Former Mainland Affairs Council chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (
Tsai, who will become a Democratic Progressive Party legislator-at-large on Feb. 1, will explain why it is necessary for Taiwan to adopt a new constitution, the process that will be followed to achieve this and what will likely be in the revised constitution. This will all be set against the backdrop of how the revised constitution will dovetail with international trends.
The seminar was sponsored by the New Century Institute, New York, a dual-nation think tank based in the US and Taiwan established by Chen Lung-chu (陳隆志), a professor at the New York Law School. Chen, an adviser to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), has championed efforts to get US backing for Taiwan's entry into the UN.
Other members of the seminar include Richard Bush, a former American Institute in Taiwan chairman, who is now director of the Brookings Institution's Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies; Professor Andrew Nathan with Columbia University and author of the book China's Transition.
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
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