The government should ban the purchase and delivery of meat products from foreign-based shopping Web sites, such as Taobao and Pinduoduo, to better prevent African swine flu (ASF) outbreak in Taiwan, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said yesterday.
Taobao has more than 130,000 meat-related products for sale, she said, adding that the loophole undermines food safety and could be a national security issue.
She urged the Cabinet to prohibit the purchase and delivery of meat products from foreign-based online platforms, and to perform strict checks on food items at customs.
Photo: Huang Hsu-lei, Taipei Times
People are ordering sausages, pork floss, pork jerky, canned meat products and other pork or meat items on Taobao and Pinduoduo, Wu said.
“They come in small packages, so they could fly under the radar of Taiwan’s border inspection authorities,” she said.
“We did an online search for ‘Taobao meat products,’ and an advertisement jumped out saying, ‘You can buy all kinds of foodstuffs here,’ followed by a tagline that said the platform currently has 130,873 meat-related items for sale,” Wu said.
“Taobao and Pinduoduo are based in China, and meat products they sell to Taiwanese customers could potentially contain ASF or other contagious viral diseases,” she said. “Each of them could be seen as a biological weapon that could endanger our food supply chain and wreak havoc on Taiwan’s economy.”
“This is an crisis that is encroaching on Taiwan,” Wu said, adding that Chunghwa Post has been processing massive numbers of Taobao and Pinduoduo packages since August, with orders coming in at ports in Taichung and Kaohsiung and delivered to warehouses across the country.
Chunghwa Post has since August processed more than 50 cargo containers containing more than 60,000 packages in Taichung and about 60 cargo containers, with more than 90,000 packages, in Kaohsiung, she said.
“Even Chunghwa Post employees were scared of handling food packages from China, because many were sausages, meat items or moon cakes containing pork,” she added.
The Ministry of Agriculture has already mandated a ban on purchasing meat products from PChome and Shopee, e-commerce Web sites with offices based in Taiwan, “but they did not impose such a ban on foreign-based shopping sites,” she said.
Wu called for the loophole to be patched up by amending the Customs Anti-Smuggling Act (海關緝私條例) and the Act on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Animal Disease (動物傳染病防治條例).
“Cabinet officials must take action now,” she said, calling for stricter border control checks, and more severe fines and punishment for those who contravene the meat policy.
In related news, Chunghua Post regional supervisors said that since August, they have needed to work extra shifts and pay higher wages due to the increase in overtime work to process the large volume of packages arriving from China.
The packages were mainly online purchases from Taobao and Pinduoduo, they said, adding that many were labeled as containing meat products, sausages and items with pork ingredient.
All inbound parcels must undergo X-ray checks at customs and those suspected to contain animal or plant matter would be reported to local authorities for further inspections, Chunghwa Post said, adding that dogs would also used to help occasionally.
Additional reporting by Esme Yeh
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
RSS