The government promised yesterday to “do all it can,” including toughening laws and punishing “black-hearted” entrepreneurs, to restore people’s confidence in the nation’s food safety system.
In response to the second open letter by “an angry citizen,” who published their complaint in the form of a front-page Apple Daily advertisement, the Executive Yuan said that it “will absolutely not evade its responsibility and will keep making efforts endlessly.”
The angry citizen, in their letter titled “Letter to Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺),” accused the government led by Jiang and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of failing to ease people’s concerns over food safety since the “toxic starch” scandal in May last year, in which Uni-President Enterprises Corp was involved, but escaped unscathed.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
A series of food safety scandals have continued to rock the nation and its neighboring countries, including October last year’s “black-hearted oil” incident, in which copper chlorophyll was found in adulterated edible oil.
The two top government leaders’ response to the scandal was also published in yesterday’s issue of the Chinese-language Apple Daily, in which Ma said: “It only hurts our feelings, not our bodies,” and Jiang said: “Like every one of you, I’m worried about food safety, so in my home, we use only imported olive oil.”
“The responses from both of you to these incidents have flabbergasted the public, hurting not only their feelings, but also their physical health,” the citizen said.
The citizen went on to accuse the government of not doing enough to punish law-breaking businesspeople and not alleviating people’s concerns about food safety in Taiwan.
The citizen expanded their complaints to the government’s missteps over the past few years in terms of economic development, social order, labor rights and information security.
In response, Executive Yuan spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) yesterday said the government is as worried about food safety and other issues as the general public.
“The Executive Yuan has speedily introduced eight measures to combat the food safety scandals, including increasing fines imposed on culprits, hiking cash rewards for those alerting the authorities and establishing a hotline for public tipoffs,” Sun said.
The other five measures are beefing up controls of all oil products, managing the recycling of used oils, enforcing the existing three-layer quality control system, tracking the sources and manufacturing processes for all food items and reforming the goods manufacturing practice system for the food industry.
Sun said the government has not finished its crackdown on illegal manufacturers.
“We’ve been referring all suspected businesses to the relevant authorities, based on the evidence collected thus far,” Sun said.
“We will pursue all law-breaking cases to the end, bringing justice to all, no matter how big the suspected conglomerates are and how big a share they enjoy of the consumer market,” he said.
Admitting that there will be “pains” during the crackdown, Sun said: “The government is determined to set Taiwan’s food industry on a new track and restore people’s confidence in food safety.”
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
A former member of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), formerly known as SEAL Team 6, said in an interview with Business Insider that the elite unit’s role in a Taiwan Strait conflict would be more limited than some might expect. The report follows an earlier one in September by the Financial Times, which said the “clandestine US Navy commando unit” has been training for missions to help Taiwan if it is invaded by China. “You don’t use a scalpel for a job a hammer can do,” the former Navy Seal said to Business Insider on condition of anonymity.
RSS