The protest march "against poison beef, against sell-out and against deception" is being organized by the Taiwan Association of University Professors and the governments of Tainan County, Tainan City and Yunlin County, all three of which are under DPP administration.

Speaking to reporters after a scheduled meeting of the opposition party's Central Standing Committee, DPP Spokesman Tsai Chi-chang stated that the committee had approved a resolution calling on the KMT to abide by the consensus reached between the KMT and DPP legislative caucuses last week and approve revisions to the food and health regulation law by Nov. 17 that would ban the importation of beef products from the U.S., including meat on bone, ground beef and intestines, suspected of having "high risk" of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as "mad cow disease."

Tsai stated that draft revisions to the food and health regulation law proposed by the KMT caucus "was going in the opposite direction" from the consensus and "aimed to escort instead of ban expanded U.S. beef imports" and said that the agreement by the KMT legislative caucus to insert a ban in the law was a "delaying tactic."

According to the DPP spokesman, the draft revisions proposed by KMT Legislator Kung Chi-wen "did not ban but would permit import of meat on bone, intestines, ground beef and other high risk beef products from areas where cases of BSE had taken place."

The DPP spokesman related that after extended discussion that the Central Standing Committee had resolved to give "full support" to the protest and to order a "full mobilization" to participate in Saturday's march "to defend the health of our people."

DPP Chairwoman and former vice premier Tsai Ing-wen told the committee that she would personally participate in the march and instructed all local party branches to "fully mobilize" members to attend the Taipei march "so that the voice of the people can be expressed through this march to let this government know that the expansion of U.S. beef imports is unacceptable."

The DPP spokesman added that the opposition party "will take new actions" if the KMT-controlled Legislative Yuan does not approve revisions to the food and sanitation law to ban expanded U.S. beef are not approved Nov. 17.

Tsai added that the protest was "not 'anti-American"' and stated that "if the American people understood the facts and understood how the Taiwan people felt, they would support this protest."

The protestors will march west from the Dinghao Plaza in front of the Sogo Department Store along Zhongxiao East Road to Linsen South Road and proceed southward to Renai Boulevard and turn west to the intersection of Ketagalan Boulevard and Zhongshan South Road for a rally to be held from 1:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.