■ Politics
Ma undecided on China trip
Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday that he may not be able to attend the 2005 Asia Pacific Cities Summit slated for Oct. 12 in Chongqing, China, but that he will send a representative if he cannot attend. Ma said that he has also been invited to join in the CityNet Congress 2005, to be held in Hanoi from Oct. 11 to Oct. 15, and that he is unsure which he should go to. CityNet is a network of local authorities that promotes sustainable urban improvement initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region. Taipei joined CityNet last November. Eight mayors, including Ma, were invited to attend the Chongqing meeting. The summit was established in 1996 to foster city partnerships and to facilitate the exchange of ideas, knowledge and experiences between local governments, technical experts and businesses within the Asia-Pacific region.
■ Exhibitions
Stamp show logo unveiled
The organizers of the upcoming "18th Asian International Stamp Exhibition -- Taipei 2005" unveiled the show's logo and mascot at a news conference held on Monday at the Chunghwa Post Office building in Taipei. The exhibition, to be held Aug. 19-24 at the Taipei World Trade Center, is expected to attract 100,000 visitors, Chunghwa Post General Manager Huang Shui-cheng (黃水成) said, noting that the event will be combined with a tourism promotion drive. The indigenous Formosan black bear was chosen in a public competition to serve as the show's mascot, while Taipei 101 was chosen to represent the event. Huang said that around 300 foreign stamp authorities, collectors and traders have registered to take part in the exhibition, which will have 150 booths. The Tourism Bureau and China Airlines will set up tourist information centers at the venue to coordinate a display of stamps.
■ Cross-strait ties
SEF worried about safety
Statistics indicating the increasing dangers to physical safety for Taiwanese investors doing business in China has the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) worried. According to the foundation's latest records, there was an increase last year in the number of appeals for support that the foundation received. The SEF said in a statement issued yesterday evening that last year there were 124 appeals for support involving the physical safety of Taiwanese working in China. It said that this figure represented a 15.88 percent increase on last year's figure. In addition, 1,309 appeals have been processed since the foundation was established in 1980. Of these, 755, or 57.67 percent, had to do with some form of physical injury sustained by Taiwanese businesspeople in China. The SEF, which oversees cross-strait exchange in lieu of the government, asked investors to be aware of the risks involved in doing business across the Strait.
■ Diplomacy
MAC head in Japan
Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday departed for Japan at the invitation of Waseda University. Wu plans to deliver a speech today at the university on the state of cross-strait relations after Beijing's adoption of the "Anti-Secession" Law. "Japan has been very concerned about the changes in policies and cross-strait ties with the Anti-Secession Law. I will take the opportunity to explain the situation," Wu said yesterday. He also plans to meet with politicians in Japan for an exchange of opinions. Wu will return to Taiwan on Sunday.
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