Government officials have filed a complaint with a Malaysian weekly tabloid that published an unsubstantiated story that an unnamed local restaurant had served human fetuses and the bodies of babies to its customers.
The publication has promised to publish a correction in its next issue.
People First Party's Chin Hui-chu (
"A Brunei customs official curiously inquired of my friend whether people in Taiwan really eat human fetuses and babies' bodies as reported in the article. The official told him that rumors had been circulating because of the publ-ication," said Chin, who invited officials from other government departments to the press conference.
All the officials dismissed the report. The Government Information Office (GIO, 新聞局) said that its representative in Malaysia had spoken to the reporter and established that the article was based on an allegation contained in an e-mail.
Perdana, the tabloid which published the article in Malay and has a circulation of roughly 10,000, is a "sensationalist newspaper," according to the GIO. In the article, the reporter accused a Taiwanese restaurant of obtaining human fetuses from illegal abortions and the bodies of babies which had died, at a price of about NT$600 each.
The article accused the restaurant of deep-frying and roasting the fetuses and babies for "specials."
Along with the report, two pictures purporting to show the alleged "cuisine" were printed, in which the alleged baby's fingers and face could be seen.
Yuan Kai-sheng (袁凱聲), a GIO official, said that he understood that the allegation had been circulating as an e-mail long before Perdana published it. "The original message pointed the finger at restaurants in rural areas of China before the alleged culprit became a Taiwanese restaurant," Yuan said.
Yuan said the GIO had filed a complaint with Perdana and requested that a correction be published. He said the tabloid had apologized to the GIO for publishing an unsubstantiated story and had agreed to publish a correction in its next issue.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau (警政署) said that investigations had not uncovered any cases of the sort described in the article, but that the bureau would keep an eye out to make sure that babies were really not being served in local restaurants.
The bureau said that eating and serving such a dish is against the law. According to the Criminal Code, people who defile human corpses may be jailed for between six months and five years.
But there are only minor penalties for the unlawful treatment of fetuses under environmental regulations governing the management of "medical waste."
Chan Te-wang (詹德旺), senior administrative officer at the Bureau of Medical Affairs of the Department of Health, said yesterday that a two-day investigation into the matter had confirmed the allegation that hospitals had been selling fetuses and bodies to be untrue.
The pictures in question may be found at the following Web site:http://vatican.rotten.com/infantiphagia/
Warning: Though believed to be fabricated, the pictures nonetheless are graphic.
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS