Macau authorities on Wednesday last week announced that they had found the nucleic acid of SARS-CoV-2 on mangoes imported from Taiwan, an incident that came just weeks after similar claims by Chinese authorities with regard to Taiwanese frozen ribbonfish and horse mackerel imports.
Consequently, the batch of 20 boxes of mangoes, weighing about 100kg, was destroyed, and the Macau Municipal Affairs Bureau imposed a one-week ban on shipments from the Taiwanese mango importer and the producers from whom it sources its fruits.
As well as lacking a scientific basis, this measure runs contrary to the rules of international trade.
SARS-CoV-2 can infect humans and animals, but it cannot infect plants or be spread by them.
Furthermore, there is no evidence that packaging contaminated with SARS-CoV-2 can infect humans, mainly because viruses can only survive on the surface of objects for a limited time.
If China destroys Taiwanese products and suspends their importation on grounds related to COVID-19, it should present evidence that the virus was on the packaging and a scientific analysis that proves the contamination poses a risk to humans.
Only then would people be convinced that the action taken is reasonable.
At meetings of the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures since 2020, member countries, including Australia, Canada, the EU, India, Russia and the US, have raised concerns about China’s “excessive” measures regarding COVID-19, which have affected trade in food and agricultural products.
The complaints showed that China has a long track record of hindering international trade citing COVID-19 concerns.
Moreover, even if the mangoes were found to have SARS-CoV-2 on their packaging, the problem could have been solved by cleaning them with bleach or alcohol. Was it really necessary to destroy all the mangoes?
China’s handling of the incident is so far over the top that one can only shake their head in dismay.
Yeh Yu-cheng is a secretary at the Pingtung Public Health Bureau.
Translated by Julian Clegg
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US