Leaders of pro-localization organizations yesterday urged the public to vote “no” on tomorrow’s four referendums, as they accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of collaborating with China to ruin Taiwan’s economy and thereby isolate it from the international community.
On the ballot will be questions related to banning pork imports containing traces of the leanness-enhancing additive ractopamine, relocation of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal project to protect algal reefs off Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音), resuming construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) and holding referendums alongside national elections.
The Democratic Progressive Party government has urged voters to vote “no” on all four, while the KMT has urged voters to vote “yes.”
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
“The KMT is scheming to oppose pork imports containing traces of ractopamine. Their excuse is to portray it as a health safety issue, which is a misrepresentation. They do not respect the scientific evidence and refuse to comply with international standards,” Taiwan United Nations Alliance chairman Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
“The KMT is using the pork issue to undermine people’s trust in our government, and to sabotage Taiwan-US ties. If this referendum passes, it will harm Taiwan’s international status, and also damage our foreign affairs and economic development,” Twu said.
Taiwan Environmental Protection Union president Liu Jyh-jian (劉志堅) said that his organization supports the Cabinet’s revised plan, relocating the LNG terminal project to 1.2km from the shoreline, thereby averting damage to the algal reef.
“We urge people to vote ‘no’ on the referendum, because the KMT is malicious and unscrupulous... It wants to resume construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, but if something goes wrong, the residents of Taipei and New Taipei City, even those of Yilan County, could all be killed,” Southern Taiwan Society director Weng Ming-chang (翁銘章) said.
Weng cited comments made the previous day by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光), who said that Chinese do not eat pork that contains traces of ractopamine, so Taiwanese should not import it or eat it.
“People in Taiwan should never listen to the Chinese government. If Chinese officials told their people to eat feces, would we follow them and start eating feces? No, we would not,” Weng said.
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