Condoms can no longer be sold at any health centers run by the Tainan City Government’s Department of Health, the agency said, citing the low fertility rates for the policy change.
According to the department, the nation began providing contraceptives to families as early as 1995 as part of a population control campaign whose slogan was: “Two children is just right, but one would do just fine.”
Back then, the government was worried about families having too many children, but it is now worried about them having none, the department said.
Due to the decline of the birth rate and the increased number of channels to obtain contraceptives, the city government announced that it would cease selling condoms commissioned by the Planned Parenthood Association of Taiwan.
The association had been providing condoms for the centers to sell as part of the program, the department said, adding that the number of places to acquire the contraceptives was limited before convenience stores and drug stores became widespread.
The policy change has officially ended the era of cheap condoms in the city, where a dozen only cost NT$25, the department said.
The department warned the public to inspect condom packaging to ensure it has not been tampered with, adding that people should avoid falling for “the higher the price, the greater the quality” myth.
The department also encouraged the public to consult a pharmacist if a problem arises due to inferior products causing health problems.
When asked whether ending the program would affect HIV/AIDS prevention, Department of Health Director Lin Sheng-che (林聖哲) said that was a different issue.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS