■ Agriculture
Mango exports decline
Despite the government's efforts to make inroads in the Japanese market, mango exports from Tainan County still registered a dramatic decline as a result of typhoons and heavy rains this year, a local official said yesterday. With the mango crop in the final phase of maturing, the performance of mango exports still remains gloomy in Tainan. According to the Bureau of Agriculture (BOA) under the Tainan County Government, this year's exports to Japan did not even make one-third of the expected growth, totaling 486 tonnes; exports to South Korea, which has never been a big customer of Taiwan, are also flat at 43 tons this year. Exports to Hong Kong and China have yet to be estimated by Customs, the BOA added.
■ Crime
Cellphone bombers strike
Taiwan police are hunting for two men suspected of using cellphone bombs to extort money from a pub and are worried that copycat crimes will follow, a newspaper reported yesterday. Seven customers were injured in the recent attack in the Taipei suburb of Taoyuan, which came after the pub refused to pay NT$30 million (US$1 million) demanded by criminals, the Chinese-language United Daily News said. "Police found that the gangsters had put a small amount of explosives inside the cellphones and used a wire as fuse," the paper said. "When someone uses the cellphone or when the cellphone rings, a spark can trigger an explosion." This is the first reported case of a cellphone bomb in Taiwan. Police worry because they are easier to make than other home-made bombs and could widely be used by criminals, the paper said.
■ Society
Chiangs must wait for burial
The interment of the embalmed bodies of the late president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son and successor Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) may be postponed further, Vice Minister of the Interior Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) said yesterday. Chien made the remarks after Nancy Chiang (蔣徐乃錦), Chiang Ching-kuo's daughter-in-law, died of complications from acquired aplastic anemia at the age of 68 earlier in the day. On behalf of an ad hoc office in charge of preparations for the two late presidents' interment, Chien expressed his condolences regarding Nancy Chiang's death. The interment of the two late presidents was originally scheduled for July, but was later postponed until September. According to Chien, Nancy Chiang attended the first meeting of the interment preparatory office on June 7, but was absent from the second meeting held on Aug. 10.
■ Crime
Murder victim mourned
Several recent robberies and murders involving Taiwanese businesspeople with operations in Malaysia may affect Taiwan's investment in the country, Taiwan's representative in Malaysia said yesterday. Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia representative Wu Wen-ya (吳文雅) made the remarks at a memorial service for Taiwanese businessman Ku Li-yen (古禮炎), an executive of the Taiwan-based Hualon Corporation's Malaysia plant, who was killed Aug. 17 in a parking lot after having dinner with colleagues. According to Wu, this was the second murder of a Taiwanese in Malaysia since he assumed his post three years ago, following the murder of a Taiwanese businessman's wife last year. Ku's case is being investigated by Malaysian police.
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