■ Earthquake
SEF sends condolences
The Straits Exchange Foundation sent a message to its Chinese counterpart yesterday expressing concern about the aftermath of an earthquake that rocked Xinjiang yesterday. The foundation extended condolences and sympathies for victims of the magnitude-6.8 earthquake, which killed at least 265 people and injured 4,000 others. In its message to the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), the foundation also said the government is willing to offer assistance in post-disaster relief work.
■ Aviation
Man says he has explosives
A Taiwanese man, who was arrested after claiming to be carrying explosives aboard an Air Macau flight, will be deported after he was found to be mentally unstable, the Macau government said yesterday. The 29-year-old man was overpowered by flight crew on an Air Macau plane about to depart the territory for Taipei on Sunday night. No one was injured nor were any explosives found in the whole incident. Macau authorities have said the incident was not an attempted hijacking, but that the man had an emotional fit and had argued with crew members before the incident. Media reports said that the Taiwanese man, who was allegedly drunk, was angered after the flight was delayed. Air Macau Flight 612, with 154 passengers and six crew members, had been due to depart Macau International Airport for Taipei at 9:45pm on Sunday. The passengers on the flight boarded another flight for Taipei early Monday.
■ Society
Locals marry more foreigners
An increasing number of Taipei residents are marrying people from other countries, with more than 4,500 couples tying the knot in 2002, a jump of more than 10 percent over the previous year, Taipei City Government's Bureau of Civil Affairs said yesterday. Among the 4,500 couples, two-thirds of the spouses are from China, Hong Kong or Macau, or about 3,000 couples. Of the other couples, Vietnamese spouses accounted for 44 percent, followed by Indonesian at around 10 percent. In comparison, marriages between Taipei residents and people from China, Hong Kong and Macau increased by 18 percent compared with 2001, while marriages to other foreign spouses increased by 12 percent. In view of the growing number of foreign spouses, the Bureau of Civil Affairs will continue to hold seminars to help them integrate into life in this country. Bureau officials said that the seminars will open between April and July.
■ Diplomacy
Government to give to fund
The government will donate US$75,000 to a trust fund under the Organization of American States (OAS) to help finance young entrepreneurs training program, the ROC representative office in the US said Tuesday. Taiwan Representative to the US Chen Chien-jen (程建人) will donate the fund to the OAS on behalf of the government in a ceremony to be held at the OAS headquarters in Washington tomorrow. Chen will also sign a cooperative agreement with the OAS during the donation ceremony. Under the accord, Taiwan will send experts to assist in carrying out the manpower training program. The Taiwan donation will mainly be used to help enhance leadership and management capabilities of young entrepreneurs of Latin American countries that maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Central and South America and the Carribean have been Taiwan's diplomatic stronghold.
■ Politics
KMT changes the rules
The KMT's Central Standing Committee decided yesterday to call a national congress March 30 to approve the party's ticket for next year's presidential election. The committee made the decision after approving a change to the party's rules on choosing presidential candidates to allow the candidate to choose a non-KMT member as running mate. Although the committee discussed nothing other than the rules governing the selection of party candidate, there is a consensus among the KMT and the PFP that they will field a joint ticket next year, with KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) as the candidate for president, and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) as candidate for the vice presidency.
■ Culture
French center honored
The Centre France-Asie, a charitable educational service group founded by the French Jesuits in 1920, has won the 2003 Taiwan-France Culture Award for its contribution to helping promote bilateral cultural exchanges. Tchen Yu-chiou (陳郁秀), chairwoman of Taiwan's Cabinet-level Council for Cultural Affairs, presented the award to the center Tuesday in a ceremony held at the Institute of France. Michel Aurillac, chairman of the French-Asian Association, received the award on behalf of the Centre France-Asie. Aurillac said the award marks recognition of the Centre France-Asie's efforts to serve Asian students. The Catholic group has offered scholarships and boarding services for Asian students, including those from Taiwan, over the past eight decades. Many Taiwan students have been able to receive advanced education in France with the assistance of the center. The center will use the prize money from the award to set up scholarships for Taiwan students to study in France.
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