The Taipei District Prosecutors' Office yesterday announced the establishment of a special task force led by a chief prosecutor to investigate whether imported surgical masks were impounded.
The announcement came in response to orders handed down on Monday by State Public Prosecutor-General Lu Jen-fa (
"We will figure out whether somebody is impounding masks on purpose. In the meantime, we also welcome any phone calls, faxes or e-mail messages which may lead to a mask-impoundment case," said Chen Hung-ta (陳宏達), the spokesman for the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office.
"You can call 0800-024099 or 02-2311-1816, fax 02-2375-6892 or e-mail formosa@mail.moj.gov.tw if you discover anybody who is trying to impound masks for profiteering," Chen said.
Chen said that the district's Prosecutor-General Morley Shih (
Chen said that impounding masks and profiteering by selling them at an inflated price will be regarded as a violation of the Article 251 of the Criminal Code.
Article 251 of the code states that "a person who by threats, violence or fraud commits one of the following offenses shall be punished with imprisonment for not more than five years:
One, obstructs the sale or transportation of grain or other foodstuffs needed by the public, thereby causing a deficiency in the market;
Two, obstructs the sale or transportation of seed, fertilizer, raw material or other basics needed in agriculture or industry, thereby causing a deficiency in the market."
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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