TSU Chairman Huang Chu-wen (
In the face of Beijing's relentless offensive to block Taiwan's presence in international organizations, Huang said the people of Taiwan should unite and push for the passage of a referendum bill that would allow people to vote on the designation of the country's flag and official name.
"Only the enactment of a referendum law empowering the people to vote on sovereignty issues such as the country's official designation and its flag can provide Taiwan with a weapon to fight against China's suppression," he said, adding that one of the TSU's goals is to promote a referendum law and forge a national consensus on Taiwan's sovereignty, which he said would "get rid of Beijing's hegemony."
"Beijing's repeated attempts to block Taiwan from the World Heath Assembly and the World Health Organization are aimed at stripping Taiwan of its sovereignty," he said, adding that "the Constitution stipulates clearly that the people have the power to decide the country's development course and policy."
"Excluding the national flag and title issues from a referendum law would be tantamount to giving up our sovereignty and catering to Beijing's conspiracy, " he said, adding that the TSU has been pushing for a quick passage of the bill to secure Taiwan's future.
In the latest of a string of moves against Taiwan in the international community, Foreign Affairs Minister Eugene Chien (簡又新) acknowledged on Monday that the WTO Secretariat, under pressure from Beijing, has asked Taiwan's delegation based at the WTO to change its official title from the "Permanent Mission of Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" to that of an economic and trade office -- on the same level as Hong Kong's delegation.
All major political parties in Taiwan have responded swiftly to the development, issuing statements to condemn Beijing's demands.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,