Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Dromafoobeno/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 3.0
THE KMT AND TPP have set up an investigative committee in the legislature to look into alleged corruption over egg imports by the Tsai administration. The committee has been formed on the basis of new powers obtained by the Taiwanese legislature, as pushed for by the pan-Blue camp, and drawing on the majority held by the KMT and TPP in the Economics Committee of the Legislative Yuan.
In particular, the KMT has accused the DPP of political corruption over efforts by the DPP to alleviate egg shortages that Taiwan saw in 2023. The egg shortages resulted in price hikes, with egg prices increasing by 3 NT per catty. The egg shortages have also led to panic buying behavior, as well as the implementation of rationing in some stores. Customers were restricted to buying two cartons of eggs at some hypermarket chains in March 2023, for example.
The egg shortage that led to the price hikes was the result of a number of factors. This includes the avian flu wiping out chickens, a large number of molting hens, increases in the price of chicken feed, and changes in the temperature that affect the number of chickens that have eggs daily.
Subsequently, the number of eggs produced in Taiwan was not adequate to meet the daily supply of eggs consumed, with 1.03 million chickens culled due to COVID-19. Nevertheless, the public was not necessarily convinced of the veracity of these explanations from the Tsai administration. As such, the KMT has previously sought to claim that the egg shortages are, in fact, the result of mismanagement by the DPP, rather than these outside causes. Pan-Blue outlets framed egg prices under the Tsai administration as 4.5 times that of during the preceding KMT Ma administration. To this extent, during this period, fake PTT accounts were found to be acting in a coordinated manner to spread disinformation about the egg shortages.
The Tsai administration sought to alleviate these shortages by importing 50,000 chickens, as well as importing 30 million eggs in April and May. In the following months, millions of eggs would be imported from Brazil, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Turkey, and the government intervened in the market mechanisms by covering the difference in prices between imported eggs and domestically procured eggs. Agricultural authorities also sought to mediate in disputes between sellers and the Poultry Association, in that egg sellers reacted against price freezes from the Poultry Association.
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However, this, too, attracted controversy after one supplier, Ultra Source, was questioned over that despite being allowed to import 88 million eggs despite only having a total capital of 500,000 NT. This would seem to suggest the possibility of corruption. Moreover, the KMT alleged that the government favored large hypermarket retailers with its egg imports, though the government tried to negotiate between vendors, industry organizations, and suppliers.
After 20,000 eggs were recalled from PxMart once they expired, it emerged that 54 million eggs, or 37% of all imported eggs to alleviate the shortage were destroyed because they had expired. The Ministry of Agriculture defended this by stating that it preferred not to affect the domestic market, but this contributed to the anger against agricultural authorities. This further outraged the public, though some of the criticisms drew on disinformation. One widely circulated image showed green eggs that were alleged to be of egg imports from Brazil. This was a doctored image and the individual who was the origin of the photo was later questioned by police.
Minister of Agriculture Chen Chi-chung resigned to take responsibility for the scandal. Yet a contributing factor to Chen’s resignation was a series of death threats made against online influencer Lin Yu-hong, who runs an agriculture-focused Facebook page called Lin Bay. Lin shut down his page in preceding weeks, citing that he could no longer operate his page safely because of death threats.
This added to the furor against the DPP, in that the pan-Blue camp framed the DPP as potentially being behind the death threats. However, police later made an arrest regarding the threats. This turned out to be a man surnamed Hsu, who was found to have a background as a KMT party worker. Hsu stated that he was, in fact, instructed by Lin to make the threats against him. After the arrest, Lin admitted to the media that the death threats against him were faked, as intended to make the DPP look bad.
The Ultra Source case continues to be under investigation by prosecutors, as well as the Control Yuan. As such, the DPP has stated that there is no need for the legislature to investigate when there are already investigations ongoing by other government institutions. The DPP staged a walkout in response to the new committee.
But this proves to be another instance in which the KMT seeks to conduct a show trial targeting the DPP using its new powers. The KMT also seeks to do so regarding the approval of Mirror TV, as a means of targeting pan-Green media, and putting pan-Blue outlets accused of collusion with China, such as CtiTV, back on air. Similarly, the KMT has stated that it intends to convene investigative committees targeting the development of Taiwan’s domestic COVID-19 vaccine, Medigen, and the Tsai administration’s program to boost the production of medical masks during the pandemic, claiming that corruption was responsible for these decisions.