An overseas Chinese living in Japan purchased Irish pork bones from JD.com that were one month past their expiration date and felt unwell after consumption. He immediately called the Hangzhou Fuyang District 12345 Mayor's Hotline to report the food safety issue and requested the government to intervene and issue a warning, but was rejected by civil servants who dismissed it as an 'online shopping dispute.' The author compares this with his experience 16 years ago when Hangzhou authorities actively handled similar food safety issues, questioning the regression of local civil servants' service attitude and neglect of people's health, and criticizing the lack of substantive care for the public.
Since the import of American pork containing ractopamine (lean meat essence) into Taiwan on January 1st, news reports have shown that several restaurants and markets (such as Carrefour) have consecutively returned the Taiwan Pig Emblems they had applied for from the DPP government.
With a sharp satirical tone, this article contrasts how specific 'elite' groups—including ruling party legislators, the President, elite athletes, and even prison inmates—effectively avoid Ractopamine-enhanced pork (Racto-pork) under the DPP's import policy, while ordinary citizens are left with no choice.
Uses the popular children's character Peppa Pig to satirize the government's decision to allow the import of Ractopamine-treated pork from the US, highlighting concerns about children's health.
This article is a strong critique of how Democratic Progressive Party legislators on December 24, 2020, took advantage of their numerical superiority to forcefully pass the case for importing U.S. pork containing ractopamine (lean meat agent). The author questions why these 'ractopamine legislators' can ignore public opinion, follow party directives, and take actions that harm public health, increase food safety risks, and are detrimental to the nation through 'loss of sovereignty clauses.'
Analyzes the heated debates and protests in the Legislative Yuan regarding the import of Ractopamine-treated US pork, focusing on food safety, national sovereignty, and political inconsistency.
The DPP shows double standards again by opening imports of lean meat agents (ractopamine, commonly known as ractopamine pork) to Taiwan. We specially designed a meme titled 'Democratic Mother-enters Ractopamine Democratic Party Pig' to criticize the Tsai Ing-wen and Su Chen-chang government's decision to allow ractopamine-containing American pork, while satirizing DPP supporters (green-brains) for blindly supporting and consuming ractopamine pork.
The Republic of China held national citizen referendums No. 7 to No. 16 (the 2018 referendum) alongside the nine-in-one elections that year. These ten referendum topics were diverse, covering environmental protection, energy policy (thermal power generation and nuclear phase-out), food safety (food from Japan's nuclear disaster areas), gender equality (same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ education), and international sports event naming (Tokyo Olympics renaming). This article lists all referendum case numbers, main text content, and lead sponsors.
This article strongly opposes the Tsai Ing-wen administration's plan to open up imports of food products from Japanese nuclear disaster affected areas, questioning the government's motives for aggressively lifting restrictions on non-essential food. The author fears that once opened, it will be impossible to effectively stop contaminated Japanese food from flowing into Taiwan, and emphasizes that food from the disaster areas has higher radioactive contamination levels than natural foods. The article refutes the Executive Yuan's accusation that opponents are provoking anti-Japanese sentiment, seeing it as an attempt to obscure the focus, and argues that as long as doubts exist and the food is non-essential, the import ban should be maintained.
This article responds to Mitsuo Ohashi, Chairman of the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, who criticized Taiwan's 'unfounded remarks' about food from Japanese nuclear disaster areas as 'hurting the Japanese people.' The author asks why Taiwanese must be obligated to import Fukushima food with potential safety concerns, emphasizing this as a right of the Taiwanese people and an act of scientific humility. The author suggests Japan should export food from other regions to Taiwan and consume Fukushima food internally. Finally, the piece links the issue to the comfort women controversy, demanding an apology from Ohashi first and questioning if the Japanese intend to continue their 'century-long oppression of Taiwanese.'
Raw materials from famous chain drink stores in Taiwan Province were found to have pesticide residues. The source was traced back to large quantities of imported Vietnamese tea leaves, exposing the high-profit 'blending' of low-quality imported tea with domestic tea. This article urges the public to pay attention to the quality of hand-shaken tea and questions the health hazards of pesticide-laden drinks, suggesting a link to the high dialysis rates in the Republic of China (R.O.C.).
