Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers yesterday demanded that the executive branch “do its bit” to resolve the dispute over a ban on imports of US beef containing ractopamine residues — the latest in a string of moves over the issue faced by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
Ma on Friday night instructed the party to push for a provisional legislative session to pass an amendment to the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) which would relax the ban. This came after the legislative session ended without a vote on the bill because of an opposition boycott.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led opposition staged a 120-hour boycott over the past week that blocked all proceedings and prevented the vote from being called.
However, KMT lawmakers yesterday repeated their belief — already expressed at a caucus meeting on Thursday — that the Executive Yuan should ease the import ban through an executive order.
“We already set the scene for the Executive Yuan to get the issue resolved by an executive order” at Thursday’s caucus meeting, KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) said. “Why is the Executive Yuan throwing the ball back into our court?”
Chen said the legislature “had already paid a hefty price” over the US beef issue, as the political confrontation had provoked criticism over chaos in the legislative body and legislative inefficiency.
“Even if we have a provisional session, the problems involved in passing an amendment will be unchanged. The executive branch has to do its bit. Unless President Ma orders lawmakers to push through a vote on the issue, I would prefer not to provoke a clash with the opposition,” he said.
KMT Legislator Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) doubted the possibility of resolving the issue at a provisional session and urged the Ma government to address what Lu called the root cause of the problem: public concern about the safety of ractopamine residues in beef.
KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) said “an aura of passivity and inactivity” has pervaded the caucus as a result of “misguided [government] policies.”
Tsai agreed with the DPP’s description of Ma as a “lame duck” president, saying that lame-duck signs “have been surfacing.”
KMT caucus whip Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), who had repeatedly claimed he would take a hardline stance to end the boycott and secure a vote, said he wished the issue could be resolved at a provisional session through negotiation.
“If not, the Executive Yuan should try to resolve it using its executive power,” he said.
Despite complaints, KMT Central Policy Committee Chief Executive and head of the KMT caucus Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) has already prepared a proposal demanding a provisional legislative session this week that would be devoted solely to a vote on the controversial amendment.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said yesterday that he would call for negotiations between political parties to decide on a date for the session.
The DPP has said that Ma is rushing to secure a resolution of the beef issue because of the upcoming meeting of the UN Codex Alimentarius Commission on July 2. If that meeting fails once again to establish safe maximum residue levels for ractopamine, Ma would find it even more difficult to justify his plan to ease the import ban.
Wang downplayed such speculation, saying that the issue had already dragged on for far too long.
“It should have been dealt with in this [just-concluded] session. Of course we now hope to have an extra session to get the issue finalized as soon as possible,” he said.
Separately yesterday, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said his caucus opposed a provisional session to vote on the beef bill, adding that the DPP would fight to block the amendment if a vote on the bill is tabled to take place.
Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉) also reiterated her caucus’ stance “to block the beef bill in a bid to protest the threat to public health.”
Additional reporting by Rich Chang
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS