‘NUCLEAR FOOD’: A KMT statement that it would not oppose food imports from five Japanese prefectures caught the party caucus by surprise, Alex Fai said
Food imports from Fukushima and four other Japanese prefectures that were banned following the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster would eventually be permitted, former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said yesterday. The question now is how to ensure their safety, he added. Speaking to reporters at the opening ceremony of the fourth annual Congressional Youth Experience Camp organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Wang, a KMT member, said that the issue would be resolved “sooner or later.” If the agricultural imports that were banned after the disaster are resumed, Japan must first perform stringent inspections, followed by another round after they arrive in Taiwan, he said. Appropriate equipment and training are necessary to detect traces of radioactive contamination, he said, urging the government to prepare before imports resume. Separately, KMT caucus whip Alex Fai (費鴻泰) vowed that the caucus would take a stand against any imports of “nuclear food.” “Health cannot be traded away,” he said, adding that the KMT’s stance is as firm as it was in 2018, when a public referendum seeking to maintain the ban passed by a 78-22 percent vote. As for a party statement issued on Friday saying the KMT would “not oppose food imports” from the prefectures as long as Japan can guarantee their safety, Fai said it caught the caucus by surprise. After seeing the news, the caucus immediately conveyed a message to KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), who then tasked the party’s Culture and Communications Committee with drafting a statement clarifying its stance. KMT Legislator and former chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) told reporters that the party’s stance on food safety has never changed, whether the issue is pork containing traces of ractopamine or radioactive contamination. As the ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has a duty to explain how food safety is protected, not just change its language
Animal rights advocates yesterday staged a rally outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, while lawmakers convened a second round of public hearings inside for the Constitutional Amendment Committee, where participants voiced their support for improving animal protection and lowering the legal voting age to 18. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators continued to boycott the hearings, accusing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of contravening legislative procedure earlier this month by choosing DPP Legislator Chou Chun-mi (周春米) as convener of the opening session before KMT legislators had arrived. Representatives from the Taiwan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Taiwan Animal Equality Association led the rally outside, with several protesters dressed as roosters, pigs, tigers, monkeys, dogs, horses, pandas or other animals, while supporters held up banners that read “Incorporate animal rights into the Constitution,” among other slogans. It is time for Taiwan to respect the life and dignity of these sentient life forms, and to protect the welfare of animals, animal rights advocate Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) said. “When people make use of animals, we must do everything to avoid causing them pain and unnecessary suffering,” Ho said. Under the Civil Code, animals are considered items or property belonging to the human owner, and not defined as “life forms,” he said. “We need to have the basis for the protection of animals and put that in the Constitution,” he said. Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan director Chu Tseng-hung (朱增宏) called on the government to initiate more reforms, otherwise efforts to ban the use of live animals in lab tests, stop cruel treatment of animals and promote more animal-friendly livestock farming in Taiwan would be impeded. Representatives from the Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy and other student groups said they are concerned about KMT lawmakers boycotting the amendment process. DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said that the
The New Power Party (NPP) caucus has proposed an amendment to the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例) to toughen criminal penalties for those who distribute pornographic images of minors, NPP Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) said yesterday. The caucus proposed the bill after the police on Thursday cracked down on two large voyeuristic Web sites in Taiwan that reportedly made NT$30 million (US$1.09 million) by distributing non-consensual pornographic images of 287 adults and underage girls. One of the 15 people arrested was a man surnamed Chang (張), 28, who had been sentenced by the Taipei District Court in 2019 to six years in jail for secretly filming almost 60 female high-school students on toilets. The High Court rejected his appeal. While the district court was reviewing the case, Chang and another man continued to sell unsolicited photographs of women to the two voyeuristic Web sites in April and May 2019, prosecutors said. The two sites had about 250,000 subscribers, they added. All of those arrested have been indicted for contravening the act. Wang said that the case is similar to the “Nth Room” case in South Korea, as Chang is accused of selling unsolicited videos to the voyeuristic Web sites, which allegedly distributed the videos for profit. The criminal case in South Korea involved blackmail, cybersex trafficking and the distribution of sexually exploitative videos via the Telegram app between 2018 and 2020. Photographs of 103 confirmed victims were found to have been shared and sold to more than 260,000 online IDs. “To terminate this perverted industry, we have proposed an amendment to the act, which would impose harsher sentences for people distributing pornographic images of children and teenagers,” Wang told a news conference in Taipei. The caucus has proposed raising the fine for those shooting or producing photographs and videos of
ADAPTING: The Chientan Youth Activity Center is housing people with mild COVID-19, but it said operations at its conference halls and dining areas would not be affected
Taipei’s planned COVID-19 pass would be launched through the TaipeiPass (台北通) app and should be able to interface with the digital vaccination certificate issued by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), Taipei Deputy Mayor Tsai Ping-kun (蔡炳坤) said yesterday. Taipei and New Taipei City are considering introducing a COVID-19 pass as the nation steps up efforts to increase the booster shot coverage rate, which was 6.95 percent as of yesterday. “The mayor [Ko Wen-je (柯文哲)] made it clear in the meeting this morning that our TaipeiPass app is ready to launch the COVID-19 pass, but the key is that the pass must be able to interface with the CECC’s digital vaccination certificate,” Tsai said, adding that the city would by Thursday have a clearer direction regarding how it should be carried out. About 57 percent of quarantine hotel personnel and 58 percent of disease prevention bus drivers have received booster shots, Tsai said, adding that other sectors are making lists of personnel who should receive boosters. Starting at 10am today, people can make reservations for booster shots at clinics in Taipei via the CECC’s 1922.gov.tw platform, he added. In related news, the Chientan Youth Activity Center is now being used for COVID-19 cases with mild or no symptoms. Tour guides taking lessons in a second foreign language at the center are to be trained in a different venue from today. The center said in an online statement that it has since March 2020 worked with the Taipei City Government to become a quarantine facility for Taiwanese returning from overseas. It said that its operations at conference halls and dining areas would not be affected. The Tourist Guides Associations said that the training is taking place in a different venue from the one with quarantine facilities, adding that there should be no risk of cross infection.
Taipei and New Taipei City yesterday released a list of places visited by two people recently confirmed to have contracted COVID-19, to alert people to areas where they could possibly have been exposed to the virus. Taipei focused on the movements of a disease control worker at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, a woman in her 40s who conducted saliva tests on inbound travelers and screened them for fever. She was confirmed to have COVID-19 on Sunday after 6,346 airport staff were tested on Friday and Saturday, the Central Epidemic Command Center said. The woman took the Taipei MRT system between Taipei Main Station and Mingde Station on the Red Line at different hours in the morning and evening from Tuesday to Saturday last week, the Taipei Department of Health said. On Thursday last week, she visited a 7-Eleven convenience store on Mingde Road in Beitou District (北投) from 12:32am to 12:35am. She visited a Kuang Nan (Xuchang Branch) wholesale store and a Daiso shopping center on Xuchang Street the following afternoon from 4:27pm to 4:54pm. That same evening, she visited the Carrefour supermarket in Tianmu (天母), before heading to a FamilyMart convenience store on Mingde Road. The woman has since been placed in a government-run quarantine center in Taipei, the department said. Also yesterday, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said it had received confirmation on Sunday that a person with COVID-19 recently visited the Taipei Children’s Amusement Park, which it manages and maintains. The park has been thoroughly disinfected, but its indoor food court has been temporarily closed for three days starting yesterday as a precaution, the TRTC said. Those who might have come into contact with the person, determined using smartphone tracking systems, have been notified to get tested for COVID-19, while some of the park workers have been ordered to follow self-health management protocols, the company said. New
The Council of Agriculture (COA) on Saturday said that after the Lunar New Year holiday it would establish a department to manage pet-related issues. The department would manage all aspects of pets’ lives “from birth to death” and would have an annual budget of NT$130 million (US$4.71 million), the COA said. “There are about 7 million households in the country, of which 2 million are registered as having pets. That means about one in three households has pets,” COA Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) said, adding that 2.3 million pet dogs and cats are registered nationwide. The value of the domestic pet industry is NT$50 billion annually, which justifies establishing a department specifically for pets, he said. The average pet owner in Taiwan spends about NT$25,000 per year on their pet, 44 percent of which is for food, he said, adding that the rest mostly covers health-related expenses and grooming. The new department would oversee aspects of the industry including pet food, grooming, training, pet-sitting and pet insurance, he said. It would also oversee the management of animal performances, including the implementation of professional review procedures, irregular inspections and evaluations, and the training of specialized enforcement personnel, he said. The department would develop a pet information system for the public and cultivate talent for the industry, as well as improve consumer education about pets, he said. “Part of its task would be to work to prevent the introduction of invasive species into the environment,” and a list of approved pets would be made,” he said. The department would maintain white, gray and black lists that would indicate which animals are safe to raise and which could potentially damage the ecosystem, COA Department of Animal Industry Deputy Director Chiang Wen-chuan (江文全) said, adding that it would work with the Forestry Bureau to
Migrant workers in Taiwan, both industrial workers and domestic caregivers, earned more last year, a survey of employers released yesterday by the Ministry of Labor showed. Migrant workers in the manufacturing and construction sectors earned an average monthly wage of NT$30,541 in June last year, the survey showed. The figure, including an average regular wage of NT$24,603 and NT$5,396 in average overtime pay, was NT$1,958 more than the same month in 2020, due mainly to an average increase in overtime pay of NT$1,429. Migrant workers in the industrial sector recorded a monthly average of 204.1 work hours — 167.7 hours of regular work and 36.4 overtime hours — marking an increase of 9.4 hours from the monthly average for 2020, the survey showed. Regarding the management of migrant workers, 34.3 percent of Taiwanese employers surveyed said that they were bothered the most by language barriers, followed by poor hygiene habits and poor work attitudes or discipline. Domestic care providers earned an average monthly wage of NT$20,209 in June last year, including an average regular salary of NT$17,563 and average overtime pay of NT$2,182, marking an increase of NT$291 from their average monthly salary a year earlier, the survey showed. They worked 10 hours on average per day, and 98 percent of their Taiwanese employers paid them overtime. About 73.6 percent of Taiwanese employers said they had other ways to look after the person in need if their caregivers took a break, mostly asking other family members to assist. Nearly 40 percent of domestic caregiver employers said they would hire a Taiwanese caregiver on a temporary basis, with 51.4 percent of them willing to pay NT$500 to NT$1,200 per person per day based on a government subsidy program. In terms of problems, 24.6 percent of Taiwanese employers said they were most troubled by language barriers when communicating with their caregivers,
Two construction workers have died and six were hurt after a hydraulic jack malfunctioned and caused scaffolding to collapse inside a 40m by 30m oil storage tank at the Port of Kaohsiung on Saturday. The death of the second worker, who had been trapped inside the oil storage tank, was confirmed by city officials on Sunday. A man surnamed Chung (鍾) showed no signs of life at the scene on Saturday, and was declared dead after being taken to hospital. Six other workers were rushed to hospital and were treated for injuries including severe fractures and lacerations. The workers are employed by Kaohsiung-based Yuan He Construction Co (元合工程行), which was contracted by CTCI Corp to do construction work at the harbor for China General Terminal and Distribution Corp. CTCI Corp project manager Fu Kung-chiao (傅孔交) on Sunday said that two hydraulic jacks used to hold up an inner oil storage tank had malfunctioned at about 4pm on Saturday, bringing the scaffolding, which was 4m to 55m high, crashing down. Fu rejected allegations that the workers were forced to work in a compromised environment, saying that safety checks before construction work began revealed no problems and the mechanical issues only occurred later. Yuan He owner Hu Pao-yuan (胡寶元) said that the two deceased people had been working professionally for about 20 to 30 years. On Sunday, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said that there was obvious negligence, and the workers’ employers would be held responsible and could face criminal charges. Work at the site has been suspended until the working conditions are improved, Chen added, without specifying what improvements would be made. The Kaohsiung Labor Affairs Bureau said that it would seek to charge those responsible following a thorough investigation, fining them up to NT$300,000 for contravening occupational safety laws.
