FOOD SAFETY
Japanese fish intercepted
A shipment of more than 18,000kg of frozen fish from Japan was rejected at the border due to excessive levels of cadmium, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. The batch of 18,450kg of frozen banded blue sprat would be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, the agency said in its weekly report on intercepted imports. The Japanese fish was among nine shipments stopped at Taiwan’s border over the past week, including fresh mangosteens from Thailand, cassava cakes from Indonesia, green beans from South Africa and black sesame from Myanmar, it said. Over the past six months, two shipments of frozen Japanese banded blue sprat imported by two different companies had been found to contain excessive levels of cadmium, prompting the FDA to increase the frequency of checks, it said. A 2,696kg batch of fresh mangosteens from Thailand imported by the Greather Fruit Trading Co was also found to contain excessive levels of cadmium, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Food and Drug Administration
NATIONAL DEFENSE
Bureau names female chief
The military is soon to welcome its first female Political Warfare Bureau chief, Lieutenant General Chen Yu-lin (陳育琳), a military source said. Chen, the director-general of the Army Command Headquarters’ Political Warfare Department, is to take up the post as head of the bureau on Sunday, the day Lieutenant General Yang An (楊安) retires from the position, the source said. The Political Warfare Bureau is responsible for psychological warfare to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s decades-long efforts to gain influence over individuals and organizations inside and outside of China, including in Taiwan. Chen’s current post is to be assumed by former military spokesman Major General Shih Shun-wen (史順文), who heads the Sixth Army Corps’ Political Warfare Department, the source said. As the position of chief of the Army Command Headquarters’ Political Warfare Department is reserved for a two-star general, Shih is soon to be promoted, they said.
DIPLOMACY
Taipei, Seoul mayors meet
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) on Monday met with Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon in the South Korean capital to witness the signing of a memorandum of understanding on youth affairs cooperation between the two cities. At the meeting, Chiang expressed the hope of promoting mutual visits by talented young people from the two cities and sharing spaces in the cities’ innovation incubation centers. Commending Seoul’s “Happy Youth Project,” which aims to increase the city’s investment in its 3 million young citizens by nearly ninefold, Chiang said that Taipei would soon establish a youth affairs department, and he hoped to draw on Seoul’s experience to shape it. The youth policies adopted by Seoul include technical training to match post-graduation employment and increasing investment in housing for young people, Oh said. The city has also established a planning group to develop other policies oriented toward young people, he said. Chiang also spoke of the friendship between Taipei and Seoul, which are celebrating their 55th year as sister cities.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
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