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Ma wants Beijing hotline for information

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.
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