Lawmakers’ Claim That President Ordered 20% Removal in Tainted Oil Case Rejected by Health Ministry

Two months after the Chung Lien edible-oil case erupted, the dispute has widened into a political fight over how authorities handled the investigation. Kuomintang legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin accused Food and Drug Administration Director-General Chiang Chih-kang of having a close relationship with companies linked to the case. She also claimed that President Lai Ching-te ordered the preventive removal of 20% of the products.

Hsu said in a Facebook post that a senior Ministry of Justice official had approached a veteran media figure to discuss how to brief Justice Minister Cheng Ming-chien on the case. She alleged that people connected to the ministry may have leaked details from the ongoing investigation to selected media outlets and possibly used media coverage to influence the probe. Hsu said there were “clearly identified subjects of the complaint and evidence.”

She further claimed that the 20% threshold came from Lai, possibly after a recommendation from Hung Yao-kun, chairman of Fushou, and was then carried out by Chiang. Hsu accused the Justice Ministry of focusing less on solving the case than on protecting senior Democratic Progressive Party figures.

The Health Ministry rejected those claims in a statement issued that evening. It said experts had fully discussed the 20% preventive removal ratio at a meeting on July 4. The complete minutes had been published on the FDA website, while related materials and audio recordings had been provided to judicial authorities. The ministry said describing the ratio as a presidential instruction was plainly inconsistent with the facts.

The ministry also said Chiang and people connected to the case did not know each other, calling the allegation fabricated and maliciously linked. It said officials had begun gathering evidence and could file legal action over the spread of false information and damage to the credibility of the agency and the reputations of its staff.

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Clearly identified subjects of the complaint and evidence.