Citizens of the Earth / Shocking exposé: Ministry of Economic Affairs official caught rigging petition, racing to 100,000 signatures to shield illegal factories from legalization
Editor's note: On the evening of June 17, 2019, Ruizhen Industrial Co., Ltd. held a briefing on "Important Policies for Farmland Factories," inviting local owners of illegal factories and Yun Ruilong, a senior technical specialist and concurrently section chief at the Central Region Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, who oversees illegal factory affairs, to take part in the discussion. At the meeting, Yun Ruilong admitted to posing as a private citizen to manipulate a petition, raising funds to establish an association, and helping illegal factories become legal, among other revelations, leaving many participants astonished.
After the meeting, residents voluntarily provided audio recordings, which the Citizens of the Earth Foundation compiled into a verbatim transcript and issued a press release calling on the Executive Yuan to review the legalization-in-place operations for illegal factories overseen by Yun Ruilong, and to pull back from the brink and adjust the "Factory Management and Guidance Act." Shangxiayou called Yun Ruilong for verification but received no response. Below is the full text of the Citizens of the Earth Foundation's press release.
Official blows the whistle on himself: the secret story of shielding illegal factories
The Legislative Yuan is about to push through during an extraordinary session the "Factory Management and Guidance Act" (hereafter the Factory Guidance Act) concerning illegal factories. The current Executive Yuan version's proposed provisions are absurd, including near-threshold-free legalization in place, and guidance for specific factories with no sunset clause and unlimited penalty exemptions, again and again elevating the interests of lawbreaking manufacturers above law-abiding manufacturers, the people's food safety rights, and the stability and trust of the nation's rule of law.
However, on the evening of the day before yesterday (6/17), at the "Important Policies for Farmland Factories" briefing hosted in Changhua by the Chinese Forensic Accounting Research and Development Association, Yun Ruilong, senior technical specialist and concurrently section chief at the Central Region Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and the official primarily responsible for illegal factory management and guidance and the Executive Yuan version of the Factory Guidance Act, blew the whistle on himself at a public briefing, revealing the secret story of government officials shielding illegal factories in order to curry favor with them.
Illegal factories coordinating with one another, actually orchestrated behind the scenes by a government official
At the start of this briefing, Yun Ruilong stressed that in recent years he had held many discussions with environmental groups, but that most of the time he was just sitting there "shooting the breeze." Not only that, Yun Ruilong further claimed that seeing environmental groups coordinating with one another, he felt the need to counterbalance them, and that it was necessary to form an alliance of illegal factories; he even led the effort to launch fundraising, raising more than 3 million to help with outside operations to amend the law.
Yun emphasized, "The fundraising list stays with me. These are all committed manufacturers. In the future, when they come to me, I must help them," and boasted that he had come up with the name "Rural Factory," adding smugly, "The Changhua County Illegal Factory Association, does that sound good?" Clearly, he had thrown the official duty of "managing illegal factories" completely out of his mind.
Ministry of Economic Affairs official publicly states the petition was rigged
But that was not the only outrageous part. Recently, the illegal factory alliance gathered more than 100,000 signatures in support of the Executive Yuan version of the law amendment and grandly held a press conference in Taipei to build momentum, and Yun Ruilong deserved credit for this too. At the briefing he said, "They got more than 15,000 signatures; we went and signed up 100,000. I tell you, that was punched out at the keyboard until hands were about to get twisted; that was punched out. Actually, they (environmental groups) also punched theirs out. Everyone's the same, but whoever controls information, whoever seizes the initiative, whoever controls the right to speak, can make society and the government see everyone's voice."
As a government official, besides smearing environmental groups' past efforts, including the substantive signatures gathered through explaining issues and making the case to the public, he directly stated that his own signatures were "punched out until hands got twisted," openly expressing his own fraud without any shame, leaving people dumbfounded.
Ministry of Economic Affairs taking on the Ministry of the Interior and the Council of Agriculture? Undermining existing land regulations as a legislative principle
Apart from the outrageous remarks above, Yun Ruilong also spoke bluntly about the overall process of amending the Factory Guidance Act. For example, because illegal factories are all on farmland, the Council of Agriculture has repeatedly expressed its determination to defend farmland rights, but Yun Ruilong said, "The thinking process behind this law is to constantly challenge the Council of Agriculture's regulations, to challenge existing land regulations." Is this attitude of clearly taking on national spatial planning really the government's attitude when revising laws?
And while many legislators, in shielding the Factory Guidance Act, stressed that obtaining "specific factory registration" (hereafter special registration) requires passing through layer after layer of hurdles and that there are many rules after obtaining it, Yun Ruilong's explanation to illegal factory owners was: "Now that you've obtained special registration, you can do whatever you like, as long as you don't engage in high pollution. You originally made food, now you want to do metal processing, do other things, as long as it's low pollution it's all fine." "As long as you pay the feedback fee, 20,000 to 100,000." The rules those legislators cited while shielding it seem never to have existed in the first place.
Furthermore, facing doubts about legalization in place, Yun Ruilong also made it plain: "For unregistered factories, bringing them under management in place is the principle and relocation is the exception. This sentence is the most important; it is to bring everyone under management in place." These interpretations of the current Factory Guidance Act amendment actually came from the mouth of the official in charge of illegal factories for the entire country. No wonder most people do not trust the government's management, and further feel that once the Factory Guidance Act is amended, it will exploit law-abiding people and make law-abiding people look like fools.
The Factory Guidance Act, which they want to push through this week, should undergo strict re-review
It is understood that within this week, the Legislative Yuan may push the above Executive Yuan version of the Factory Guidance Act, which shields manufacturers, through to a third reading. As an organization that has long focused on Taiwan's land and defended farmland, regarding this law amendment we once again stress: illegal factories on farmland need a sunset clause; a citizen suit mechanism must be included; we oppose legalization-in-place provisions; and the determination of medium- and high-pollution status must involve the Council of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Administration.
At the same time, we demand that the Executive Yuan adjust the current version of the Factory Guidance Act. If even the official primarily responsible for the Executive Yuan version explains it to illegal factories in this way, then clearly this is a legal text that shields manufacturers and refuses to face the reality of illegal factories on farmland. Guard food safety, and do not let "break the law, make big money, use it long enough and escape penalties" become a Taiwan value.
The darkest day for farmland! The Factory Guidance Act amendment lets illegal factories occupy farmland forever, hollowing out all laws
Illegal factories given a massive pass! The Executive Yuan's Factory Guidance Act is released, environmental groups harshly criticize it as absurd: pay 100,000 a year and you can permanently seize farmland
Related materials:
│Audio recording and key verbatim transcript of the Important Policies for Farmland Factories briefing https://www.cet-taiwan.org/node/3499
│The Executive Yuan version of the Factory Guidance Act sabotages the rule of law, food safety, and law-abiding manufacturers https://www.cet-taiwan.org/info/story/3498