Taiwan’s opposition KMT goes on Fukushima food ban offensive

Party chief seeks to rally local authorities to reject some Japanese products after island’s government lifts decade-old ban
Lifting the restrictions will foster public resentment, analyst says

Taiwan

Lawrence Chungin Taipei

Published: 12:00pm, 13 Feb 2022

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Taiwan’s main opposition party has called on local officials to ban some Japanese food imports after the island’s government lifted restrictions imposed in response to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

In a video conference on Friday with Kuomintang local council caucus members from the 22 cities and counties, KMT chairman Eric Chu Li-luan urged the elected officials to demand that city and county governments uphold local autonomy laws by rejecting radiation-contaminated food from Japan for sale in their areas.

“The KMT welcomes imports of Japanese products and consumption of Japanese food, but this does not mean we support importing food with health hazard concerns,” Chu said.

The call comes after the government of President Tsai Ing-wen announced on Tuesday that a decade-old ban on food products from Fukushima and four other Japanese prefectures would be removed, subject to certain conditions.

According to the plan, food from Fukushima, Gunma, Chiba, Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures will be allowed in but aquatic products, tea, and dairy products will require proof that they are radiation-free and have certificates of origin.

General bans on wildlife meats, mushrooms and certain kinds of vegetables will remain in place.

The government said Taiwan and mainland China were the only territories in the world to maintain a full ban on the such imports, and the removal would help smooth the way for the island’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which requires high standards for membership.

The KMT, however, called the removal not only a policy U-turn but also a defiance of public opinion that the food products be banned.

Chu said Tsai was defying the result of a 2018 referendum that supported maintenance of the food ban.

“No political group can ignore the referendum result of which 7.79 million people, or 78 per cent, voted in favour of maintaining the restrictions,” Chu said.

Former KMT vice-chairman Hau Lung-bin, who initiated the 2018 referendum, said the government’s decision was politically motivated to appease Japan and was an “unconditional surrender” to the country.

The removal decision came after Tsai had a phone conversation with former Japanese prime minister Abe Shinzo at the end of last month.

Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang confirmed on Thursday that Tsai and Abe shared in-depth views on Japan’s food safety control measures, Taiwan’s entry into the CPTPP, and other topics, adding they also expressed hope that Taiwan and Japan could continue to deepen their cooperation in various areas.

Shih Cheng-feng, a political-science professor at National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan, said the government’s decision would only foster public resentment.

“The Tsai government should have bargained with Japan for bigger national interests, but what it did was to bow to Japan,” he said.

Shih also accused the government of neglecting democratic principles by ignoring the results of the 2018 referendum.

“The executive department of the Tsai government must follow the opinion of the public, but it turned a blind eye to the vote result and overreached by lifting the ban,” he said.

Wang Kung-yi, director of the Taiwan International Strategic Study Society, a Taipei-based think tank, said Tsai hoped to win security and military support from Tokyo to counter growing threats from Beijing.

“Aside from the political motive of the Tsai government, the removal decision actually gives the KMT an opportunity to canvass support from the public following its setbacks in a recall vote and four referendums late last year,” he said.

The KMT needed to improve its sagging popularity following those polls and increase the morale of its members and supporters to prepare for the local government elections in November, Wang noted.

An opinion poll by Yahoo Taiwan News on Friday showed that 4,274 respondents opposed the lifting of the ban while 999 were in favour of it.