The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday accused the National Police Agency (NPA) of inefficient gun control and said that Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) was placing party considerations over those of the nation in addressing crime.
Su dismissed the top-ranking police officers in Kaohsiung and Tainan last year, citing a lack of concrete action against crime, KMT Culture and Communications Committee director-general Alicia Wang (王育敏) said, adding that despite the move, crime rates have risen since Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) took office on Aug 24 last year.
Chen on Aug. 16 last year won a by-election prompted by the June 7 recall of former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜).
Photo: Shih Hsiao-kuang, Taipei Times
While Han was mayor, Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said that “the people cannot prosper if they could not live in safety” and had visited Kaohsiung to oversee police matters, Wang said.
Hsu’s change in attitude toward Chen seems to suggest that party interests come before the country, Wang added.
Su is breaching Executive Yuan internal regulations by not convening national safety meetings every two months, committee deputy director-general Huang Tzu-che (黃子哲) said.
In his two years and three months as premier, Su has only convened the meeting five times, as opposed to the eight times that former premier William Lai (賴清德) had convened them during his one-year-and-four-month term, he said.
KMT Kaohsiung City Councilor Chiu Yu-hsuang (邱于軒) called on Su to hold Chen to the same standards as he did Han in assessing Kaohsiung’s safety ratings.
Su has tapped Hsu and NPA Director-General Chen Ja-chin (陳家欽) to oversee efforts to curb crime in New Taipei City and Kaohsiung, Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said.
Police efforts to combat crime has risen 32 percentage points from 48 percent in 2010 to 80 percent last year, Lo said, citing National Chung Cheng University data.
The government will continue to work hard to keep the public safe, Lo added.
Additional reporting by Lee Hsin-fang
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
UNDER PRESSURE: The report cited numerous events that have happened this year to show increased coercion from China, such as military drills and legal threats The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to reinforce its “one China” principle and the idea that Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China by hosting celebratory events this year for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the “retrocession” of Taiwan and the establishment of the UN, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in its latest report to the Legislative Yuan. Taking advantage of the significant anniversaries, Chinese officials are attempting to assert China’s sovereignty over Taiwan through interviews with international news media and cross-strait exchange events, the report said. Beijing intends to reinforce its “one China” principle
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
RSS