RED TAPE: The township had not thought it was illegally occupying national land, which the forest district office said cannot be rented to a temple
The relocation of a temple in Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西) from a mountain slope to a more accessible site has been deemed illegal. The decision to relocate Shihyeh Temple (石爺廟), built on the slope of Dangpa Mountain (蕩耙山), was made because the local community was concerned about the well-being of elderly people visiting the temple, as the paths leading to it were slippery and steep, former Jinshan Borough warden Hsu Tsung-ming (徐聰明) said. Township Mayor Liu Te-liang (劉德樑) said the township had not thought that the relocation could contravene the Forestry Act (森林法) and would be deemed an illegal occupation of national property. The Hsinchu Forest District Office, overseen by the Forestry Bureau, said the temple occupied 71m2 of national property, of which 36m2 belonged to the office and the rest to the National Property Administration. Liu said he was not ruling out asking the National Property Administration and the office to rent out the property so that the temple could be allowed to stay. However, the office said that while the law states the land occupied by the temple can be leased out, temples are not among eligible applicants. Hsu said the temple is believed to have been built during the late Qing Dynasty, after a group of Han settlers — mostly of Hakka ethnicity — en route to colonize lands near the Maoto Village hid under a boulder to escape Atayal hunters. Other local legends tell of the deity Shihyeh warning villagers of imminent natural disasters. That, coupled with the Hakka people’s existing beliefs, had led to the temple’s establishment, Hsu said.
A Pingtung County Government workeraff displays tiger-themed handheld lanterns at a news conference yesterday to promote this year’s Pingtung County Lantern Festival. The festival opens to the public on Friday at 6:30pm with the lighting of the main lantern and the distribution of free handheld lanterns to visitors.
An environmental protection worker yesterday uses a high-pressure spray gun to clean a Mickey Mouse statue at the entrance of Meilunshan Park in Hualien City, ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday. The bust is also to be repainted.
BECOMING ‘VOICELESS’: If the ‘unpopular’ Lam wins again, the CCP would ‘just govern Hong Kong directly,’ turning it into ‘South Shenzhen,’ a researcher wrote
The re-election of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) could lead the territory to become “another Shenzhen,” an Institute for National Defense and Security Research academic said. Hong Kong is to elect its next chief executive in March from a pool of 1,500 candidates including incumbent Lam. Lam is unpopular among Hong Kongers, and has had difficulty demonstrating her administrative ability, but if she were re-elected, it is likely the territory would become more like nearby Shenzhen, which is directly under Beijing’s control, researcher Shih Chien-yu (侍建宇) wrote in the institute’s latest defense security report. Beijing might allow two strong candidates to run against Lam to set expectations in Hong Kong, and thereby bolster the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) rule over the territory, Shih said. The idea of a “South Shenzhen” was first raised by investment banker Alex Shiu (蕭少滔), who cited arbitrary arrests, seizures of assets and monitoring of individuals as becoming the norm in Hong Kong, as it is in China, Shih said. “Beijing’s overhaul of the Hong Kong electoral system was an attempt to secure the legitimacy of its rule over Hong Kong in the short term,” he said. “The most recent Legislative Council elections shattered that legitimacy, but created two developments.” Democratic legislators still exist, but they have largely chosen to either act as agents of the CCP or become “voiceless,” he said, adding that if they dare to provoke China’s authority, Beijing would simply tighten the restrictions further. “Beijing is oscillating in its control over Hong Kong, between rule by the chief executive and rule by CCP committee members,” he said. “If the unpopular Lam is re-elected, the CCP will just govern Hong Kong directly, effectively turning it into a South Shenzhen.” If the CCP wanted to maintain the illusion of a “one party, two systems” framework for Hong Kong, then it
President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration is seeking to join an Indo-Pacific economic framework being planned by the US, a senior official said. The government is paying close attention to the regional economic pact being touted by US President Joe Biden, although too few details have emerged from Washington for Taipei to make specific plans, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The US is expected to launch the Indo-Pacific economic framework next month after negotiations with Australia, India and Japan, the official said. The economic initiative is to tackle trade facilitation, standards for the digital economy and technology, supply-chain resiliency and clean energy, among other issues that affect the region, they cited White House officials as saying. Washington has shown deep concern over semiconductor supply-chain issues, while Taiwan is a leading chipmaker and has an interest in enhancing ties between the two countries, the official said. A push to enter the framework is not expected to negatively affect Taiwan’s ability to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), as the organizations would not overlap and their goals are not in conflict, they said. A week after China submitted its application to join CPTPP, Taiwan on Sept. 22 last year formally applied to join the trade bloc under the name “the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu” through its representative in New Zealand, which acts as a depositary for the trade pact and is responsible for passing applications to all member states. The US plans for a comprehensive economic framework for the Indo-Pacific is only one component in a larger regional strategy being considered in Washington, which Taiwan must observe closely, the official said. Speaking at an event marking the 70th anniversary of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan in December last year, Tsai said that Taiwan’s technological innovation and
BALANCING ACT: Although a poll showed that fear of a conflict has fallen 15 percentage points, Taiwanese must still ‘build preparedness and resilience,’ a professor said
A declining number of Taiwanese fear an imminent war with China, according to a new poll suggesting that the rest of the world is far more worried than those at the center of this potential geopolitical flashpoint. According to the poll, published on Thursday by CommonWealth Magazine, 35.4 percent of respondents said that they were worried about a military conflict breaking out over the Taiwan Strait within the next year, a decrease of nearly 15 percentage points from last year’s survey. The poll also found that 59.7 percent of people do not think Beijing will ultimately use force to take Taiwan, while more than 35 percent believed it would. Some analysts see Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “unification” pledge as a key goal of his legacy, but Taiwan says it is already a de facto independent nation. In the year between the CommonWealth Magazine annual polls, China has markedly increased its rhetoric and actual intimidation of Taiwan, with record numbers of air force flights — part of Beijing’s warfare-adjacent “gray-zone” activity — into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. The survey results also showed high levels of trust in the US coming to Taiwan’s aid in the event of hostilities, with 54 percent of respondents saying that they thought the US military could effectively protect Taiwan. Separately, 58.8 percent said that it was a possibility that the US would send troops to help Taiwan in the event of war. The US sells billions of dollars in weaponry of a defensive character to Taiwan. Washington officials have also made statements suggesting it was likely to come to Taiwan’s aid militarily in case of conflict. For decades the US has operated a policy of strategic ambiguity, neither confirming nor rejecting commitments to help, in an effort to deter provocative action by Beijing and Taipei. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Department of International affairs
A failure to sufficiently implement transitional justice measures could threaten democracy, the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee said yesterday. Committee vice chairman Sun Pin (孫斌) made the statement during a forum on democracy hosted by the legal reform group Taiwan Forever Association in Taipei. “Taiwan’s staggered implementation of efforts to democratize has meant that transitional justice work that should have been carried out from the beginning has been delayed 30 years,” Sun said. Injustices of the past could reoccur if transitional justice is not well implemented, he said. While no universal definition of “transitional justice” exists, most academics define it as measures taken by a country to address the aftermath of human rights abuses, he said. “An important part of that process is to affirm the human dignity of the victims of past political persecution, and to use appropriate means to ensure there are no future victims,” he said. “Looking at the operation of Taiwan’s democratic systems, you can see how transitional justice has not been implemented well enough,” he said. The use of terms such as “green terror” and “democratic autocracy” shows a lack of understanding of the White Terror era, and are used to attack the normal administrative measures of a sound democratic government and its transitional justice efforts, he said. “The result is that the meaning behind those original terms, such as ‘White Terror,’ become muddled, and those guilty of injustices escape responsibility,” he said. “The public will grow distrustful of all government, and believe that all parties are equally incorrigible,” he added. By manipulating the public’s trust in the government, anti-democratic forces try to present themselves as a better alternative, which could easily lead to a regression of democracy, he said.
SEPARATE CASE? A woman tested positive when she went with her daughter to be tested, because her daughter had taken the same bus to school as a steakhouse worker
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 10 local COVID-19 cases, six of whom had visited a steakhouse in Taoyuan where an infection cluster has been reported. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that of the 10 local infections, one case — No. 17,928 — is a Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport disease prevention staffer who works in the area where inbound travelers collect their saliva for a COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, and sometimes at the fever screening station. The staffer had tested negative in a PCR test on Jan. 9 and a rapid test on Friday, but she tested positive in expanded PCR testing of airport personnel on Saturday, with a cycle threshold value of 21, he said, adding that she does not have any symptoms. Considering her previous test results were negative, it does not seem likely that her infection is linked to the Taoyuan airport cluster, but that can only be determined after more contact tracing and genome sequencing data are obtained, Chen said. Six of the new local cases ate at Tasty Steak’s (西堤牛排) Zhongli Zhongshan branch in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) on Jan. 9, he said. A cluster linked to the steakhouse was reported last week, including 13 employees of a bank who had a year-end meal there on Jan. 7; three steakhouse workers and some of their friends, family and classmates; and several steakhouse diners. The steakhouse cluster is likely linked to the airport cluster, as three bank employees have so far been found to have the same strain of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 as the airport cluster, and one bank employee had close contact with a personal care aide who was linked to the airport. Two of the new local infections are students from the same school as
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that the latest round of bookings for COVID-19 booster shots would open tomorrow, with eligible people aged 65 and older allowed to book first, starting at 10am. The center on Saturday reopened its https://1922.gov.tw online COVID-19 vaccination booking system for people to book booster shots, with the 19th round of bookings ending at noon yesterday. Of the approximately 1.13 million vaccination appointment slots available on the system on Saturday, 874,095, or 77 percent, were booked as of noon yesterday, CECC data showed. Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC’s spokesperson, said that those eligible to book in the 20th round are adults born on or before Jan. 30, 2004, who received their second COVID-19 vaccine dose on or before Nov. 7 last year. Eligible recipients would be allowed to start booking their appointments in three phases on Tuesday. People aged 65 and older can start at 10am, people aged 50 to 64 can start at 12pm and people aged between 18 and 49 can start at 2pm. Bookings close at 12pm on Saturday. Appointments would be available from Monday to Sunday next week, Chuang said. However, people who received their second vaccine dose on Nov. 7 can only get their booster shot on Sunday next week, and those who received it on Nov. 6 can only get their booster shot on Saturday next week, and so on, Chuang said. Appointment slots for healthcare facilities in Taipei would be added to the system in the 20th round, he added. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said people can book an appointment for their COVID-19 booster shot through the national online booking system or their local government system, or local governments can arrange appointments for eligible recipients on special name lists, such
About 400 migrant workers took to the streets of Taipei yesterday, urging the government to allow them to switch employers freely. Holding banners stating their appeals in several languages, the demonstrators assembled at Taipei Railway Station before passing the Democratic Progressive Party’s headquarters and eventually arriving in front of the Ministry of Labor, where they performed a skit in which they pushed down bamboo fences to symbolize the regulation restricting them from changing their listed employer. Under the Employment Services Act (就業服務法), migrant workers are not allowed to change employers, except under special circumstances, such as being employed in a job that was not what they were originally contracted to do. “I have really suffered a lot, but I have no right to transfer immediately,” said a 42-year-old caregiver from the Philippines at the rally organized by the Migrants Empowerment Network in Taiwan (MENT). Asking to be identified only as Mace, she said that in the 12 years that she has been working in Taiwan, she has experienced a lot of problems, but has never been allowed to switch employers. Mace said that she is now working as the sole caregiver for a 95-year-old woman, who requires 24-hour attention. “As a caregiver, I get no overtime pay,” Mace said, adding that if she had the opportunity, she would switch to a factory job. Since Taiwan began accepting migrant workers 30 years ago, not much has changed in terms of their freedom to switch jobs, said Chen Hsiu-lien (陳秀蓮), a member of the Taiwan International Workers’ Association and a spokesperson for MENT, which is a coalition of seven groups that advocate for migrants’ rights. “It is a system that traps migrant workers in terrible labor conditions, and unlike Taiwanese workers, they do not have the right to choose who they work for,” Chen said. Following the protest, the Workforce Development
Electricity for households in Taiwan’s southernmost county could be generated using only renewable energy sources before the end of this year, Pingtung County Commissioner Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said yesterday. Pan was speaking at a ceremony to mark the start of electricity generation at a solar farm in Pingtung. The county launched a program in 2019 to help farmers establish solar facilities on farmland affected by land subsidence, Pan said. In Pingtung, renewable energy sources, such as solar panels, currently generate 1.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year and can support the needs of 75 percent of the county’s households, Pan said. If everything goes well, household electricity in Pingtung would be fully supported by renewable energy sources before the end of this year, he said. The county government said it has since 2019 selected a number of plots of land for the project in Donggang (東港), Linbian (林邊), Jiadong (佳冬) and Fangliao (枋寮) townships that are seriously affected by land subsidence or are unsuitable for agriculture. “In so doing, [the county government] can help make better use of idle land, while boosting the income of farmers who can receive rent from the land they rented to solar energy companies,” Pan said. A 73-year-old fruit farmer surnamed Lin (林) said he rented a piece of his land to Ysolar Co for a solar farm. He said he agreed to do so because the land is prone to flooding during harvest season, so he thought he might as well rent it out.
RSS