■ Politics
Second Chen summit mulled
The Presidential Office doesn't rule out the possibility of arranging a second meeting between President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), an official said yesterday. The Presidential Office staff member was responding to media reports that Chen will meet with Soong again soon. The official said no plans for a second meeting are in the works at the moment. However, if it becomes necessary or if an opportunity presents itself, the office doesn't rule out the possibility of holding such a meeting in the future, he said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun called PFP Secretary-General Chin Chin-sheng (秦金生) on Monday, the official said, but the phone conversation didn't touch on the topic of a second meeting. On Monday Soong urged Chen to faithfully implement the 10-point consensus reached at their Feb. 24 meeting to avert the possibility of China using "non-peaceful means" against Taiwan as mandated by the Beijing's new "anti-secession" law. "In response to Soong's public appeal, Yu called Chin to affirm Chen's commitment to substantiating the 10 conclusions ... Yu also exchanged views on the `anti-secession' law's impact on Taiwan's domestic political situation, the official said.
■ National defense
Academy mulls fewer trips
The navy is considering adjusting its annual international voyage for Naval Academy graduates since the school has fewer graduates each year. According to high-ranking navy officials, for budgetary reasons the trip may be offered every other year or juniors and seniors may make one joint voyage instead of the seniors only. Officials said not only is the school attracting fewer freshmen, but more students were washing out of the academy. As a result, the fleet is experiencing a severe manpower shortage. There were 850 crew members on this year's trip, which began on Feb. 24 with a sail around Taiwan before heading overseas on March 5. This year's 101-day voyage will be the first time that navy ships will have crossed the three major oceans of the world.
■ Weather
Typhoon to miss Taiwan
The year's second typhoon has formed in the Pacific but poses no threat to Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Typhoon Roke is well southwest of the Philippines and moving westward at 32kph. Roke has a radius of 100km. Roke is expected to pass through the central Philippines.
■ Aid
Group to go to ADB meeting
The government will send a delegation to Manila on Friday to attend the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) meeting to assess the progress in rehabilitating areas in South Asia devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunamis, an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Chie Wen-chi (介文汲), deputy director-general of the ministry's Department of International Organization, made the announcement at a news conference. He said the delegation will be headed by Representative to the Philippines Wu Hsin-hsing (吳新興). The ADB has set up a US$600 million trust fund for aid to tsunami-affected Asian countries, Chie said, adding that the Manila meeting will discuss ways to offer more help. In addition to ADB member states, the tsunami-affected countries and international organizations such as the UN and the World Health Organization, as well as major non-governmental organizations, have been invited to take part in the meeting, officials said.
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