■ FOOD
Labeling rules tightened
Starting July 1, vegetable food manufacturers will be fined between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000 if they do not accurately label their products to help vegetarians avoid meat or animal byproducts, the Department of Health said yesterday. Food Safety Department official Feng Jun-lan (馮潤蘭) said five categories would be established. There are 2 million vegetarians in Taiwan and the department often receives complaints about unclear food labels or vegetarian foods containing meat products, Feng said. Manufacturers would also face a fine of between NT$40,000 and NT$200,000 if their vegetarian products are found to contain meat or related products.
■ EDUCATION
Lunch program to grow
Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said all elementary and junior high school students could receive free lunches, starting in the next school year. He said a NT$17.2 billion (US$498 million) budget would be earmarked to finance the nationwide program, which would begin in September at the earliest. The Executive Yuan has already budgeted NT$1.2 billion this year to help low and middle-income families hurt by sudden disasters, Liu said, and part of that money subsidizes school lunches for their children. At a legislative question-and-answer session, he told Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆) that he would meet with local government heads to study the possibility of providing free lunches to all elementary and junior high school students, regardless of income. Some local authorities, including those in Taitung, Changhua, Miaoli and Hsinchu counties, have already started implementing such a program, Tsai said.
■ LABOR
Farming proves popular
A Kaohsiung County plan aimed at getting jobless workers into farming proved more popular than anticipated, with 300 people applying for 90 spots, Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) said yesterday. The program will be run on a 20-hectare plot leased from state-run Taiwan Sugar Co by the county’s Agricultural Affairs Bureau, Yang said. Given the huge number of applicants, priority will be given to those made redundant, Yang said. Participants will have their land rental fees paid for by the government for two years and receive a start-up bonus of NT$2,000. If the program proves successful, the county will consider expanding it by leasing another 25 hectares, Yang said.
■ CULTURE
Museum plans symposium
The National Palace Museum (NPM) will hold a cross-strait academic symposium in October to coincide with a planned exhibition on the Qing Dynasty’s Emperor Yongzheng, museum Director Chou Kung-shin (周功鑫) said. Chou said on Monday that he had proposed the seminar after reaching several agreements with Zheng Xinmiao (鄭欣淼), director of Beijing’s National Palace Museum, in recent weeks. Most of the exhibits will be from the NPM’s collection, while others will be loaned by Beijing, Chou said. The symposium will focus on topics related to Yongzheng, Chou said, adding that Zheng would be invited to attend, along with the curators of the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musee d’Orsay, the Louvre and the Versailles museum.
SCENARIOS: A potential conflict with Beijing would not be similar to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and China would target energy and food supplies, a researcher said China is likely to continue using economic and cyberoperations against Taiwan to force it to capitulate without resorting to a military attack, Fox News reported yesterday, citing the outcome of a tabletop exercise. Washington-based think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) earlier this month held a tabletop exercise in Taipei focusing on Beijing’s use of economic and cybercoercion against Taiwan. The FDD mentioned an “anaconda strategy,” in which Beijing would likely use cyberwarfare and disinformation campaigns followed by a blockade or other measures to strangulate Taiwan, rather than attempting an invasion, the report said. A large-scale cyberattack would be
HSINCHU CASES: Five people among 35 who were reported being sick were still in hospital after eating at a vendor in a market in Jhubei, the local health agency said Thirty-five people have sought medical treatment for acute symptoms after allegedly eating banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) from a vendor in Jhubei City (竹北), the Hsinchu County Public Health Bureau said yesterday. The bureau said that since Saturday, it has received several reports of suspected food poisoning from hospitals. The vendor has been ordered to temporarily suspend its business, it said, adding that tests were being conducted to determine whether the people had food poisoning, with results expected in about two weeks. A preliminary investigation showed that the people who sought treatment had recently eaten banh mi at a vendor at a retail market
GOOD MODEL: Speaking at his book launch, Law said that Taiwan is the most democratic Chinese-speaking country, which is why Hong Kongers relocated here China has suffocated Hong Kong’s civil society and its next target could be Taiwan, Nathan Law (羅冠聰), cofounder of the disbanded pro-democracy Hong Kong political party Demosisto, said in Taipei yesterday. Law made the remarks at a launch in Taipei for his book When the Wind Blows — the Struggles for Freedom of Hong Kong (時代推著我們前行:羅冠聰的香港備忘錄). Law has been living in the UK since he fled Hong Kong in 2020, and the book is about his fighting for the cause of freedom in the area. He was granted political asylum in 2021. “Fleeing is a long and distressing process, but it also
IMITATING OTHERS? Tsai Ing-wen’s office said the former president rents a commercial unit for her personal office and had never used election funds to purchase real estate Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday confirmed that he used about NT$43 million (US$1.35 million) from his presidential election subsidy to purchase an office unit near the Legislative Yuan in May. Ko made the remarks after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) earlier in the day told a news conference that she received a tip-off that the TPP chairman had purchased a 48.76 ping (161.2m2) office unit at Jinan Building (濟南大樓), a commercial building in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District (中正). Lin said that Ko purchased the unit on May 10, paying about NT$43 million in cash,