Legislative Speaker You Si-kun yesterday asked Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers not to throw pig entrails during a legislative session later this week to deliberate on the government’s decision to allow imports of US pork containing ractopamine residue.
On Friday, a consensus was reached during cross-caucus negotiations that the legislature would on Thursday review nine administrative directives related to allowing imports of US pork containing traces of the feed additive. A vote on the nine directives is expected.
The KMT caucus has said that it would protest the issue inside and outside the Legislative Yuan, and would mobilize party supporters.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“I hope the protests will be carried out within reason, within the law and be done in an orderly manner,” You said, reminding lawmakers of an incident last month, when the KMT caucus threw pig innards at Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) while he spoke about the US pork issue at the legislature.
“If that happens again, with foreign and domestic media making reports ... it would be very harmful for Taiwan’s international image,” You added.
In related news, the KMT’s Department of International Affairs yesterday issued a response to its Democratic Progressive Party counterpart regarding American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Brent Christensen’s meeting with Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) at the Taichung City Government offices on Wednesday.
Lu at the meeting told Christensen that the Taichung City Council, as well as the city’s residents, were opposed to lifting the ban on US pork containing ractopamine.
On Thursday, the DPP Department of International Affairs on Facebook cited media reports as saying that the meeting was originally to be held behind closed doors, but was “unilaterally turned into an event open to the media by the Taichung City Government.”
“Paging #ChairmanJohnnyChiang, do you agree with Taichung City Mayor Shiow-Yen Lu’s diplomatic ambush on AIT, which is in fact an act jeopardizing the US-Taiwan mutual trust foundation?” the DPP department wrote, referring to KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang.
“Paging Chairman Johnny Chiang, did yesterday’s diplomatic ambush on AIT represent KMT’s ‘pro-US stance?’” the DPP wrote on Twitter the same day.
The KMT at the time responded on Twitter, saying that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) “ambushed every single person on #Taiwan with #ractopork on August 28th,” referring to the day Tsai announced the government’s decision to allow imports of US pork containing the feed additive.
“We are pro-#US, but we are even more pro-#Taiwan!” it added.
“The DPP refuses to change its bad habit of arbitrarily labeling and arbitrarily disparaging others,” the KMT Department of International Affairs said in a statement yesterday, adding that the “true ambush” was on the health of Taiwanese.
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