■ Crime
Taiwanese jailed in Vietnam
Five Taiwanese nationals were jailed for between two and nine years on charges of manufacturing and circulating fake credit cards in Vietnam, state media said yesterday. The men, aged between 24 and 33, were found guilty by Ho Chi Minh City's People's Court Friday, Vietnam News Agency said. They had been using 21 forged credit cards and bought goods worth more than 1.5 billion dong (US$95,000) from Jan. 31 until their arrest on Feb. 3 last year, it said.
■ Society
Anti-suicide law urged
Passing a law to help prevent suicide could reduce the number of people in Taiwan who take their own lives, a representative of a non-profit organization said yesterday. The Shepherd Love Association petitioned legislators to immediately pass the act by holding a two-day signature drive in Kaohsiung yesterday. Wu Mei-li (吳美麗), the association's CEO, said while the government has made suicide prevention one of its top priorities by setting up help centers and keeping hotlines open, suicide was ranked the ninth highest cause of death in 2002. "Laws regarding suicide prevention need to be enacted," she said.
■ Infrastructure
Urban renewal discussed
Sixteen experts from various European countries will gather in Taipei April 18 to join a four-day conference to discuss urban development issues, a Ministry of the Interior (MOI) official said yesterday. The 16 invited guests will consist of academics, along with serving and retired officials from France, the UK, Spain, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands. The conference is being organized by the non-profit International Network for Urban Development, said Chen Kuang-hsiung (陳光雄), director of the MOI's Construction and Planning Agency. Chen said the experts attending the conference will discuss policy changes in urban renewal, which is one of the areas the government has prioritized. He added that Taiwan's eagerness to amend existing regulations and policies regarding urban development is the reason for hosting the conference. Chen said he expects that more offshore investments can be brought into the country by amending policies and creating a better commercial environment.
■ The Arts
Stone monkey exhibit opens
A stone sculpture exhibition organized by the Chiayi Stone Sculpture Association opened at a cultural park in Chiayi City yesterday. The group presented a stone monkey sculpture to the city-owned park as a gift, while in return it received the city government's promise to provide outdoor space for artistic creations. Chiayi Mayor Chen Li-chen (陳麗貞) said that the southern city has been dedicated to the art of stone sculpture, especially monkey-shaped sculptures, for more than 60 years, and the association played a key role in promoting the city's cultural development. She indicated that the city government is now working to build a stone sculpture park as part of the city's efforts to develop a culture industry with local characters, noting that construction of the planned park is expected to be finished by the end of this year. The city will also initiate a yearly "stone monkey festival" to boost tourism. Chiayi is passed through by the Pachang River, one of major rivers in Taiwan, which produces abundant high-quality stones perfect for sculpting.
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