In Taiwan, a group of opposition MPs threw a bucket of pork entrails at Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang To protest against a government decision on the import of meat from the United States, during a debate in Parliament during which some deputies even got into fights.
Fists and pig guts fly in Taiwan parliament debate on US pork https://t.co/1LWCA93Ddm pic.twitter.com/7GKyGSQsCy
— CNA (@ChannelNewsAsia) November 27, 2020
Last August, President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration aveva announcesor the decision to allow the import from the United States of pork containing ractopamine, a feed additive that increases lean mass in the meat. The use of ractopamine is prohibited in over 160 countries, including the European Union, China and Russia, as it is not considered safe for human consumption, but it is allowed in many large countries such as the United States, Canada, Japan and Korea. Taiwan also agreed to import beef from animals older than 30 months.
The opposition of the Kuomintang party (KMT) has attacked the decision calling it a threat to the health of citizens, and in recent weeks, as the government has defined the guidelines for the importation of meat, he organized street protests, until yesterday’s scuffle in Parliament. (Below is a video of last weekend’s demonstrations in Taipei).
Thousands of people protested in Taiwan over a government plan to allow imports of US pork containing a drug that is banned in the EU and China. pic.twitter.com/pX6FXv9s7t
— DW News (@dwnews) November 23, 2020
To protest, KMT MPs have been preventing Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang from holding his periodic hearing in Parliament for weeks, where he usually communicates updates on the state of the nation and answers questions: whenever he should speak, MPs will opposition prevent him by occupying the podium.
Frustrated by the situation, Prime Minister Su, who belongs to the Progressive Democratic Party (DPP), then organized a security cordon around the podium, but when he appeared in the courtroom on Friday, the KMT deputies tried to invade the podium with signs and banners, while in the meantime they interrupted the premier with whistles and stadium trumpets. Some parliamentarians got beaten and at one point someone threw the bucket of entrails.
Legislators from Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party threw pig guts and exchanged punches with other lawmakers in parliament, in a bitter dispute over easing U.S. pork imports https://t.co/PXQljwzL0O pic.twitter.com/X8WgjZFgOy
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 27, 2020
The pork dispute is putting President Tsai Ing-wen in trouble. The decision to allow the importation of American meat, in fact, was taken mainly for strategic reasons: with this move the DPP, which is a party in favor of Taiwan’s autonomy vis-à-vis China, hopes to strengthen relations with the States United and to favor the signing of a free trade treaty between the two countries. The KMT, on the other hand, is the pro-Chinese party, and has opposing interests: it wants to prevent relations between Taiwan and the United States from becoming too close.
Taiwan is one of the most vibrant and free democracies in all of Asia. It is also a very young democracy: the transition from dictatorship took place between the 1980s and 1990s, with a very strong, heartfelt and sometimes violent participation by the population, which still resists today. Also for this reason, clashes and spectacular demonstrations in Parliament are relatively common.
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