The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday dismissed concern that a ban on imports of US pork containing the feed additive ractopamine was a major trade irritant that could affect the US’ position on Taiwan’s membership in the nascent Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
“Pork is not a priority issue to be discussed between Taiwan and the US,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrew Kao (高振群) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) told Kao that the government’s perception that the US has a favorable opinion of Taiwan’s attempts to join the TPP could just be wishful thinking.
Chiang asked Kao if he had heard of the saying “no pork, no talk” that is said to be circulating in Washington — meaning that the US would not start negotiations with Taiwan over its TPP bid unless Taipei agrees to lift the ractopamine ban.
Rumors of “no pork, no talk” did not come from Washington officials, Kao said, but added that the ministry was well aware of the US government’s position that Taiwan should allow imports of US pork containing ractopamine residues.
Kao said the ministry had expressed its wish to the US side that the pork issue should not top the list of trade issues between the two countries.
“There are other issues to talk about. We know how to respond to the US whenever the issue is brought up,” Kao said.
Earlier in the day, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) told the committee that the nation’s relations with its 22 diplomatic allies remain stable.
Lin was responding to Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Huang-liang’s (蔡煌瑯) statement that six of the 22 countries — Vatican City, Sao Tome and Principe, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador — are on the verge of cutting ties with Taiwan.
Instead of sticking with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) “diplomatic truce” strategy, which hinges on China’s willingness to “give alms” to Taiwan by not luring away the nation’s diplomatic allies, the ministry should take steps to persuade the international community to recognize both Taiwan and China simultaneously, Tsai said.
“I would like to see the Holy See establish diplomatic ties with China as well, but on the condition that it does not sever relations with Taiwan,” Tsai said.
Lin said he disagreed with Tsai’s statement that the nation’s diplomatic relationships with the 22 countries were dependent on Beijing’s “almsgiving” to Taiwan.
“I cannot accept such a characterization. The ministry has been working hard to maintain the status of Taiwan and its dignity,” Lin said.
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
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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