The importation of pork containing the feed additive ractopamine is not about politics, and legislators will be held accountable by the public and by history when they vote on the executive order covering the lifting of the ban on such imports, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said yesterday.
Pork products with traces of ractopamine and food safety are “public issues, not political issues,” Chiang said on the sidelines of an event in Hualien County after reporters asked him if the KMT had planned any strategies on handling the vote planned for this week in the Legislative Yuan.
Public opposition to the government’s decision to allow imports of US pork containing ractopamine residue has remained strong since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) announced on Aug. 28 that the government would ease the ban, he said.
Photo: CNA
People’s health should not be used as a bargaining chip, he added.
When members of the Legislative Yuan vote, they would be representing public opinion, not themselves, Chiang said.
Urging lawmakers to consider public opinion and concerns voiced by the public, he said that when they vote, they must be “accountable to history and to the people.”
“Many people joined the ‘Autumn Struggle’ march on Nov. 22, but the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] chooses not to see or hear [them],” Chiang said later in the day, reiterating plans for the KMT to take to the streets of Taipei again this week.
While the KMT has fewer votes in the legislature than the DPP, DPP lawmakers should “stand on the side of public opinion,” he said.
The KMT would also begin collecting a second round of signatures for its two referendum proposals — one on when referendums are held, and the second on the importation of pork, pig offal and other products containing ractopamine, he said.
“If [the legislature] cannot block [the policy], we will use the people’s votes to block it,” he said.
The Central Election Commission on Friday announced that the two proposals could advance to the second stage of gathering signatures.
Also on Friday, cross-caucus negotiations reached a consensus that the legislature on Thursday would review nine administrative directives related to allowing US imports of pork containing ractopamine residue, and a vote on the nine directives is expected.
KMT caucus whip Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) on Saturday announced that the KMT caucus would stage two rallies in front of the Legislative Yuan’s Chun-hsien Building — on Wednesday evening and Thursday — to protest the government’s decision to lift the ban on the importation of US pork with ractopamine residue.
A large screen would be erected at the rally site to allow participants to watch a live broadcast of the legislative vote, Lin added.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS