■ Health
Midwifery clinic closed
Taipei County health authorities yesterday shut down a midwifery clinic in Sinjhuang (新莊) for six months over the death of a baby. The owner of the Yung Hsin Midwifery Clinic, Tsai Sha-ning (蔡紗寧), will be charged with "professional negligence leading to death," Bureau of Health officials said. They said a baby boy, born at 4:45am on Sept. 8 began to turn pale 15 minutes after birth. The clinic staff "monitored" the baby until 6:50am, by which time his skin had turned cold and secretions were flowing from his nose and mouth. The staff attempted first aid before sending the baby to Taipei Hospital at 7:16am, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Officials said the staff did not contact a doctor or properly record the baby's vital signs in the two hours that they were "monitoring" him.
■ Health
Tainted fish found
The Fisheries Administration said yesterday that it had found traces of a cancer-linked chemical in fish from fish farms in two southern counties, two weeks after an investigation at a Hong Kong supermarket turned up the substance in fish imported from Taiwan. The chemical, malachite green, is used to treat fungal infections in fish. Fisheries Administration Director Hsieh Ta-wen (謝大文) said tests at Taipei markets of green grouper fish from farms in Tainan and Pingtung counties turned up traces of the chemical. He said malachite green was found in one sample out of the 36 samples investigated, and residues of the chemical in 14 other samples. The residues might have been the result of contamination from other sources, Hsieh said, echoing the official response to the earlier report from Hong Kong.
■ Politics
Ho drops committee seat
Indicted Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ho Chih-hui (何智輝) yesterday said he will not remain on the legislature's Judicial Committee this session to prevent the appearance of a conflict of interest. Ho said that although he had discussed his decision with KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Wednesday night, the decision was voluntary and had nothing to do with Ma. The Taipei mayor had expressed opposition to Ho's initial plan to stay on the committee. Ho was one of the committee's three convenors during the last legislative session. KMT caucus whip Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) has called on Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers encountering similar situations to follow suit, but he didn't name names. Meanwhile, the KMT caucus confirmed yesterday that former People First Party (PFP) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) had joined its caucus operations as an independent lawmaker.
■ Society
Greater tolerance urged
Civic groups gathered yesterday to discuss problems often found in single-parent families and families of convicted criminals. The conference was sponsored by the Red Heart Association, an organization committed to helping broken families. The association called for greater acceptance by society of these families. According to the association's figures, most of these families face economic problems as well as societal pressure. A survey of single-parent children showed that most respondents yearned for a happy and stable family and social acceptance. Society must care for, help and accept these families, the association said.
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