■ Society
Music concert draws protests
Audience members at a music concert held on Sunday night in Taipei City criticized organizers for being used by China to promote Beijing's agenda, after the concert programs were printed in simplified Chinese and the title "Republic of China" was crossed out on the programs. The concert, jointly organized by the Performing Artists Union of Taipei and a Fujian Province TV station, was attended by performers from both Taiwan and China. In response, the host of the concert, ETTV public relations manager Lee Chuan-wei (李傳偉), said that the concert was merely a cultural exchange among performers, and that fans should not be too concerned about political implications.
■ Government
Wedding incident probed
The Presidential Office yesterday promised to launch an investigation into allegations that two former youth corps officials abused their privileges in using a public facility. The Presidential Office's Public Affairs Department yesterday issued a statement admitting to an incident in which a bureau section chief allowed two former youth corps members to have their wedding pictures taken at the Taipei Guest House last Dec. 16. The facility is reserved exclusively for the president, vice president, Presidential Office secretary-general, premier and foreign minister to entertain guests, or hold meetings and activities.
■ Politics
KMT rejects dissident
Chinese dissident Chen Rongli's (陳榮利) bid to join the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was rejected yesterday. Chen, a pro-democracy activist jailed in China for attempting to found a political party, came to Taiwan seeking asylum in January 2004. He visited KMT headquarters yesterday to submit his application. "The KMT is a party of the `Three Principles of the People,' and I am a believer in the principles," Chen said. His application was rejected because he did not have Republic of China citizenship, a requirement for party membership. "According to the Constitution, both Taiwan and China are part of the Republic of China ... I am completely qualified to become a KMT member," Chen said.
■ Diplomacy
MOFA announces postings
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced that Katharine Chang (張小月), the country's top representative to the Netherlands, will become vice foreign minister, while Leo Lee (李澄然) will become head of the ministry's North American Affairs Department. Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳) announced the personnel changes at a press briefing yesterday. In 1997, she became the first female ambassador when she took up the post as ambassador to St. Kitts and Nevis and the Commonwealth of Dominica.
■ Health
New fines for fish firms
The Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday that it will impose steep fines on fish processors who cheat consumers. DOH officials made the remarks after Kaohsiung health officials found that six out of 19 sashimi samples collected from restaurants and supermarkets in a random check showed the addition of monoxide to make them pinker. Hsiao Tung-ming (蕭東明), acting director of the Department of Food Safety, said that the additive combines with hemoglobin in the blood of the fish to give the meat a reddish-pink luster even if it is old or rotten.
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,