The Taipei mayoral election televised debate kicked off today (31st). Democratic Progressive Party candidate Shen Boyang questioned current Taipei Mayor Chiang Wanan on municipal controversies related to food safety, specifically mentioning the "Paulin Teahouse Case" that occurred in March 2024. Chiang Wanan claimed that his city government "makes it impossible for Paulin to escape." His remarks were exposed and sparked public outrage because Baolin Teahouse was fined and has not yet paid a dime, and the operators were successfully put out of business!
During the cross-examination session of today's debate, Shen Boyang lamented that he often feels that Taipei is like "two worlds" because when the Chiang Wanan Municipal Government faces victims of child abuse, food safety and other cases, some can receive immediate assistance, while others are repeatedly delayed, and relevant meetings are often absent. He would like to ask Mayor Chiang what are the standards for handling these cases? Why does it apply to some people? Some can't?
However, Jiang Wan'an rambled on, claiming that he was fully committed to handling relevant cases, and did not answer the "standards" Shen Boyang wanted to know at all. So Shen Boyang continued to ask, specifically mentioning the Baolin Teahouse case more than two years ago. Jiang Wanan responded: "I think many of the questions you asked, Commissioner Shen, may not understand the process of each case and the policies promoted by the city government in the face of these things. The Baolin Teahouse case was the first time it happened at that time. Because our colleagues were very vigilant and collected biological evidence, we had a very important basis for subsequent prosecutions, so that Paulin could not escape and the victims' families could receive compensation. Moreover, I personally held press conferences for six consecutive days to publicly report to the public the progress of the investigation and the relevant status of our follow-up."
The "Poulin Tea House Mass Food Poisoning Case" was Taiwan's first serious food safety tragedy caused by "Bonkeric acid", which caused 35 people to be poisoned, six of whom died. After the incident, the Taipei City Government Health Bureau issued administrative fines to Baolin Teahouse totaling 3.5 million. However, the business quickly went out of business after the incident. Since the city government did not successfully implement the false seizure at the first time, when it came time to collect the fines and seek compensation, it was discovered that all the company and personal assets under the name of the person in charge had been transferred and emptied. Currently, there is basically no real property available for execution in Taiwan. Not even a dime has been paid. The victims’ families have no way to seek help.
Now that netizens see Jiang Wanan confidently saying that they "kept Baolin from running away," they all angrily commented, "He just ran away, but he can't run away yet! And he didn't attend the meeting even after he died." "Paulin just ran away, telling lies with his eyes open." "It's so funny that he can't run away even though the fine was obviously a bad debt." "Baolin ran away a long time ago. He didn't seize his property in the first place, so he has been out of business a long time ago. ”, “Can’t run = no need to run at all”, “Jiang Wanan said that the families of Baolin victims were compensated, tell me who paid for it!”, “The current mayor blatantly lied during the debate, it’s bad enough”, “He has already run away, and the family members have no way to ask for help day and night, but Mayor Jiang still dares to speak out!”, “Shouldn’t the person who wrote the article and the person who memorized the article be responsible for talking nonsense?”