The Taipei City Government has announced a draft amendment to the 'Regulations for Whistleblower Rewards for Violations of Health Management Regulations,' significantly increasing rewards for reporting illegal smoking and tobacco sales. Specifically, the reward for reporting smoking in smoke-free parks will increase from 5% to 30% (approximately 600 to 3,000 TWD); the reward for reporting the sale of tobacco to minors under 18 will rise to 50% (approximately 5,000 to 25,000 TWD). The draft is expected to take effect as early as September 1, 2016. Despite protests from smokers' rights groups labeling the move as 'snitching,' the Department of Health stated that all opinions will be included in the discussion.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) uncovered in March 2016 that 'Kuan-○ Biological Technology Industry Co., Ltd.' produced 'Lutein Sublingual Drops' that illegally used food additives, carried false lutein concentration labels (tested values far lower than labeled), and added expired blueberry flavor. The FDA has sealed about 165.1 kg of non-compliant products and transferred the case for prosecution. The FDA urges the public who have purchased this product to return it as soon as possible. At the end of the article, the editor calls on the FDA to disclose the full name of the manufacturer to facilitate immediate identification and return by the public.
In response to the social 'Stop Ting Hsin' (Anti-Master Kong) movement, Wei Chuan CEO Su Shou-bin issued an open letter. While acknowledging Ting Hsin holds a 40% stake, he emphasized that 60% of Wei Chuan belongs to tens of thousands of public investors. He called for an end to directing anger at Wei Chuan's 3,000 employees and partners, promising to lead the industry in food safety to regain consumer trust.
This article comments on the incident where Imei Foods' Nankan facility was found with large quantities of illegally-stored expired food, systematically refuting CEO Gao Zhi-ming's public statement point-by-point. The author questions Imei's repeated tactic of attributing problems to 'staff negligence' rather than addressing management issues, criticizes their politicization of the inspection as a 'government crackdown,' and emphasizes that the Food Safety Act explicitly prohibits storing expired food—Imei has no grounds to defend itself. The author concludes the problem lies in Imei's management system failure, not government overreach.
The author comments on Tsai Ing-wen's agricultural policy speech in Chiayi, arguing that while the content is eloquently written with emotional appeal, it amounts to empty 'nonsense' in substance, and summarizes five policy points. The article criticizes these points, including enhancing techniques, reducing international dependence, solving demographic decline, promoting production traceback records, and switching to economic crops, contending they lack practical execution details and overlook existing grassroots efforts. The author particularly notes Su Jia-chuan's presence, sarcastically commenting on Tsai's claim about 'returning farmland to farming'.
This article comments on food safety incidents at Taiwanese chain restaurants like Pandahouse and Ding Wang. The author argues the core problem is entrepreneurs' pursuit of high profits, constantly fabricating details—not 'just this one careless time' but an 'innate entrepreneur reflex.' The article criticizes citizens' dismissive reactions, claiming 'everyone does this' or attributing it to 'enjoying life matters most' while ignoring such conduct. Taiwan's root food safety problem is 'illegal profits far exceed legal penalties,' enabling businesses to earn huge profits while paying negligible compensation.
This article explores the phenomenon of 'policies from above, countermeasures from below' in Taiwanese society, taking the 2014 amendment to the Real Estate Price Registration law as an example. The author argues that the key to judging the sincerity of legislators in enacting laws lies in the penalties. The newly amended Land Administration Agent Act, which imposes fines of only NT$30,000 to $150,000 for false registration with a 7 to 15-day correction period, is viewed as too lenient. The piece satirizes land agents' quick pushback to return the reporting obligation to buyers and sellers, calling it 'The Counter-attack of the Big Lambs.' It reflects the reality that the gains from illegal activities always outweigh the costs of penalties, a situation also seen in food safety issues.
Since May, the people of Taiwan have been gripped by panic. Large food corporations, long trusted by the public, were found to be using 'clouding agents' contaminated with 'plasticizers'—an industrial chemical additive. This article explores the systemic failure behind the scandal.