Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday reiterated that travelers from Hong Kong and Macau, as well as Taiwanese returning home from the two areas, are to have their carry-on and check-in luggage fully checked at customs.
Su made the remarks on Facebook after a case of African swine fever was reported at a Hong Kong slaughterhouse on Friday.
Su said the government has since Jan. 16 been inspecting carry-on luggage of passengers arriving from China, Hong Kong and Macau, and has since purchased X-ray scanners, which are deployed at customs and ports nationwide.
Screen grab from Premier Su Tseng-chang’s Facebook page
He called on people to be on the lookout so that minced pork rice, a quintessential Taiwanese street food, would be protected.
Separately yesterday, Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Huang Chin-cheng (黃金城) said that the case in Hong Kong could have been expected, given that the region imports most of its pork from China, and is near China’s Guangdong and Fujian provinces, which reported infection cases last year.
Quarantine measures are adequate and the council has no plans to implement additional measures, Huang said.
In related news, as the annual meeting of the World Organisation for Animal Health is to take place in Paris at the end of this month, the council’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said it has received an invitation and would send representatives to the meeting.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique