■ Medicine
Eli Lilly ad fires up DOH
Eli Lilly Taiwan, manufacturer of the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis (犀利士), could face charges for violating
the Department of Health's (DOH) medication advertisement regulations. A half-page ad in local newspapers yesterday asked readers to ask doctors about the "new 36-hour option." Due to laws limiting ads for prescription drugs to medical journals, the ad gives only an altered version of the drug's Mandarin name, replacing the final character with a homophone. The DOH said that the ad was clearly banking on a legal loophole. The company could be
fined between NT$30,000 to NT$150,000 for posting the
ad without first obtaining authorization. Another NT$30,000 to NT$150,000 could be added to the fine for violating laws against advertising prescription drugs in a newspaper.
■ Diplomacy
Feel for us: Mark Chen
The international community should try to understand how the people of Taiwan feel about China's perpetual missile threat, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) said in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Chen made the appeal while delivering a keynote speech at a dinner organized by the Asia Society think tank. Chen said the international community should not overlook the feelings of the people regarding the military threat. Over the years, Chen said, Beijing has demanded that Taiwan accept its "one China" principle. "However, this stance offers no room for Taiwan to survive in the world community," he said.
■ Business
Cross-strait roles explored
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) will host
a seminar on June 27 to extend support to Taiwanese businesspeople in China in light of the Chinese authorities' recent threats that businesses with "pro-green" leaders will not be welcome to invest in
China. The seminar will be organized by Taiwan Advocates, a think tank sponsored by Lee. The think tank yesterday said
the reason China leveled economic attacks at Taiwan by attacking Taiwanese businesspeople was because China had to find a way to vent displeasure towards the reality that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) won a second term. It is the gimmick that China wants to use economic advantage
to force Taiwan to come to terms with China politically, the think tank said. The seminar will seek to discuss the role of Taiwanese businesspeople in China since the opening of commercial exchanges with China 20 years ago.
■ Society
CLA probes labor agencies
The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) will begin an across-the-board assessment of Taiwan's foreign labor agencies as early as next month, CLA officials said yesterday. The officials said that they expect the assessment of the more than 800 agencies to be completed by the end of the year and the results to be posted on the Web site of the CLA's Employment and Vocational Training Administration for reference by employers in Taiwan. Employers can now visit the CLA's Web site to get the information. As of the end of April, there were nearly 280,000 foreign workers in Taiwan. Thai workers led the pack in terms of numbers,
at 98,200, followed by Philippine workers at 80,000, Vietnamese at 60,100, and Indonesians at 41,300.
The manufacturing sector employs the largest number of foreign workers at 159,400, followed by the caregiving sector at 105,300, and the construction industry at 9,100.
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