The nation’s agriculture foundations and research centers have failed to prioritize Taiwan as a locale of development, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) said yesterday, adding that their actions were tantamount to biting the hand that feeds.
At an interpellation session at the Legislative Yuan, Lai criticized Taiwan Agricultural Information Technology Association Chairman Chiu Yi-chih (邱奕志) for comments at this year’s Cross-Strait Technology Forum, held from Sept. 19 to Sept. 22 in Haikou in China’s Hainan Province.
Chiu told the forum that Taiwan has made great strides in “smart agriculture” development.
However, he added: “Taiwan suffers from insufficient land. We have considered moving entire factories to Hainan, and Hainan would be an excellent production base for smart agriculture.”
Standing at the helm of an association that has benefitted from more than NT$100 million (US$3.23 million) in public funds, it is hard to believe that Chiu could give China an opportunity to siphon off Taiwanese technical expertise, Lai said.
The government has spent a fortune subsidizing people and foundations that address agricultural matters, and yet they are not reciprocating by advancing technology in Taiwan or establishing bases in the nation, instead moving to China, Lai said.
Chiu also doubles as a board member at the Taiwan Agricultural Mechanization Research and Development Center, Lai said, adding that he has participated in the Council of Agriculture’s (COA) Agricultural Productivity 4.0 program, which oversaw the development of robotics for agricultural use.
Chiu could not be reached for comment as of press time last night.
Lai also criticized Rural Development Foundation executive director Hu Hsing-hua (胡興華).
“Hu is a high-ranking official fostered by the Taiwanese government, and any technical expertise and contacts that he has should be considered national assets,” Lai said. “As such, he, and any knowledge and contacts he possesses, should be restricted from [being transferred to] China.”
Hu previously served as a COA deputy minister and Fisheries Agency director-general.
Lai was referring to reports that Hu allegedly signed an accord with China in his capacity of executive director of the Rural Development Foundation, but failed to report it to the foundation’s board or the COA.
Hu yesterday said that his visit to China in 2016 did not have national security implications, as it was a simple trip.
COA Deputy Minister Lee Tui-chih (李退之) told lawmakers that the council would launch an investigation of all specialists cleared to access restricted information.
The council would also look into any leak of classified information at COA-funded foundations, Lee added.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the