■ Diplomacy
MOFA to cap tsunami aid
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has so far received a total of NT$230.61 million (US$7.21 million) in cash for aid to people affected by December's tsunami tragedy in South and Southeast Asia, a ministry official said yesterday. Chiang Kuo-chiang (江國強), who is vice chairman of the ministry's NGO Affairs Committee, said the ministry's special account for receiving the tsunami-related donations will close at the end of this month. He said the ministry will form a special task force to decide how to use the donations. He said the ministry has already collected and delivered a large amount of relief goods. Both commercial and military planes have been used to transport the relief supplies to Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India, he said.
■ Society
Divorce petition rejected
Judges rejected a divorce request by a Taiwanese-American engineer who questioned whether his Taiwanese wife was really a man. The engineer, identified only by his surname, Hsiao, complained that his wife, surnamed Chou, does not like intercourse and refused to undergo a detailed health check. He told the court that her breasts were too small to be a woman's and she also had a man's first name. As a result, he wanted to divorce her because he wondered if he had married a man. His petition was rejected after Chou's family testified that she is indeed a woman.
■ Society
British urged to register
The British Trade and Cultural Office yesterday urged British citizens to register to vote at an early date so as not to forgo their ballots. The office said in a press release yesterday that in order to participate in the parliamentary general elections, which are believed to be held in early May, overseas voters need to register by March 11. Those who are registered to vote at home can cast ballots while abroad by post or by proxy, the statement said. An electoral registration form can be found on The Electoral Commission's voter information site (www.aboutmyvote.co.uk).
■ Society
Woman recovers money
A woman in Taoyuan accidentally threw away NT$200,000, which she had planned to give away as lucky money in red envelopes, but luckily for her, the money was found in the garbage. The woman, identified by her surname, Hsu, withdrew NT$200,000 from her bank before the Lunar New Year. She wrapped the money in newspapers and placed it in the corner of her house. On New Year's Eve, she could not find the money and thought that she or her family members could have thrown it away during the pre-holiday cleanup. With help from garbage-truck drivers, Hsu was able to recover her money, although it smelled like trash.
■ Cross-strait Ties
Tourism Bureau gets new job
The Tourism Bureau took over responsibility yesterday for the reception of tour groups from China to prevent them from absconding en masse once they arrive here. Several Chinese tour groups disappeared after arrival at CKS International Airport last July. To prevent a recurrence, the Aviation Police Bureau sent its employees to meet such tour groups, help them clear customs and claim their luggage and then hand them over to their tour guides. As the Aviation Police Bureau faces a manpower shortage, the government decided to authorize the Tourism Bureau's travel service center at CKS Airport to take over the job, effective yesterday.
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