Government officials have filed a complaint with a Malaysian weekly tabloid that published an unsubstantiated story that an unnamed local restaurant had served human fetuses and the bodies of babies to its customers.
The publication has promised to publish a correction in its next issue.
People First Party's Chin Hui-chu (
"A Brunei customs official curiously inquired of my friend whether people in Taiwan really eat human fetuses and babies' bodies as reported in the article. The official told him that rumors had been circulating because of the publ-ication," said Chin, who invited officials from other government departments to the press conference.
All the officials dismissed the report. The Government Information Office (GIO, 新聞局) said that its representative in Malaysia had spoken to the reporter and established that the article was based on an allegation contained in an e-mail.
Perdana, the tabloid which published the article in Malay and has a circulation of roughly 10,000, is a "sensationalist newspaper," according to the GIO. In the article, the reporter accused a Taiwanese restaurant of obtaining human fetuses from illegal abortions and the bodies of babies which had died, at a price of about NT$600 each.
The article accused the restaurant of deep-frying and roasting the fetuses and babies for "specials."
Along with the report, two pictures purporting to show the alleged "cuisine" were printed, in which the alleged baby's fingers and face could be seen.
Yuan Kai-sheng (袁凱聲), a GIO official, said that he understood that the allegation had been circulating as an e-mail long before Perdana published it. "The original message pointed the finger at restaurants in rural areas of China before the alleged culprit became a Taiwanese restaurant," Yuan said.
Yuan said the GIO had filed a complaint with Perdana and requested that a correction be published. He said the tabloid had apologized to the GIO for publishing an unsubstantiated story and had agreed to publish a correction in its next issue.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau (警政署) said that investigations had not uncovered any cases of the sort described in the article, but that the bureau would keep an eye out to make sure that babies were really not being served in local restaurants.
The bureau said that eating and serving such a dish is against the law. According to the Criminal Code, people who defile human corpses may be jailed for between six months and five years.
But there are only minor penalties for the unlawful treatment of fetuses under environmental regulations governing the management of "medical waste."
Chan Te-wang (詹德旺), senior administrative officer at the Bureau of Medical Affairs of the Department of Health, said yesterday that a two-day investigation into the matter had confirmed the allegation that hospitals had been selling fetuses and bodies to be untrue.
The pictures in question may be found at the following Web site:http://vatican.rotten.com/infantiphagia/
Warning: Though believed to be fabricated, the pictures nonetheless are graphic.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS