TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — DPP Legislator Lin Chu-yin (林楚茵) said Monday that a “hunger strike” launched by KMT politicians over the government's handling of a tainted cooking oil scandal was a political stunt.
The scandal erupted after it was revealed that Central Union Oil Corp., a joint venture owned by Taisun Enterprise, Fwusow Industry, and Formosa Oilseed Processing Co., had produced soybean oil containing benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) above Taiwan's legal limit. BaP is a carcinogenic compound.
KMT Taipei City Councilor Yang Chih-tou (楊植斗) and KMT city council candidates Lai I-jen (賴苡任), He Yuan-kai (何元楷), and Chang Chia-hsin (張家馨) announced Saturday that they would launch a hunger strike at 10 a.m. Sunday to protest the government's handling of the food safety scandal, per UDN.
He, who is running in New Taipei, accused the government of arrogance in its response to the scandal. Yang focused his criticism on comments made by DPP Spokesperson Wu Cheng (吳崢) during an exchange with political commentator Huang Yang-ming (黃揚明), per UDN.
During the discussion, Huang raised his voice while criticizing the government's response. Wu responded by saying he had not forced Huang to consume tainted oil.
Yang argued that Wu's remarks ignored public concerns over uncertainty about which food products may have been affected by the contaminated oil. Wu later said the priority should be addressing the food safety issue.
Lin said the scandal resulted from companies concealing information and local governments failing to carry out inspections, per ETtoday. She specifically criticized Taichung City Government for failing to inspect Central Union Oil's plant, adding that Kaohsiung and Tainan had conducted inspections of similar facilities while Taipei had not.
DPP Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) echoed the criticism, saying Tainan had conducted 19 inspections of soybean extraction plants over five years, while Taichung conducted one inspection over eight years and Taipei conducted none during the last four years, per Liberty Times.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) rejected the criticism, saying there are no oil extraction facilities within Taipei's city limits, per FTNN. He said Taipei had conducted 90 random inspections of cooking oil products and 112 inspections of food processing plants.
Taichung City Government also pushed back against the criticism, saying it conducted 30 inspections of extraction facilities last year and followed central government guidelines for inspections, per Z.Media. Taichung Information Bureau Director Luan Chih-i (欒治誼) said claims that Taichung conducted only one inspection in eight years referred specifically to the Central Union Oil plant and did not represent the city's overall inspection efforts.
Luan said inspections are conducted according to government-mandated random sampling procedures.
Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) said Sunday that she plans to hold a national conference on handling the tainted oil scandal, inviting mayors and county magistrates from across Taiwan to participate, per Knews. She also invited the public to join a KMT demonstration against the government's handling of the scandal, scheduled for Saturday on Taipei's Ketagalan Boulevard.