Consumers boycott Ting Hsin products after latest oil scandal

TAIPEI - With Ting Hsin International Group implicated in the latest oil scandal, 22 local governments along with citizens have started to act in resistance to Ting Hsin's products, including their famous brand Wei Chuan.

The Taipei City Government stated that it will instruct authorities, schools as well as other distributors to resist buying food products from low-quality factories.

It also said that Ting Hsin is definitely a company to avoid at this point. Starting from today, Taipei City Government will tell every authority and school to stop using Ting Hsin's products.

"The government should punish low-quality companies severely. Not until the company pays the price for its wrongdoing should the government stop investigating," Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin said.

Chunghua County Government also responded to the action, saying that the oil scandal should be an incident to remember and act as a deterrent to other companies.

Since the former Ting Hsin CEO, Wei Ying-chung is from Chunghua, some citizens even left messages demanding that the county government play an important role in this action, saying that this company dishonored Chunghua.

In addition, stores and schools in New Taipei City pulled all Wei Chuan products from shelves yesterday. Schools also inspected their own dining facilities to see if they were using food products from Ting Hsin.

New Taipei City's consumer ombudsman also stated that all distributors and retailers should actively support the boycott in hopes of guaranteeing the rights of consumers and protecting citizens from adulterated products.

"Although the central government amended the law and aggravated the punishment for threatening food safety, some companies can still find loopholes and get away with it," New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu said.

"Therefore, now is the time for consumers to cooperate and resist using their products," he continued.

Protesters Deface Ting Hsin Subsidiaries with Graffiti

Ting Hsin subsidiaries - Matsusei market and mobile communication shop T star - in Taichung were found to be defaced by graffiti yesterday.

One Matsusei market, located near Taichung Art Garden, was with "black hearted" written in Chinese characters with black paint. The same word was also discovered on the door of one of Ting Hsin's T Star Taichung branches. There were also cross marks painted over T Star's facade.

Local police started investigating this issue, saying that it may be the same group who committed both crimes.