■ Task forces
Ma wants accountability
Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday ordered every bureau of the city government to establish a special task force to review the municipal affairs or activities that were commissioned to the private sector as organizers and asked bureau directors not to shift the responsibilities to private companies whenever problems were found. The city's Bureau of Environmental Protection recently was criticized for the illegal recycling of old mattresses and the Bureau of Education was blamed for allowing the Taipei Children's Museum of Transportation and Communication to introduce ostriches to be exhibited in the museum's park without any legal procedure.
■ Infrastructure
Arts Center seeks bids
The Taipei City Government tomorrow will invite bids for the Taipei Arts Center from the private sector for a development, management and finance plan, hoping to complete the arts center using the BOT (build, operate and transfer) project, the city's Bureau of Cultural Affairs announced yesterday. The Taipei Arts Center plans to be in combination with neighboring green riverside in Shihlin District (士林區) and the existing facilities of the Taipei Astronomical Museum, the National Taiwan Science Education Center and the science-themed Meilum Park.
■ Civic activity
Time to clean up the world
Enterprises and civic groups in Taiwan are invited to join the 2004 Clean Up the World campaign, which will be held on Sept. 18 nationwide simultaneously with other countries. Lai Tung-ming (賴東明), chairman of the Good Neighbor Foundation, which is a main sponsor of the activity, said that this will be the fourth year that Taiwan has participated in the event. Lai said that Taiwan, as a member of the global village, has to shoulder its share of the responsibility for a clean global environment. "People doing good deeds will never be lonely," Lai said, adding that the number of people participating in the activity has increased every year, and he is hoping to attract 50,000 people this year to join the 40 million around the world who will take part in the environmental protection activity. Those who wish to take part can call: 02-2748-8362 or 02-2748-8279.
■ Military
Friendship flotilla sets sail
A "friendship flotilla", which has just completed a 50-day voyage to three diplomatic allies in the South Pacific, is soon to begin visiting ports around the country for two weeks, the navy said yesterday. The port visits are to last from Saturday to May 29, covering seven major ports. Rear Admiral Wang Chang-juei, commander of the friendship flotilla, said at yesterday's regular press conference of the Ministry of National Defense that the flotillas first visit will be to the Anping port. Besides visiting many local ports, the friendly flotilla is to introduce another new feature -- to allow for the first time the press to board its ships cruising in Taiwan's territorial waters. The friendly flotilla just returned on Monday from a 50-day voyage to three island countries in the South Pacific which have diplomatic ties with Taiwan. The three countries include the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and the Marshall Islands. The flotilla also visited several other countries, which the navy refused to identify because Taiwan does not have diplomatic relations with them.
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