■ Security
NSB chief wants to quit
National Security Bureau (NSB) Director Tsai Tsao-ming (蔡朝明) has submitted a letter of resignation to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to take political responsibility for March 19 assassination attempt, the bureau's deputy director, Huang Lei (黃磊), confirmed yesterday. Huang, speaking at the legislature yesterday, said Tsai asked to step down on March 20. It was the first time that the bureau had confirmed speculation about Tsai's resignation request. Tsai was severely criticized by opposition and government officials over the failure of the bureau's security team for Chen and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) to quickly respond to the shooting. The bureau is responsible for the training and dispatch of security guards for the president and vice president, most of whom are military or police officers. Tsai's resignation has been the subject of a great deal of media speculation in recent days. His resignation was likely to have been approved by Chen. Military police commander Lieutenant General Yu Lien-fa (余連發), one of Taiwan's generals promoted by Chen, has been identified as a possible successor to Tsai.
■ Politics
DPP asks KMT to apologize
The legislative caucus of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) asked the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday to make a public apology for violent incidents at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in downtown Taipei. The DPP caucus made the demand after a Soochow University student and a woman were beaten Sunday at the so-called "Democracy Square" where scores of supporters of the pan-blue alliance of the KMT and the People First Party (PFP) were staging a sit-in protest against alleged unfairness in the March 20 presidential election. In a brief speech in English, the student asked the demonstrators not to make too much noise. The university's downtown campus is located near the CKS complex. The woman delivered a brief speech in support of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) administration.
■ Protests
TSU demands compensation
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) said yesterday that the defeated pan-blue alliance presidential candidates should pay for losses caused by the alliance's week-long post-election protests at the square in front of the Presidential Office. Legislator Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘), the TSU legislative whip, said the 170-hour sit-in protests on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office have had a strong adverse impact on the nation's image, social order, economic development and student rights.
■ Ceremony
Chen remembers the dead
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) presided over a spring memorial service yesterday for all those who died in battle for the cause of the Republic of China. Chen, accompanied by Presidential Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), led the heads of the five government branches -- the Executive Yuan, Legislative Yuan, Justice Yuan, Examination Yuan and Control Yuan -- in attending the service held at the Martyrs Shrine in Yuanshan in suburban Taipei. Amid the sober sound of bells and drums, the president burned incense, laid a wreath and then bowed three times to the altars of the war dead during the solemn ceremony. After the ceremony, the president offered his greetings to representatives of the surviving relatives of the war dead.
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