More cities and counties have joined a nationwide boycott against food products made by Wei Chuan Food Corp (味全) and other Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) subsidiaries as the Food and Drug Administration endeavors to collect more evidence to determine whether the conglomerate adulterated its cooking lard products with animal feed oil.
By press time last night, the nation’s five special municipalities, along with 14 cities and counties, had announced plans to stop selling Ting Hsin International’s products at government agencies and public schools. Hualien County had not.
Some made the announcements yesterday, after others did so late on Friday, following calls from several civic groups and prominent individuals for consumers to refuse to purchase goods and services from the controversy-plagued conglomerate and its subsidiaries.
Photo: Chou Szu-yu, Taipei Times
“Ting Hsin International Group’s decision to produce ‘black-hearted’ cooking oil shows that it has deviated from its business ethics and corporate social responsibility. In view of this, the bureau has determined to … weigh in on the boycott campaign initiated by civic groups,” the Greater Kaohsiung Government Bureau of Education said yesterday in a press release.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said that what he described as unscrupulous companies also deserved fines high enough to bankrupt them, while New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) said companies that failed to uphold ethics and fulfill corporate social responsibility should be subjected not only to the law, but also to the harshest condemnation from the public.
Meanwhile, the National Civil Servant Association, a federation of civil servant associations, issued a statement yesterday calling on its members to boycott food products manufactured by “black-hearted” enterprises, including Ting Hsin, and to put the businesses on the blacklist restricted from government procurement contracts.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The National Alliance of Parents Organization and the Secondary and Elementary School Principals Association released a joint statement yesterday urging the public to stop buying Ting Hsin food items.
The National Federation of Teachers Unions said it was considering mobilizing teachers across the nation to take to the streets to demand apologies and compensation from the conglomerate.
The Consumers’ Foundation said that it would not rule out organizing civic activities nationwide to support a boycott because “public authorities are no longer reliable.”
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan and CNA
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’