■ Communications
Text-message record set
A total of 2.22 million text messages were sent via the Chunghwa Telecom mobile network in the first hour of 2005, the highest-ever hourly record, company officials said yesterday. The figure compared with 1.7 million recorded in the first hour of last year, according to Chunghwa Telecom chief engineer Shih Mu-piao (石木標). A total of 8.54 million text messages were sent via the company's mobile network on New Year's eve on Friday, up nearly 30 percent from the 6.31 million registered on the same day the previous year, Shih said. The highest daily volume last year was recorded on the first day of the Lunar New Year, which stood at 12 million, followed by Christmas Day, which stood at some 9 million, Shih said.
■ Industry
Science park meets targets
Production value of the Southern Taiwan Science Park reached NT$270 billion (US$8.44 billion) last year, an official said yesterday. Tai Chien (戴謙), director-general of the Southern Taiwan Science Park Administration, said the facility had achieved its target of NT$250 billion and that it was looking at production value of at least NT$300 billion this year. Last year, the park also met its goals of attracting 30 new manufacturers to set up operations in the park and increasing staff numbers to more than 30,000 people, Tai said. The park consists of two sections, located in adjacent Tainan and Kaohsiung counties. A total of 157 manufacturers have received approval to set up operations in the park, with 127 at the Tainan County section and another 30 in the Kaohsiung County section.
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