■ SHIPPING
Nine sailors rescued
Helicopters and ships rescued nine crew members after their ship sank off the north coast in rough weather, the coast guard said yesterday. The ship, registered in the Central American nation of Belize, was carrying steel from Japan to Vietnam when it capsized in heavy seas early yesterday, cable station TVBS said. The ship had refueled in Keelung. The nine crew members, all Chinese nationals, escaped in an inflatable dinghy but drifted for more than an hour before helicopters and ships from the coast guard whisked them to safety, a coast guard official told the cable station. One crew member surnamed Sun, 50, was taken to the Mackay Memorial Hospital in nearby Tamsui (淡水) for treatment, but he was not in danger, the officials said.
■ SOCIETY
Singer in `glass house'
Singaporean pop singer Stefanie Sun (孫燕姿) moved into a glass house next to the Taipei 101 skyscraper yesterday for a 24-hour stint to promote her latest CD. Her stay was being broadcast live on the Internet. Sun, 27, planned to spend 24 hours in the glass-and-steel structure. Her hair dyed a fiery red, Sun sat on a brightly colored sofa as photographers milled about. Her fans gathered outside, holding up umbrellas against the pouring rain. Other singers were planning to visit her, she told cable station ETTV. Sun said the temporary structure was more comfortable than she had expected. "I thought it would be a square box with a bed and a lamp," she said. Sun was planning to leave the house early this afternoon.
■ SOCIETY
Railway uses `feng shui'
The main entrance of Taipei Railway Station has been redesigned for better feng shui following a string of derailments and train delays, a railway official said over the weekend. Taiwan Railway Administration director Hsu Ta-wen (徐達文) said the administration had added a glass hallway to the station's main entrance to ward off evil spirits. The renovation was made at the suggestion of Master Hun Yuan (混元禪師), a well-known Buddhist master, Hsu said. The railway administration consulted Hun Yuan after several derailments, train delays and suicides on the tracks. Hun Yuan said the incidents had occurred because the station's main entrance faces a "white tiger demon." To avoid the demon, the main door had to be moved back 6m. The administration installed a glass hallway behind the main door, so that passengers now arriving at the station must enter two doors. Several lawmakers on Friday blasted the administration for squandering money on "superstition."
■ TOURISM
PRC delegation on the way
China's National Tourism Administration (NTA) hopes to send a delegation to Taiwan late this month to look into the local market in preparation for the lifting of restrictions on Chinese tourism, travel sources said. At the invitation of Taiwan's Travel Agent Association, NTA Director Shao Qiwei (邵琪偉) will head a 60-member delegation on a 10-day fact-finding visit, the sources said, adding that the delegation will consist of NTA staff members and tourism chiefs from major Chinese provinces and cities. In addition to touring major scenic spots such as Sun Moon Lake, Alishan and Hualien, the delegation will also visit administrative offices. Applications for the visit have been sent to the Tourism Bureau and the Mainland Affairs Council for approval.
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