The Ministry of Agriculture yesterday urged China to set standards and avoid politically motivated moves after Beijing lifted its ban on Taiwanese grouper imports for some fish farmers.
China in June last year banned Taiwanese groupers for allegedly containing banned chemicals and excessive levels of oxytetracycline.
The Chinese General Administration of Customs yesterday said that it had determined to lift the ban after “a comprehensive evaluation of Taiwan’s rectification measures.”
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
Only “qualified and registered fish farms” are allowed to export groupers to China, it said.
Seven farms have completed the registration and could start exporting immediately, a list published on the agency’s Web site showed.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) in a press release said that Taiwanese grouper farmers had expressed willingness to take effective measures to ensure the safety of their exports.
Zhu in particular named Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Policy Committee vice chair Su Ching-chuan (蘇清泉), who also heads an agricultural trade organization, and Huang Yi-cheng (黃一成), head of the Taiwan Cross-Strait Agricultural and Fishery Exchange Development Investment Association, saying that the two “actively guided fish farmers to make corrective measures and led them to visit China.”
By adhering to the so-called “1992 consensus” and opposing Taiwanese independence, issues between the two sides of the Strait could easily be resolved, she said.
The “1992 consensus” refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party that both sides of the Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said that China had ignored seven attempts to engage in a science-based dialogue since the ban was imposed.
Beijing acknowledged Taiwan’s improvement in the production and management of groupers, but unilaterally opened its market to only seven farms, which was not in line with international practice, the ministry said.
Taiwan was neither consulted during the process nor informed of the quarantine standard, it said, adding that there is a lack of consistent rules for Taiwanese farmers to follow.
Beijing bypassing the government to reach an agreement with the KMT is a “blatant act of interference” in the nation’s presidential election next month, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research assistant researcher Wang Kuo-chen (王國臣) said.
Banning grouper imports due to residues of prohibited chemicals while lifting the ban due to the “1992 consensus” did not make sense, he said.
Association of Chinese Elite Leadership secretary-general Wang Chih-sheng (王智盛) said that Beijing is taking sophisticated measures to interfere with Taiwan’s elections.
China is providing economic incentives to those who accept the “1992 consensus” and its “one China” principle while threatening those who do not, he said.
Prior to lifting the ban, Beijing on Thursday announced that it is to suspend tariff relief provided under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), on imports of 12 Taiwanese petrochemical products from Jan. 1.
The move was Beijing’s intimidation against Taiwanese voters, to indicate that if the Democratic Progressive Party wins the election, the economy would collapse, Wang Chih-sheng said.
China is dividing Taiwanese into groups and handing out incentives or punishments based on political reasons to sway voters, said Eric Chiou (邱奕宏), associate professor of the Center for Human Sciences at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University.
The government should conduct a comprehensive risk assessment on doing business with China and work with other countries to establish an early warning mechanism for industries, he said.
The timing of Beijing’s announcement is “clearly intended to suppress the freedom of choice of Taiwanese and use economic coercion to steer Taiwan’s democratic vote in a direction that suits China,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday.
Additional reporting by Yang Yuan-ting
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
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
RSS