The People First Party (PFP) caucus yesterday dismissed media reports linking a possible meeting between PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at next weekend’s APEC leaders’ summit to the government’s reported plan to lift an import ban on food products from five Japanese prefectures, saying it is customary for Taiwan’s APEC envoy to meet with Japan’s prime minister.
The PFP caucus statement dismissed an opinion piece in yesterday’s Chinese-language United Daily News claiming that Japan has required Taiwan to officially announce the lifting of the ban before Sunday, the possible date for a Soong-Abe meeting.
Soong is to represent President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) at the summit and he is scheduled to leave tomorrow for Lima, Peru, which is hosting the two-day meeting that begins on Saturday.
“It has been customary for Taiwan’s APEC envoy to meet with Japan’s prime minister in private. Besides, given Tokyo’s close ties with Taipei and its standoff with Beijing, there is no need for a quid pro quo deal for an unofficial meeting,” the PFP caucus said.
Expressing regret over what it said were the newspaper’s fabricated claims, the PFP caucus said by the logic of the article, then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin’s (林永樂) admission in August last year that the government was leaning toward lifting the ban indicated the existence of a quid pro quo deal.
The ban was imposed on food imports from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures on March 25, 2011, due to fears of radioactive contamination from the meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant 14 days earlier.
As APEC envoy, Soong only has one mission, which is to truthfully present Taiwan’s experiences to a global audience in the hope of expanding the nation’s international space, the caucus said.
“Soong would never intervene in or seek to steer the direction of government policies for the sake of fulfilling his own personal interests,” it added.
The caucus said the PFP’s stance toward food safety issues have remained adamant, which is to subject the foods in question to the most stringent scientific-based assessment and have zero tolerance for quid pro quo deals.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
Taiwan next year plans to launch its first nationwide census on elderly people living independently to identify the estimated 700,000 seniors to strengthen community-based healthcare and long-term care services, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said on the sidelines of a healthcare seminar that the nation’s rapidly aging population and declining birthrate have made the issue of elderly people living alone increasingly pressing. The survey, to be jointly conducted by the MOHW and the Ministry of the Interior, aims to establish baseline data and better allocate care resources, he
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