People First Party (PFP) caucus whip Thomas Lee (李桐豪) yesterday urged the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government to stop what it says is a propaganda campaign surrounding its policy to allow conditional imports of US beef containing residues of the feed additive ractopamine.
The Government Information Office (GIO) on Monday produced 250,000 leaflets and fliers to explain what ractopamine is, why the government plans to ease the import ban and the benefits the policy would bring the country.
Local governments and KMT lawmakers are responsible for handing out 10,000 copies, 100,000 copies were distributed with newspapers yesterday, while the rest will be distributed in magazines.
Photo: AFP
“Is the government a sales representative for a ractopamine producer? It should not use public funds to advertise the safety of a drug when its use is still banned in Taiwan,” Lee said, adding that his party was “extremely angry” that the government had mobilized public resources to “brainwash people.”
He asked the government to present a detailed account of how much the campaign has cost the legislature.
“We urge President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to exert restraint, to avoid further irregularities and abuse of power. Now that he has shown himself incapable of ensuring the health of the public by withstanding pressure to lift the ban, he has to abide by a resolution approved by the legislature,” Lee said.
Lawmakers have approved a resolution asking the government not to lift the ban without the legislature’s consent before June, as legislators prioritize a revision to the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) on the use of ractopamine in animal feed, a resolution that Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) agreed to.
Lee said his party would resort to all possible measures to boycott the government and asked the Control Yuan to hold to account the government officials responsible for the propaganda if the administration continues with the policy.
In response to the criticism, GIO Minister Philip Yang (楊永明) said the office has a responsibility to explain the government’s policies to the public.
Through the leaflets and fliers, the GIO is providing the public with information so that people can understand the importance of the issue from various points of view, Yang said.
Chen, meanwhile, reiterated yesterday that the government has no timetable for the lifting of the ban on the import of US beef containing ractopamine.
The remark came a day after Ma called a high-level meeting on the issue in which he reportedly said the US beef issue needs to be resolved as soon as possible to facilitate the resumption of Taiwan-US trade talks.
Ma has definitely not set a timetable for lifting the ban, the premier said.
Now that the government has decided on a policy direction that conditionally allows imports of beef containing ractopamine residues, communication with the public will continue to promote understanding of the policy, he added.
Chen was referring to an announcement made by the Executive Yuan on March 5 that it is leaning toward lifting the ractopamine ban based on the principles of “allowing a safe level of ractopamine in beef, separating the permits for importing beef and pork, clearly labeling beef imports and excluding imports of internal organs.”
Additional reporting by CNA
TAIWAN IS TAIWAN: US Representative Tom Tiffany said the amendment was not controversial, as ‘Taiwan is not — nor has it ever been — part of Communist China’ The US House of Representatives on Friday passed an amendment banning the US Department of Defense from creating, buying or displaying any map that shows Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The “Honest Maps” amendment was approved in a voice vote on Friday as part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for the 2026 fiscal year. The amendment prohibits using any funds from the act to create, buy or display maps that show Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Wuciou (烏坵), Green Island (綠島) or Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as part of the PRC. The act includes US$831.5 billion in
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
Taiwan is hosting the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) for the first time, welcoming more than 400 young linguists from 43 nations to National Taiwan University (NTU). Deputy Minister of Education Chu Chun-chang (朱俊彰) said at the opening ceremony yesterday that language passes down knowledge and culture, and influences the way humankind thinks and understands the world. Taiwan is a multicultural and multilingual nation, with Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, Hakka, 16 indigenous languages and Taiwan Sign Language all used, Chu said. In addition, Taiwan promotes multilingual education, emphasizes the cultural significance of languages and supports the international mother language movement, he said. Taiwan has long participated
Taiwan must invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to keep abreast of the next technological leap toward automation, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said at the luanch ceremony of Taiwan AI and Robots Alliance yesterday. The world is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution centered on AI and robotics, which would likely lead to a thorough transformation of human society, she told an event marking the establishment of a national AI and robotics alliance in Taipei. The arrival of the next industrial revolution could be a matter of years, she said. The pace of automation in the global economy can