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One of the top stories from this past week was news that China and Taiwan had each released spies from the opposite side.
According to a defense ministry statement on Monday, two Taiwanese colonels working for the Military Intelligence Bureau (MIB) were arrested by China in 2006 on charges of spying along the China-Vietnam border. The two were originally sentenced to life in prison, but their term was later shortened to 18 years. The terms were shortened again, enabling them to return to Taiwan in mid-October.
Taiwan also released a Chinese spy at the end of October, though the defense ministry declined to call the move a spy swap. President Ma Ying-jeou said he hoped to see further goodwill between Taiwan and Mainland China following the releases.
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Also this past week, several Taiwanese food companies will begin conducting in-house food safety inspections. That’s in line with an amendment to the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation.
An initial group of companies will be required to have labs in place by December 10. The remaining companies subject to the new rules will have to complete work on their labs over the coming months. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expects that 200 food companies around Taiwan will have food safety labs in place by December next year.
In-house inspections will cover the entire food production process. Companies in charge of various stages of the process will be required to check the safety of ingredients and semi-finished products as well as finished products. Detailed regulations are in place for different types of food, such as seafood products and ready-to-eat meals.
However, there have been doubts about the effectiveness of leaving food safety inspections in the hands of food producers.
On Wednesday, FDA Director Chiang Yu-mei said that under the new regulations, in-house checks will only be the first layer in the safety inspection process. A second and third layer of government inspections will be used to check the truth of company-issued safety reports.
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And finally, this past week, Taiwan’s defense ministry said that most positions in the military are open to women. The comment on Friday followed on the heels of a similar announcement from the US military.
US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said Thursday (local time) that the US army was opening up all positions to women. That ended a centuries-old tradition which until Thursday had reserved at least some positions for only men.
A defense ministry spokesman in Taiwan, David Lo, spoke with the state-run Central News Agency on Friday about positions that are open to women. He said the positions range from combat roles in the air force, navy and army, to support positions in artillery, radio communications, and logistics.
Lo said that women have shown outstanding performance in physical tests and on the job. He said that many women had also been promoted to supervisory positions in Taiwan’s military.