National Taiwan University (NTU) president Yang Pan-chyr (楊泮池) yesterday backed a student group’s call to “indefinitely boycott” products of Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) in protest against the Changhua District Court’s decision last week acquitting former Ting Hsin executive Wei Ying-chun (魏應充) and five other former managers embroiled in an adulterated cooking oil scandal last year.
The NTU Student Association issued a statement on Monday calling on school administrators to continue a sanction it had imposed on the group since October last year, while urging the university’s research institutes to fulfill their social responsibility to uphold food safety.
“The students are very upset with the ruling. We must not let this denouement become the world’s laughingstock and let Taiwan become a haven for adulterated food,” Yang told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Lee Li-fa, Taipei Times
Yang said the association hopes to leverage the boycott by inviting other schools to take part, and that he “fully supports” the idea, adding that if students needed his help, for example, to “make a few calls” to other university heads, he would not hesitate to provide assistance.
“I hope that we will at least be able to block adulterated food in campuses and then develop from there. If student unions across the nation feel that this is a meaningful cause, they are welcome to join it,” Yang said.
He said that all NTU facilities, including NTU Hospital and artificial forests and farms established for research purposes, would strictly adhere to the sanctions.
Photo: CNA
With reference to the verdict, Yang said: “I do not have a legal background, but the verdict is based on an argument that toxic materials can become completely harmless once they are refined, which is scientifically impossible.”
Asked how long the university would continue to boycott Ting Hsin, Yang said: “Indefinitely, I think.”
Separately yesterday, Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) said that although he personally supports Yang, he would not order or publicly ask schools to boycott Ting Hsin.
“The Ministry of Education is an administrative body and therefore separate from the judiciary system. The Ting Hsin case should be resolved by judicial means,” Wu said.
It is in the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s purview to address health-related issues, not the Ministry of Education’s, Wu said.
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