The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is to stage two rallies on Wednesday evening and Thursday against the government’s decision to lift a ban on the importation of US pork with ractopamine residues, as nine executive orders associated with the policy are to be put to a vote at the Legislative Yuan on Thursday.
The rally would be held on Jinan Road (濟南路) in front of the Legislative Yuan’s Chun-hsien Building (群賢樓) in Taipei, the KMT said.
The party has gained approval for road closures and a street use permit around the Legislative Yuan from Wednesday to Friday, said a KMT member, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Photo: Lin Liang-sheng, Taipei Times
KMT caucus whip Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) said that the party would ask its lawmakers to join civic groups for Wednesday’s rally scheduled to begin at 5pm.
“The party invites supporters to join the food safety protest in the evening,” he added.
The party and the caucus plan to mobilize at least 2,000 people, mostly from northern Taiwan, a KMT official said, adding that the event would include performances and feature Taiwanese pork dishes, such as barbecued sausages, four deities soup (四神湯) and meatball soup.
On Thursday, party officials would lead supporters in a parade around the Legislative Yuan once every hour “for the lawmakers inside to hear the public’s voice,” added the KMT official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and other former KMT chairpersons would also be invited to join the rally on Thursday, while a large screen would be set up at the rally venue for supporters to watch the live broadcast of the legislative voting, “so they can understand which lawmakers are supportive or against pork containing ractopamine,” the KMT official said.
Lin and KMT Legislator Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday on Facebook posted the 62 Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers’ office telephone numbers, encouraging members of the public to call and urge them to vote against lifting the ban on US pork containing ractopamine.
Lin said that he and Cheng made the post to “test the waters,” adding that they might ask all KMT legislators to repost the information if they gain a positive public response.
A lawmaker’s office phone number is public information, so the KMT is not disclosing private information, he added.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that the KMT should think for the better of the nation and stop opposing the policy for the sake of opposition.
If importers are unwilling to import pork containing ractopamine, then it would be difficult to buy such pork in Taiwan, he added.
The KMT’s political actions go against the US, Ker said.
“The whole world is observing,” he said, urging the KMT to “do the right thing.”
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods