is our duty to protect the public’s health.”
Describing the scandal as “something beyond our control,” Ma said the government must handle the matter calmly and practically.
Meanwhile, Straits Exchange Foundation Secretary-General Kao Kong-lian (高孔廉) said yesterday he had met members of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait to discuss the scandal and other issues.
Kao, who returned from Macau yesterday, said he conveyed Taiwan’s concern over the incident and the hope that China would offer assistance. He also hoped that experts from both sides could work together to tackle the problem.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
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