■Cross-strait ties
Business safety a concern
The personal safety of Tai-wanese businesspeople working in China is being increasingly threatened amid a decline in public order there, the Straits Exchange Foundation said yesterday. The foundation said that as of the end of last year, it had received 592 complaints of intimidation against Tai-wanese businesspeople in China last year. Foundation officials said the figure represents only the tip of the iceberg and is an indication of growing social insecurity in China. The officials said that the personal safety of Taiwanese businesspeople based in China is not helped by the fact that many of them break the law there, some intentionally but others because they lack an understanding of the Chinese legal system. For instance, they pointed out, most Taiwanese business-people detained or arrested in China are usually charged with violations of Chinese tax laws, carrying prohibited political publications or being involved in business disputes and false marriages.
■ Travel
Ministry issues warning
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday issued a travel warning for Iraq, Israel and Palestinian-controlled territories as a result of the buildup of US and British forces in the Gulf region. The ministry also advised Tai-wanese to either leave or defer non-essential travel to areas near Iraq, including Kuwait, Yemen and south-eastern Turkey, the ministry said in a statement. People who plan to travel to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Qatar and Turkey should exercise extreme caution during their trips, the ministry warned. Taiwanese travelers in need of help should contact Taipei's representative offices in these countries or neighboring countries without hesitation, the ministry said. The latest updates on travel warnings from the ministry can be found on the Internet on a government Web site (http:
//www.boca.gov.tw).
■ Environment
Officials to get dump tour
Taiwan Power Co will arrange for Taitung County Councilors to travel to Europe to visit low-grade nuclear waste dump sites next month, company officials said yesterday.
The officials said 30 councilors will travel to eastern and northern Europe beginning March 15 to visit various nuclear waste facilities and observe their operations. Taipower has listed Nantien Village, Taren Township in Taitung County as a possible dump site for its nuclear waste because the area meets conditions set by the Atomic Energy Council -- a sparsely-populated area with little development potential and without geological formations that could threaten the safety of the facilities.
■ Diplomacy
Panamanian group arriving
Carlos Alvarado, the president of Panama's Legislative Assembly, is slated to lead a 13-member delegation that arrives tomorrow for a five-day visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Accompanied by his wife, the Panamanian official will meet President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and call on Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), said the statement. They will also visit the Center for Chinese Language and Culture Studies of the National Normal University, the National Museum of Pre-history, Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park and other cultural and economic establishments. The dele-gation will leave Taipei on Feb. 20.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods