Smoking is now prohibited at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, the hall’s management office said yesterday, after a celebrity accused it of removing trees to establish a smoking area.
The office said it would no longer permit smoking in previously designated areas, effective immediately, following a complaint a day earlier by entertainer Tai Chih-yuan (邰智源).
It also denied that trees were removed to create a smoking area, saying it cut down tall trees with brown root rot to prevent them from falling over and causing injury.
Photo courtesy of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
The soil was also disinfected to prevent the disease from spreading, it added.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the Taipei City Government would help enforce the no smoking policy.
Regarding a call by the John Tung Foundation to fine the hall for establishing smoking areas in contravention of regulations, the Taipei Department of Health said it had not received any complaints.
Although the memorial is a cultural establishment and therefore should be entirely smoke-free under the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (菸害防治法), the smoking areas it previously established did not exceed half of all outdoor spaces and were in line with regulations, Health Promotion Division Director-General Lin Hsueh-lan (林雪蘭) said.
In a statement released yesterday, Tai called on the Ministry of Culture to “do something cultural” about the issue.
He urged the ministry to put up signs in Chinese and English at the hall’s entrances stating that smoking is banned.
Responding to comments about upholding smokers’ rights, Tai suggested setting up walled-off spaces in front of the National Central Library for smokers, adding that funding for the areas should come from tobacco health and welfare surcharges.
If national sites adopt such policies, local governments would follow suit and implement similar facilities at outdoor locations, such as swimming pools or tracks, Tai said.
The law is only effective to a limit, and it is up to the public to follow the rules, Tai said, adding that a nation is powerful not just because of the vastness of its territory or strength of its military, but also because of the strength of character of its citizens.
Additional reporting by Chiu Yi-chin
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
RSS