Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

FOOD SCARE WIDENS: Government mandates DEHP testing

Taipei Times

The government yesterday ordered certain food and drink products that use emulsifiers to be removed from stores unless they can provide proof that their products are free of the chemical di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP).

Affected items include sports drinks, juice, tea beverages, syrup and jams, as well as tablet supplements and powdered food products, Department of Health (DOH) Minister Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) said.

All products in the five categories need be certified to be free of the chemical before being put on the market, he said.

Taiwan must defend its name

Chiang Huang-chih 姜皇池

As shown by an internal memo that recently came to light, the WHO refers to Taiwan as “the Taiwan Province of China.” In response, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has issued statements criticizing the practice, the Taiwanese delegation attending the World Health Assembly (WHA) has presented a letter of protest to the WHO Secretariat and Taiwan’s delegate at the assembly has made an official statement.

So far the demands made in these so-called protests have been limited to dealing with the matter of Taiwan’s “proper title,” calling on the WHO to use the same name under which Taiwan attends the WHA — namely “Chinese Taipei.” The core issue, however, is not just Taiwan’s title, but its legal status.

Taiwan Friends of Tibet considering suing Grand Hotel

Taipei Times

Taiwan Friends of Tibet (TFOT) yesterday accused the Grand Hotel of dishonesty in their handling of a row over the cancelation of a conference room to be used for a press conference and the organization said it would consider filing a lawsuit against the hotel.

The TFOT and the Grand Hotel were involved in a dispute on Monday when the hotel unilaterally canceled a reservation for a conference room hours before a press conference was scheduled to start. The TFOT suspected the room reservation was canceled for political reasons, as a Chinese delegation headed by Sichuan Province Governor Jiang Jufeng (蔣巨峰) was to take part in a symposium on business and tourism in the province at the hotel on the same day.

Debacle at WHO erodes Taiwan’s sovereignty

Chen Mei-chin 陳美津

The recent furor over an internal WHO memo downgrading Taiwan to a “province of China” and the government’s inept handling of this matter has set a dangerous precedent that could further erode Taiwan’s international standing.

When the WHO document was first disclosed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) it triggered public outrage.

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was slow to catch on to the implications. Instead, he touted it as one of his administration’s achievements that Taiwan had been able to attend the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer under the name “Chinese Taipei” since 2009. Ma further claimed that his cross-strait policy had secured this goodwill gesture from China.

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