Before the Lunar New Year holiday, Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) made a public statement about a package of cimbuterol-tainted pork sold in the city. At first, Lu vowed to get to the bottom of the “food safety scandal,” but ended up laughing off the entire matter. She said it was nothing more than an “individual case,” which led to public pushback and mockery.
Considering Taiwan’s divided national identity and threats from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was the incident an “individual case,” or an issue of mafia-style extortion? Could it have been CCP operatives trying to subvert the government and society? How can Lu simply laugh it all off?
In May 2005, Wang Chin-chan (王進展) was arrested for poisoning energy drinks with cyanide in Taichung, a scandal that sent panic throughout the nation. Japan faced a similar situation with the unsolved Glico-Morinaga extortion case in 1984 and 1985. In the aftermath, Japanese authorities required companies to report extortion attempts. In 1999, Taiwan amended Article 191-1 of the Criminal Code to add language on the adulteration of edible goods.
Lu has striven to counter Ministry of Health and Welfare Deputy Minister Victor Wang’s (王必勝) explanation of the cimbuterol case. Lu ought to explain why “from the start, out of the more than 700 samples, only the one batch taken by the Taichung City Government tested positive for cimbuterol.” If pigs were fed the substance, it would be widely distributed. If it were administered by injection, it would only be found in those that received a shot. Meat from hogs would have different concentrations, meaning one batch might have been specifically tampered with.
Investigators must solve the incident, and should not ignore efforts by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁), KMT Taipei City Councilor Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) and others to turn it into a political scandal in the legislature. These moves highligh social divisions, forcing Taiwanese to consider whether CCP operatives are at work among them.
In light of the CCP’s political machinations, it is only natural that Taiwanese would be suspicious. This stems from spread of disinformation online. The CCP and their cells infiltrate and manipulate division to stoke fear in Taiwan. This division is a hotbed for CCP subversion.
Previously, critics attacked former Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing general manager Wu Yin-ning (吳音寧). Last year, a trumped up imported egg scandal involving the Facebook page “Lin Bay Hao You” (Lin Bay 好油) led to the resignation of former minister of agriculture Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲).
After Lu has finished using the cimbuterol cudgel to strike the central government, is the end goal for Hsu, Fu, Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and others to use the legislature to force Wang to step down, making it impossible for the Democratic Progressive Party to fill ministerial positions?
CCP operatives would only need to infiltrate county or municipal governments headed by KMT or TPP members and use local executive powers to throw wrenches into the machinery. Today’s nothing-burger is pork. Tomorrow, it might be chicken, duck, lamb or beef.
Scandals do not have to be an everyday affair. Each week could include the injection of a new additive du jour for some livestock, produce or food product to sow discontent.
No matter if it is a “fiend with a thousand faces,” a CCP saboteur or both, should Lu really be allowed to simply laugh off the matter?
Chen Tsai-neng is a doctoral candidate at National Chung Hsing University’s Graduate Institute of International Politics.
Translated by Tim Smith
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