■ LEGISLATURE
No resolution on Kuan
The legislature said a resolution by the Education and Culture Committee to discipline Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) required further cross-party negotiation after the DPP caucus blocked the resolution in the plenary session yesterday. The committee resolved on Oct. 23 to refer Kuan to the Disciplinary Committee after she allegedly slapped Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) in the face during a meeting the previous day. Media reports said Kuan took action because Hung had poked her assistant in the eye when Hung angrily pushed away a poster during the education committee’s preliminary review of the budget for the National Science Council. Kuan may be obliged to issue an oral or written apology or have her legislative rights suspended by between three and six months if the legislature approves the resolution.
■ POLITICS
DPP picks Lin for Taichung
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday that former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) would represent the party in next year’s Taichung mayoral election. Tsai said the party decided to recruit Lin after former DPP legislator Hsieh Ming-yuan (謝明源), who had earlier expressed his interest in running next year, backed out. Tsai lauded Lin’s rich experience as a public servant, adding that he has been staying in Taichung to prepare for the campaign. Tsai said the party believed Lin was the best candidate to run for the post.
■ POLITICS
KMT restores members
The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Evaluation and Discipline Committee earlier this month restored the party rights of four legislators who were suspended for barging into the office of former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) during the presidential campaign in March. The four KMT legislators, Alex Fai (費鴻泰), Chen Chieh (陳杰), Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) and Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾), were accused of trespassing and clashing with Hsieh’s supporters. The KMT decided to suspended their party rights for one year as punishment. However, committee head Juan Kang-meng (阮剛猛) confirmed yesterday that the rights of the four lawmakers were restored ahead of time. “The four legislators have performed well at work and have been well-behaved during this period,” Juan said. He said that some KMT central standing committee members proposed reviving the four’s party rights, and the committee agreed to do so after serious consideration.
■ ECONOMY
DPP blasts China policies
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) warned yesterday that the government’s quick action to lift restrictions on China-bound businesses could result in capital flight of NT$800 billion (US$24.1 billion). DPP caucus whip William Lai (賴清德) told a press conference that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had taken advantage of the recession to make Taiwan overdependent on China and increase capital outflow across the Strait. After the nation emerges from a recession, Taiwan would have lost its economic independence, Lai said. Saying that the government’s 10 financial deregulatory policies have led to capital flight of NT$150 billion, the caucus estimated that if Taiwan’s 1,200-plus listed firms were to expand their investments in China following the easing of restrictions, it would result in another NT$650 billion flowing to China.
■ HEALTH
Control Yuan slams DOH
The Control Yuan yesterday reprimanded the Department of Health (DOH) over its handling of issues associated with melamine-contaminated products from China. Milk powder imported from China was in September found to contain the toxic chemical melamine, which has since also been found in other Chinese products. The Control Yuan said the DOH had failed to implement a food safety mechanism capable of detecting contaminated food products, had been inconsistent in setting up a standard for permissible levels of melamine, failed to clearly explain to the public why the safety limit for the chemical had been set at 2.5 parts per million and had been negligent in establishing a standard operational procedure to deal with major food safety incidents.
■ CRIME
Judge accused of gambling
The Control Yuan yesterday impeached Hsu Hung-chi (徐宏志), a judge in the Tainan branch of the Taiwan High Court, for his alleged involvement in gambling. The Control Yuan said Hsu played mahjong 100 days per year and had played with former Tainan County Council deputy speaker Chou Wu-liu (周五六) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in May and June, 2001, when Chou was being reviewed by the court on corruption charges. The Control Yuan said this violated the Civil Servants Work Act (公務人員服務法) and the guidelines for courts.
■ SOCIETY
Film festival in Kaohsiung
This year’s Women Make Waves Film Festival moved to Kaohsiung yesterday for a six-day run during which 10 films by Taiwanese and foreign female directors will be screened. The films will be shown at the Kaohsiung Film Archive, and will be followed by panel discussions.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
Labor rights groups yesterday called on the Ministry of Labor to protect migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing industry, days after CNN reported alleged far-ranging abuses in the sector, including deaths and forced work. The ministry must enforce domestic labor protection laws on Taiwan-owned deep-sea fishing vessels, the Coalition for Human Rights for Migrant Fishers told a news conference outside the ministry in Taipei after presenting a petition to officials. CNN on Sunday reported that Taiwanese seafood giant FCF Co, the owners of the US-based Bumble Bee Foods, committed human rights abuses against migrant fishers, citing Indonesian migrant fishers. The alleged abuses included denying
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