Scores of activists protested in front of the Department of Health yesterday to show their opposition to an anticipated full opening of Taiwan’s market to US beef.
The protesters urged the government to hold public hearings before making a final decision.
After learning from reports that the government is preparing to ease restrictions on US beef imports, activists from a number of civic groups said that the government should not sacrifice the public’s health for the sake of political and economic benefits.
The government currently only allows the import of boneless beef from cattle under 30 months of age, but may lift or ease the constraints under intense lobbying from the US government.
Likening opening the market to US beef exports to arms procurement, Green Party Taiwan Spokesman Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said that both involve politics and that the government should not put public health at risk for short-term gains, including the possibility of negotiating and signing a Taiwan-US free-trade agreement.
Hu Ya-mei (胡雅美), president of the Homemakers’ Union and Foundation, said that prion proteins, the agents that cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, are not easily killed by cooking or ultraviolet rays and can survive in any part of an infected cow, posing a hazard to human health.
The best way to stay safe, Hu said, is a full ban on US beef imports.
The groups demanded that the Department of Health hold public hearings before making a decision on whether to relax or tighten restrictions on US beef imports and urged that all beef and beef-related products should be labeled with the place of production and a risk warning.
Taiwan banned US beef in 2003 when a case of mad cow disease was diagnosed in Seattle.
The ban was lifted in 2005 to allow imports of US deboned beef from cattle aged under 30 months, but the government reimposed a complete ban two months later when a second BSE case was discovered in the US.
In 2006, the government agreed to allow beef imports once again, but limited imports to boneless beef from cattle younger than 30 months of age produced by certified slaughterhouses.
Over the past three years, beef imports from the US have increased annually and the US now supplies around 32 percent of Taiwan’s beef, with the rest coming mainly from New Zealand and Australia.
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
China sent 50 military planes and vessels to the vicinity of Taiwan in the 24 hours starting at 6am on Friday, while President William Lai (賴清德) was visiting Kinmen for the first time since taking office in May to mark the 66th anniversary of the 823 Artillery Bombardment. Flight paths released yesterday by the Ministry of National Defense showed that 38 military aircraft were detected in Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), the highest number recorded in recent weeks. The figure included 32 that crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or its extension. Of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft
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