■ Society
Suicide numbers on the rise
Suicides have doubled in the past 10 years, and 10 percent of Taiwan's university students have attempted suicide, according to a medical report published yesterday. The suicide rate has increased from 6.24 suicides per 100,000 population to 14 suicides per 100,000 population. Last year 3,195 people ended their lives, averaging 8.75 suicides per day, or one suicide every 2.7 hours, the report by the Taiwan Society of Psychia-trists said. "The number of suicides could be under-estimated because many `accidental deaths' were in fact suicides," the society said in the report. The report also warned that many students have contemplated suicide. A survey of 3,848 college students showed that 10.2 percent of them attempted suicide in the past year. A survey of 296 elementary school pupils showed that eight or nine of them have inflicted physical harm on themselves in the past year.
■ Defense
Lee inspects blast site
Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (李傑) yesterday inspected an ammunition depot in Kaohsiung where three soldiers were killed in a blast on Saturday. Lee also visited the families of Second Lieutenant Hung Tuan-lung (洪端隆), Sergeant Huang Chien-che (黃健哲) and Private First Class Yang Wu-chang (楊武璋) to offer apologies and condolences. In addition to ordering an immediate investigation into the cause of the explosion, Lee suggested that a memorial be erected to serve as a reminder for all military members to be vigilant. Family members of the three complained that they did not receive notice of the accident until 4pm, more than an hour after the 2:50pm explosion. They asked the authorities to probe the case thoroughly so that their loved ones will not have died in vain. Lee said experts from the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology will conduct a forensic investigation to determine the cause of the explosion.
■ Health
Number of alcoholics rising
Alcoholism is connected to heredity and the number of alcoholics in Taiwan is increasing steadily, a local psychiatrist said yesterday. Chen Chiao-chi (陳喬琪), deputy director of the Taipei City Psychiatric Center, said at a seminar on mental health that foreign academic studies have confirmed correlation between alcoholism and heredity. "Statistics show that if one identical twin is an alcoholic, 75 percent of their siblings also suffer from alcoholism. The ratio among fraternal twins is 50 percent," Chen said, adding that the alcoholism is more likely to be passed onto males than to females. The studies also show that those born to alcoholic parents are 10 times more likely to suffer alcoholism than those from non-alcoholic families, Chen said.
■ Society
Macau's Ho eyes casino
Macau casino godfather Stanley Ho (何鴻燊) said on Saturday that he would be very interested in opening a casino/hotel on Penghu Island if the government gives a green light to such business. In an interview with Taiwanese reporters, Ho said his company, Melco International Development, would be glad to invest in Penghu if casino operations are permitted there. Ho said that he has been to Penghu and came away with a strong impression of the scenic environment there. If Macau is given the chance, his company might channel investment to the tune of HK$15 billion (US$1.9 billion) into Penghu to build a casino kingdom there, he said.
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