Former president Lee Teng-hui (
"The exportation of Taiwan's agricultural technology has dealt a significant blow to the local agricultural sector," Lee said.
"As we still have the advantage of systematically managing agriculture, there are still bright prospects for the nation's agricultural industry if the government could `mend the pen after the sheep have been stolen,'" he said.
Lee made the remarks in a written address delivered at the agricultural summit organized by Taiwan Advocates.
Lee, who serves as chairman of the organization, did not attend the event but had his speech read out.
Lee said that agricultural exchanges across the Taiwan Strait cover three main areas: agricultural produce, agricultural technology and agricultural personnel.
Agricultural trade may have a short-term positive impact on the local market, but may make it overly dependent on China in the long run, he said.
The lack of transparency and stability in the Chinese market, Lee said, endangers the production and marketing of local produce.
The imbalanced exportation of agricultural technology and personnel to China has also caused the nation's agricultural sector to lose its competitive edge, he said.
"The government must strengthen mechanisms to protect the agricultural property rights of local producers and draft measures to prevent high-end agricultural technology from getting into Chinese hands," he said.
Meanwhile, Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) yesterday lambasted former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰), who is in China for an agricultural summit, for praising China while criticizing the Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) administration.
"We find it unacceptable," Liu said. "Before he lauded Beijing, he should have taken a look at its notorious human rights record."
Liu urged Lien to use his wisdom to press Beijing to safeguard human rights. He added that Lien should realize that it was political gridlock that drove the Taiwanese government into an idle spin, instead of lashing out at the administration.
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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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching