Farmers have expressed optimism about China’s recent decision to allow imports of Taiwanese rice, although some said local farmers should keep their rice-cultivation technology to themselves.
The comments came in response to China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Wang Yi (王毅), who announced on Sunday that China will allow imports of Taiwanese rice.
Chien Ming-chin (簡明欽), head of a farmers’ association in Yunlin County, said he welcomed the decision, but urged agricultural authorities to get involved to ensure good prices for the rice and regular orders instead of just one purchase.
Chinese officials visited the association about two weeks ago to discuss matters related to exports of Taiwanese rice to China, he said.
Tsai Ping-kun (蔡炳坤), a farmers’ association chief in Chiayi County, said rice exports to China should be a long-term commitment and that markets for Taiwanese rice should be clearly delineated from those for Chinese rice.
However, rice farmers in the Eastern Rift Valley in Taitung County said farmers should not transfer the technology they use to grow quality rice to China and should keep distribution costs down when exporting rice to China.
Tu Chin-jung (涂進榮), who leads a production and marketing team associated with a farmers’ association in Taitung’s Luye Township (鹿野), said Taiwanese should avoid technology transfers because Taiwan’s rice market would suffer if Chinese obtained the technology.
Chiu Chui-chang (邱垂昌), a former winner of a local rice quality competition, urged large Chinese businesses to purchase rice directly from Taiwanese farmers to help reduce shipping costs.
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater