■ Legislation
Draft spam ban approved
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the draft statute governing commercial spam (濫發商業電子郵件管理條例). If approved by the legislature, spammers will be subject to pay an individual or an organization damages of up to NT$20 million (about US$629,000) if they continue to send unwanted e-mail. The draft would also allow a receiver of spam to ask for a "damage loss" of between NT$500 and NT$2,000 per e-mail from the sender. The ceiling on the total damages that could be asked for by receivers of the same spam message would be NT$20 million. Spammers, however, would have to pay out the profit received from sending the same spam, if the total amount requested by those receiving the same letter exceeds NT$20 million.
■ Society
Abuse kills 4.13 kids a month
Child abuse leads to the death of at least 4.13 children every month in Taiwan, according to the Taipei-based Child Welfare League Foundation. The average was worked out by compiling the number of cases reported by the media from January last year to mid-January this year, a foundation spokesman said. At least 56 children died as a result of abuse by adults or being driven to suicide by their parents during the last 13 months, the spokesman said. Citing statistics released by the Ministry of the Interior, he said that there were 2,930 reported child-abuse cases in the first half of last year alone, equal to some 55 percent of the 2003 total. He predicted that the number for the whole of last year will exceed the 2003 total as more cases are expected to have occurred during July and August.
■ Diplomacy
Official attends Bush ball
Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) arrived in Washington on Tuesday to attend the Jan. 20 inauguration of US President George W. Bush on behalf of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Lee, a co-winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in chemistry, said his main mission is to convey Chen's congratulations on Bush's re-election. As for Taiwan-US relations, Lee said he is not versed in the relevant issues, but added that he thinks regular dialogue and communications are needed to boost bilateral ties. Lee said he has met with Bush on several previous occasions and found Bush to be an affable and charismatic person. Lee has attended the annual informal APEC leadership meeting on behalf of Chen for the past few years, where he has invariably held talks with Bush.
■ Education
Overseas schools renamed
The Ministry of Education yesterday passed regulations for the founding and guidance of overseas Taiwanese schools to coordinate its operations with the goal of rectifying the national title, the local Chinese-language media reported. The regulations state that six schools, the Taipei School in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, the Thai-Chinese International School in Thailand, the Penang Tai Chiao School and the Chinese Taipei School (Kuala Lumpur) in Malaysia, and the Jakarta Taipei School and Surabaya Taipei School in Indonesia, will have their names changed to Taiwan Overseas School (台灣海外學校). A ministry official was quoted as saying that the timing is a mere coincidence, and that the ministry is following the Administrative Procedure Law (行政程序法). The official also said that to avoid problems when applying for permission to use the new name, which is done in English, the schools will first change their Chinese name.
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