■ Politics
Ma apologizes for imbibing
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) apologized yesterday for violating a ban on drinking at work but explained he found it hard to reject toasts by party elders. "I feel sorry ... as I've set a bad example," Ma said. The Taipei mayor was caught returning to work with red cheeks on Wednesday following a luncheon at the KMT headquarters with retired generals. City councilors have criticized him for breaking the ban on drinking which he himself imposed in 1999 shortly after taking office as mayor. Ma imposed the ban after people complained that officials customarily drank at lunch and took long naps after returning to their desks. "The ban has been strictly observed by all civil servants, and the mayor has no excuse breaking it himself," a city official said.
■ Transportation
MRT nears magic number
With the Taipei metro system expected to take its 2 billionth passenger next week, the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) is preparing a series of activities to mark the historic moment. Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will attend the "Two Billion Metro Rides" kick-off event today at Tamshui along with several Taoyuan County legislators, TRTC officials said yesterday. Between its opening in March 1996 and last March, there were 1.5 billion riders, TRTC officials said. As of Thursday, the number of metro rides hit 1.99 billion. Given the fact that the number of current daily rides is around 1 million, the 2 billion mark should be made next week, they said. The TRTC has also issued a limited edition of 3,500 sets of metro tickets to commemorate the event.
■ Society
`Taishang' kids go to camp
The Straits Exchange Foundation is cosponsoring summer camps in Taipei for offspring of Taiwanese businesspeople working in China, commonly known as taishang (台商), in an effort to provide these children with an opportunity to better know Taiwan. The camps have drawn 247 children and youths, ranging in age between 9 and 14, who have been in Taipei in groups since July 9 to attend the nine-day summer camps sponsored by the foundation and three other government agencies. Most of the children are students from two schools for taishang in Dongguan, Guangdong Province and Kunshan, Zhejiang Province. The summer camps give the children lessons about Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese history and culture. The campers also visit museums, historic sites and folk performances.
■ Education
Korean students arrives
Thirty students from South Korea's Cheju National University received a warm welcome when they arrived in Keelung for a summer study program at National Taiwan Ocean University. The dean and students of Taiwan Ocean University held a reception for their guests, showering them with souvenirs and entertaining them with songs and music. The South Koreans will stay in Keelung for 20 days to study subjects related to marine science, including environmental engineering, aquaculture, marine ecology and conservation, marine products processing, pollution control and fishery management. The summer program, called "2005 Taiwan Marine Discovery Program" runs until Aug. 29. The Koreans will make field trips to different coastal areas to help them learn about Taiwan's marine science.
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