Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday announced plans to initiate a recall campaign against Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers who support lifting a ban on imports of food products from five Japanese prefectures affected by the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster, with those in New Taipei City being their first targets.
“The KMT, as the largest opposition party, naturally is deeply concerned about this issue that could profoundly affect public health. It is obligated to supervise President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration,” Hung said during a meeting of the party’s Central Standing Committee, which was moved to New Taipei City yesterday.
Panning the DPP government’s holding of 10 public hearings within three days last month as an attempt to “sneak [its policies] through by deception,” Hung said the KMT’s mobilization of local officials and supporters during the hearings was justified, as they were intended to inform the public of the controversy.
Hung said she is grateful to the party members who initiated the anti-import referendum last week, adding that while KMT Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and the KMT caucus have launched separate nationwide referendum drives, that does not suggest disorganization or a lack of leadership, but rather a concerted effort by party members to launch a converging attack on Tsai’s administration.
Hung made the remarks just hours after Hau announced the establishment of a food safety alliance in Taipei yesterday morning.
There have been rumors that the government plans to lift the import ban, which was imposed on all food imports from five Japanese prefectures — Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba — after the nuclear disaster in March 2011.
During the meeting, KMT Central Policy Committee director Alex Tsai (蔡正元) said the KMT has the duty to help the public wield the sword of recall and sweep pan-green lawmakers from government.
As the result of DPP-initiated amendments to the Civil Servants Election And Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) last month, the legal threshold for voter turnout in a valid recall election has been lowered from 50 percent of the total eligible voters to 25 percent, and therefore it is reasonable to expect that the DPP can be “reduced to a minority,” Alex Tsai said.
Alex Tsai said information gathered by the KMT showed that DPP lawmakers representing New Taipei City are the most vulnerable to a recall, calling for city residents to work with the KMT to get rid of them.
SPEEDING ELETRIC VEHICLES: Available without license requirements, the low-cost vehicles, especially if illicitly modified, can often reach a dangerous speed The government should crack down on illegal electric bicycles and scooters, the non-profit Consumers’ Foundation said on Friday, citing research on the potentially dangerous speed of the vehicles. Electric bicycles and lightweight electric scooters have gained popularity as they do not require registration and riders do not need licenses, the foundation said, adding that as many as 40 percent of them can reach speeds exceeding the legal limit of 25kph for non-licensed two-wheelers. Some consumers also purchased legal electric vehicles and modified them to reach higher speeds, it said. “If the government does not step up efforts to confiscate these
‘RELIABLE PARTNER’: US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar praised the ‘Taiwan model,’ saying that the nation brought its spirit to its COVID-19 response The first memorandum of understanding (MOU) on health cooperation between the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the US Department of Health and Human Services was yesterday signed at the Centers for Disease Control in Taipei. The memorandum was signed between the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US, by AIT Director Brent Christensen and Taiwan Council for US Affairs Chairperson Jen-ni Yang (楊珍妮). US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) witnessed the signing of the memorandum, designed to enhance the nations’
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday tweeted a welcome to Somaliland’s first representative to Taiwan, Mohamed Omar Hagi Mohamoud, who arrived on Friday. Mohamoud had “braved Chinese pressure” to take up his new post, Wu wrote. “The fact ‘sovereignty & friendship aren’t for sale’ deserves international recognition,” referring to a Somaliland media report earlier this month that Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi had rejected an offer by the Chinese government in exchange for ending its rapprochement with Taiwan. Wu also thanked the US National Security Council (NSC) for praising Taiwan-Somaliland ties. A council tweet on July 10 praised Taiwan
The Taipei City Government yesterday said that construction on the long-suspended Taipei Dome can resume immediately, after it approved a request by the project’s main contractor, Farglory Group. In a statement, the Taipei Construction Management Office said that after it on July 16 issued a new building permit, Farglory submitted revised design plans and an application to resume construction, which the office approved on Friday. Construction had been suspended on the dome, near the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Xinyi District (信義), for more than five years due to disagreements between the city and the company over the safety of some of
RSS