A group of activists demonstrated at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday to protest what they called Washington’s high-handed attitude in forcing Taiwan to open its doors to US beef containing residues of the leanness-enhancing drug ractopamine.
The protest was organized by several civic groups, including the National Alliance for Food Safety and Citizen Congress Watch.
The Legislative Yuan is scheduled to vote next week on a package of amendments to the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) that would pave the way for the entry under strict conditions of US beef containing residues of the currently banned drug.
Photo: Chen Ping-hung, Taipei Times
The activists sang ballads, performed skits and chanted slogans to highlight their cause.
In one skit, activists acted as US President Barack Obama and AIT Director William Stanton, forcing Taiwanese people to eat US beef contaminated with ractopamine, a drug that is banned in Taiwan and dozens of other countries because of health concerns.
Chen Man-li (陳曼麗), president of the Homemakers United Foundation, a key member of a national alliance for food safety, described the US as one of Taiwan’s allies in the international community.
“Therefore, it should not be coercing Taiwan to import its ractopamine-contaminated beef, putting our people’s health at risk,” Chen said.
Even though Taiwan is an “underdog” in global society, it should not be forced to seek international cooperation at the expense of its people’s health, Chen added.
Cheng Hsiu-chuan (鄭秀娟), head of the Wenshan Community College in Taipei, said the US traditionally regards Taiwan as a friend.
“It should not stray from that tradition by forcing Taiwan to import its drug-tainted beef. We should fight against such a move to win respect. Otherwise, we could be forced to compromise on more things or accept even more humiliating terms in the future,” Cheng said.
Police officers were mobilized to keep the protesters away from the AIT’s main entrance.
The AIT did not send any officials to meet the demonstrators.
The protest lasted for about 15 minutes and ended peacefully.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods