Tasa Meng Corp (采盟), which runs Taiwan Duty Free, could be fined up to NT$1 million (US$30,737) after the owner and employees took center stage in a photograph with government officials and the returning Premier12 baseball champions at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Monday evening.
When Taiwan’s national baseball team arrived home fresh from their World Baseball Softball Confederation Premier12 championship victory in Tokyo, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) was at the airport with Chinese Professional Baseball League commissioner Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) to welcome back the team.
However, after Hsiao and Tsai took a photograph with the team, Tasa Meng chairwoman Ku Su-chin (古素琴) and her employees, dressed in bright yellow uniforms, pushed their way to the front right next to Hsiao and asked her to take a group photograph with them and a banner showing the name of the store.
Photo: CNA
Tasa Meng employees were accused of “stealing the spotlight” by posing in front of the team, leaving the players in the background.
The company’s unauthorized banners and advertisements during the team’s arrival were highly inappropriate, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) told reporters at the legislature in Taipei yesterday.
Taoyuan International Airport Corp must determine accountability and Tasa Meng must be fined, Chen said.
The company’s actions not only harmed the airport’s image, but disrupted airport operations, and “chaos would ensue” if other stores similarly disregarded airport protocol, he said.
Tasa Meng’s behavior contravenes their contractual obligations to airport operations, and the company could face a fine of NT$200,000 to NT$1 million, Taoyuan International Airport Corp chief executive officer Fan Hsiao-lun (范孝倫) said.
Initial investigations point to a maximum fine of NT$1 million and administrative procedures would follow to formalize the penalty, Fan said.
Meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Loh Mei-ling (羅美玲) asked National Security Bureau (NSB) officials to explain the “lack of security deployments” at the airport.
NSB Special Service Command Center deputy head Lee Ching-jan (李慶然) said the incident occurred at arrivals in a restricted area, where the situation and work necessary to ensure security was “relatively simple.”
The Sports Administration, the Aviation Police Bureau and other agencies had surveyed the site in advance to ensure it was safe, Lee said.
Loh nonetheless asked the bureau to solemnly review its work, noting that allowing the store owner and employees to suddenly approach Hsiao for a photograph highlighted security flaws that could have posed a grave danger to the vice president.
Separately, Ku yesterday issued an apology, saying that she would personally reach out to express remorse.
The company yesterday also released a statement expressing its “sincere and heartfelt” apologies to the public and the athletes.
“Baseball unites Taiwanese, and the passion and efforts of fans and athletes deserve the utmost respect and support,” the statement said.
The company pledged to allocate NT$30 million over five years to fund a seed project for the development of youth baseball in Taiwan.
The project would support underprivileged youth baseball teams by improving their training facilities and resources, it said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS