The Consumers’ Foundation yesterday celebrated its 30th anniversary with foundation chairman Hsieh Tien-jen (謝天仁) handing the reins over to Joann Su (蘇錦霞), who will take over as the new chairperson of the watchdog group.
The consumer rights watchdog said that over the past three decades the foundation had dedicated itself to improving the rights of consumers throughout the nation and served as the voice of the people on issues such as direct-flight ticket prices, telecommunication rates, US beef imports and many other important consumer issues.
Su, who was previously the foundation’s vice chair, said she was so anxious about her increased responsibilities at the foundation that she did not sleep well. However, she vowed that during her time in office the watchdog would continue to do what it had set out to do.
“The foundation will continue to look after consumers’ rights in matters especially regarding fees and rates, such as direct-flight ticket prices and telecommunications,” she said.
For his part, Hsieh said he was happy to have completed his term as chairman of the foundation.
“Since the launch of the Consumers’ Foundation on Nov. 1, 1980, the foundation has worked toward the establishment of the Consumer Protection Act (消費者保護法) and relentlessly voiced the needs of consumers,” Hsieh said.
The former chairman said that even though the foundation had faced dire financial circumstances, those developments only made the foundation more united and encouraged it to work harder to achieve its objectives and meet its mandate.
The foundation also announced yesterday the launch of its new online chat system, which will enable consumers to log on to the foundation’s Web site and receive legal and professional counseling on consumer disputes.
Su said that the foundation hopes the system would help close the gap between it and young consumers, who are active in online communications. The chat room is available from 2pm to 4pm every day.
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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