■ Politics
New Party holds vigil
Continuing the pan-blue camp's protest against the legitimacy of last year's March 20 presidential election, the New Party held a candlelight vigil outside of the Taipei International Conference Hall where former US President Bill Clinton was giving a speech on democracy yesterday night. Chanting slogans such as "No Truth, No President" and "No Fair Election, No Democracy," the New Party led protestors in a sit-down protest yesterday night and called on Clinton to keep in mind last year's pan-blue protests against the presidential election. "Eleven months after the so-called 319 assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Chen and the government continue to ignore our just call for the truth by denying a legally-appointed March 19 Special Truth Committee access to official investigation reports and materials," said New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明) yesterday.
■ Foreign Affairs
Foreign minister returns
Foreign Minister Mark Chen (陳唐山), who returned to Taiwan yesterday from a trip to Haiti and Dominican Republic, described his visit to the two Republic of China allies as "successful." He told journalists that he felt pleased that he met the people he was hoping to meet and had successfully completed his mission. However, he refused to elaborate on the exact nature of his mission, which began on Feb. 22. He made transit stops in Tokyo and New York on his way to Haiti, giving rise to media speculation that he might have exchanged views with Japanese and US officials, in light of the two countries' recent joint statement calling for the peaceful resolution of disputes between Taiwan and China.
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