Greenpeace Taiwan yesterday erected a sculpture of a hand holding a yellow card in front of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) headquarters in Taipei, urging the two parties to address fisheries policy after Taiwan was given a yellow card warning over illegal fishing activities in September.
The European Commission in October identified Taiwan as an uncooperative nation in the fight against illegal fishing after a Taiwanese ship was found to have broken a shark-fin harvest law in waters near Papua New Guinea.
Taiwan’s aquatic products could be banned in EU markets if the nation is not able to resolve the issue in six months.
Photo: Chen Wei-han, Taipei Times
Greenpeace Taiwan said that policies tabled by the two parties did not address illegal fishing, distant fishing management or remedy measures in response to the yellow card warning, with the KMT’s platform leaning toward tourism and the DPP’s toward offshore energy and marine current power development.
The organization called on the parties to revise the Fisheries Act (漁業法) to clamp down on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, establish a traceability system for aquatic products and ensure information transparency.
The organization’s ocean campaigner Lisa Tsai (蔡佩芸) said: “We have not seen any specific policy design on fisheries resources management on a national scale despite the two parties’ and the Fisheries Agency’s repeated pledges to do so. That is why we are here today, to urge them to honor their pledge.”
DPP official Yang Chang-chen (楊長鎮) said that the party supports the reformation of the fishing industry and would move to synchronizing national regulations with international standards, as well as enacting soft laws.
KMT official Huang Po-chung (黃柏均) said that the KMT accepts the group’s demands and the party also proposed to set up an environmentally friendly fishing fleet at each of the nation’s fishing villages to protect fishery resources and human rights.
Fisheries Agency Deputy Director Huang Hung-yan (黃鴻燕) said the agency is revising the act in accordance with the EU standards by substantially raising the fine limit for illegal fishing, and it would submit the draft amendment to the Legislative Yuan for review in the next legislative session in February.
Theaters and institutions in Taiwan have received 28 threatening e-mails, including bomb threats, since a documentary critical of China began being screened across the nation last month, the National Security Bureau said yesterday. The actions are part of China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty, it said. State Organs (國有器官) documents allegations that Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities. From last month to Friday last week, 28 incidents have been reported of theaters or institutions receiving threats, including bomb and shooting threats, if they did not stop showing the documentary, the bureau said. Although the threats were not carried out,
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
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The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday confirmed that Chinese students visiting Taiwan at the invitation of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation were almost all affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). During yesterday’s meeting convened by the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) asked whether the visit was a way to spread China’s so-called “united front” rhetoric, to which MAC Deputy Ministry Shen You-chung (沈有忠) responded with the CCP comment. The MAC noticed that the Chinese individuals visiting Taiwan, including those in sports, education, or religion, have had increasingly impressive backgrounds, demonstrating that the
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