Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) suggested yesterday that the government impose fines of up to NT$30 million (US$911,854) on makers of counterfeit municipal garbage bags, saying that imposing heavy fines is the only effective way of stopping the practice.
According to Ma, Taipei City has decided to crack down on after recent spate of plastic garbage bag forgery cases.
Some of the fake garbage bags look so similar to ones made under the city government's authority that officials from the Taipei Bureau of Environmental Protection could not tell the difference between the fakes and the genuine bags at a press conference held Friday.
Speaking at another press conference yesterday, Ma said the city government has drafted a proposal that would raise fines for garbage bag forgery from the current range of NT$30,000-NT$100,000 to NT$300,000-NT$30 million and impose jail terms of 3-7 years on counterfeiters. He said the strict measures are intended to deter the illegal practice once and for all.
According to Ma, the Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration (環保署) has agreed to support a legislative amendment to related waste management and cleaning statutes so as to legitimize the heavy penalties for garbage bag counterfeiting.
Taipei is the first and so far the only city in Taiwan to adopt a garbage fee collection system, in which residents have to purchase the city government's official bags, the price of which includes a disposal fee.
Since Taipei's garbage collection system was implemented last July, the city's average daily garbage volume per person has dropped to 1.1kg, compared to about 3.3kg before.
The garbage fee collection system, which earns the city about NT$1.2 billion a month, has also attracted makers and suppliers of counterfeit garbage bags. According to Taipei City police headquarters, they received information on 56 cases of bag counterfeiting over the last several months and have cracked 14 of them.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
CONSISTENT COMMITMENT: The American Institute in Taiwan director said that the US would expand investment and trade relationships to make both nations more prosperous The US would not abandon its commitment to Taiwan, and would make Taiwan safer, stronger and more prosperous, American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said. “The US’ commitment to Taiwan has been consistent over many administrations and over many years, and we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan, including our opposition to any attempt to use force or coercion to change Taiwan’s status,” he said in an exclusive interview with the Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Friday last week, which was published in the Chinese-language newspaper yesterday. The US would double down on its efforts