■ FOOD
Labeling rules tightened
Starting July 1, vegetable food manufacturers will be fined between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000 if they do not accurately label their products to help vegetarians avoid meat or animal byproducts, the Department of Health said yesterday. Food Safety Department official Feng Jun-lan (馮潤蘭) said five categories would be established. There are 2 million vegetarians in Taiwan and the department often receives complaints about unclear food labels or vegetarian foods containing meat products, Feng said. Manufacturers would also face a fine of between NT$40,000 and NT$200,000 if their vegetarian products are found to contain meat or related products.
■ EDUCATION
Lunch program to grow
Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said all elementary and junior high school students could receive free lunches, starting in the next school year. He said a NT$17.2 billion (US$498 million) budget would be earmarked to finance the nationwide program, which would begin in September at the earliest. The Executive Yuan has already budgeted NT$1.2 billion this year to help low and middle-income families hurt by sudden disasters, Liu said, and part of that money subsidizes school lunches for their children. At a legislative question-and-answer session, he told Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆) that he would meet with local government heads to study the possibility of providing free lunches to all elementary and junior high school students, regardless of income. Some local authorities, including those in Taitung, Changhua, Miaoli and Hsinchu counties, have already started implementing such a program, Tsai said.
■ LABOR
Farming proves popular
A Kaohsiung County plan aimed at getting jobless workers into farming proved more popular than anticipated, with 300 people applying for 90 spots, Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) said yesterday. The program will be run on a 20-hectare plot leased from state-run Taiwan Sugar Co by the county’s Agricultural Affairs Bureau, Yang said. Given the huge number of applicants, priority will be given to those made redundant, Yang said. Participants will have their land rental fees paid for by the government for two years and receive a start-up bonus of NT$2,000. If the program proves successful, the county will consider expanding it by leasing another 25 hectares, Yang said.
■ CULTURE
Museum plans symposium
The National Palace Museum (NPM) will hold a cross-strait academic symposium in October to coincide with a planned exhibition on the Qing Dynasty’s Emperor Yongzheng, museum Director Chou Kung-shin (周功鑫) said. Chou said on Monday that he had proposed the seminar after reaching several agreements with Zheng Xinmiao (鄭欣淼), director of Beijing’s National Palace Museum, in recent weeks. Most of the exhibits will be from the NPM’s collection, while others will be loaned by Beijing, Chou said. The symposium will focus on topics related to Yongzheng, Chou said, adding that Zheng would be invited to attend, along with the curators of the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musee d’Orsay, the Louvre and the Versailles museum.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS