A Taichung-based music teacher on Wednesday was questioned for allegedly spreading rumors online that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and other officials at a Cabinet meeting had eaten extravagant lunchboxes that cost nearly NT$7,000 each, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday.
The 51-year-old man surnamed Liao (廖) faces charges of contravening the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) by “spreading rumors in a way that is sufficient to undermine public order and peace,” CIB Seventh Investigation Corps Deputy Captain Hsu Chao-pin (徐釗斌) said.
Investigators reviewing social media records to determine where the rumor had started found that Liao’s post on Facebook on Friday last week was the earliest to claim that Tsai and Cabinet officials had eaten the luxury seafood lunch, Hsu said.
Photo: Screen grab from a video posted on Facebook
A screen grab of the post showed a photograph of a tree-layer wooden lunchbox packed with seafood items, accompanied by text allegedly written by Liao.
“This is at the Tsai government’s Cabinet meeting, and the lunchboxes they were eating are full of delicacies,” Liao reportedly wrote.
The post also alleged that the food came from a luxury restaurant in Taipei.
“It’s stacked in three layers, each with 17 items, and enough food for four to six people. One set is priced at NT$8,880, but currently available at a special price of NT$6,980,” the post said.
“The Tsai government spends money extravagantly. In the past, under Lien Chan (連戰) [of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)], they had NT$500 lunchboxes for Cabinet meetings, and were condemned with accusations that they were out of touch regarding the suffering of average people... So how about the Tsai government?” the post said.
Lien was premier from 1993 to 1997 and vice president from 1996 to 2000 under then president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).
“There was no such lunchbox at the Cabinet meeting. It was fake news,” Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said on Tuesday.
“Taiwan is an open and free society, and people can be creative, but they must not spread fake news, and must not breach the law by smearing someone’s good reputation. If such a rumor has contravened the law, then the judiciary should prosecute those who spread them,” Su said.
Liao denied having political motives in making the post, and said he saw the photo and message on other social media sites, the CIB said.
“The lunchbox looked delicious, and I just wanted to share the picture with my friends... It was unintentional and was not based on my personal political stance,” the CIB quoted him as saying.
The bureau’s investigation determined that Liao was most likely the originator of the rumor, Hsu said, adding that Liao had also posted on Facebook pages that show support for KMT and pan-blue camps.
“We have asked Liao to remove the post, and urge people not to produce, disseminate and share such disinformation and rumors on social media, as they would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” Hsu said.
SELF-RELIANCE: Taiwan would struggle to receive aid in the event of an invasion, so it must prepare to ‘hold its own’ for the first 70 days of a war, a defense expert said Taiwan should strengthen infrastructure, stock up on reserves and step up efforts to encourage Taiwanese to fight against an enemy, legislators and experts said on Tuesday last week. The comments sought to summarize what the nation should learn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has exceeded 300 days, since Feb. 24 last year. Institute of National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said that the war in Ukraine highlighted the importance of being ready for war. Taiwan’s development of an “asymmetrical warfare” doctrine and extending mandatory conscription to one year is a good start to preparation of defense against a
The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday said it would delay the lifting of the indoor mask mandate, citing public health considerations and ongoing discussions on how the policy should be implemented. Earlier this week, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, said officials from several ministries were working on the policy and an announcement would be made yesterday. However, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the CECC, yesterday said that the policy was still under review. Wang said its implementation would be “delayed slightly” due to three main factors. First, the center
END OF SERIES: As the first generation of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines are set to expire, the CECC would no longer offer them to children younger than four years old The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported the nation’s first case of a person infected with the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2. The Taiwanese man in his 20s arrived from Canada on Jan. 22, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), who is deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division. He tested positive after reporting having a runny nose and muscle soreness while in airport quarantine, Lo said. The XBB.1.5 subvariant is the dominant strain in the US, but there is no evidence to suggest that it causes more severe illness than other Omicron subvariants, he said,
NORMALIZING TIES: The delegation led by the KMT’s Johnny Chiang is to meet with British lawmakers, think tanks and business groups to discuss developments A legislative delegation led by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) arrived in the UK yesterday to rally support for Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Chiang heads the Legislative Yuan’s Taiwan-UK Interparliamentary Amity Association. The delegation also includes KMT legislators Ma Wen-chun (馬文君), Wen Yu-hsia (溫玉霞), Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), Sandy Yu (游毓蘭) and Wu I-ding (吳怡玎). The group is to meet with British lawmakers Alicia Kearns, who chairs the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee; Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the House Defence Select Committee; and Bob Stewart, who cochairs the