■ Environment
Coolness monitors wanted
Environmentalists from the Homemaker's Union and Foundation yesterday urged the public to take a thermometer with them whenever they visit a government agency and report any office with air-conditioners set below 26?C. They said the public could report to the foundation at 02-236-86211 and it would publicize the energy-wasting government agencies, which they said are supposed to set a good example. A Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker said 300 million units of electricity could be saved over the summer if consumers set their air-conditioners just 1?C higher.
■ Society
Anniversary celebrations set
The Ministry of National Defense will hold a series of activities before and after the Anti-Japanese Aggression Victory Day next Thursday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of that day, ministry officials said yesterday. On Wednesday, a military band parade will be held at the courtyard of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in the afternoon, and a concert will be held at the hall at night. A historical play titled A Heart of Steel will be staged at a Taipei cultural center on the nights of July 8 and 9. It is hoped that the activities will help the public remember the days when all the people united around the nation to fight the invading Japanese army during the eight-year anti-aggression period, the officials said. With the changing times, "the cause of the war may be forgiven, but the lesson of history must never be forgotten," they said.
■ Diplomacy
Nicaraguan official to visit
Nicaraguan Vice Minister of Health Israel Kontorovsky is due to arrive on Monday for a five-day visit, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The aim of Kontorovsky's visit is to gain an understanding of Taiwan's success in stamping out malaria and its measures to prevent enterovirus and the spread of dengue fever, the spokesman said. While here, Kontorovsky will meet with Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) as well as officials from the Department of Health and Academia Sinica members. Kontorovsky, who assumed the post last December, is considered to be very friendly toward Taiwan.
■ Trade
Tainan chief pushing fruit
Tainan County Commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智) is scheduled to leave for Japan on Monday to promote fruit exports. Su will visit Tokyo and Osaka. He will preside over a Taiwanese fruit sampling activity in Osaka on July 7. At a news conference at Tainan County Hall, Su said Tainan's mango exports to Japan are expected to grow substantially this year, following the inauguration of two fruit-disinfecting facilities. In the near future, oranges, tangerines, pomelos and star fruit are also expected to be exported to Japan as long as they go through quarantine before shipment, he said. He said Taiwan's fruit exports are now on the right path. "It was a wrong choice to only export fruit to China," he said. He said the government should also try to open markets in Europe.
■ Society
Wheelchairs to be donated
The Japanese social welfare group Kousaikai will donate 90 wheelchairs to nine of its counterparts in Taiwan next week. About 600 members of the group will travel to Taipei, where a ceremony to present the wheelchairs will be held on Wednesday. Taiwan has received 78 wheelchairs so far.
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