■ Diplomacy
Pushing for name change
Taiwan's representative to Germany said on Thursday he will strive to push for a name change for his office from the present "Taipei Representative Office in Germany" to the "Taiwan Representative Office in Germany"during his term in office. In an exclusive interview with CNA, Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) said that the title "Taipei Representative Office " does not represent Taiwan. Since using the name "Republic of China Representative Office" will presumably not be accepted by the German government as Germany does not recognize Taiwan, the use of "Taiwan Representative Office" is the only pragmatic option, he added. Only by naming it the "Taiwan Representative Office" can the interests of Taiwan's 23 million people be represented in Germany, according to Shieh.
■ Politics
Two officials demoted
Claiming that she wants to "firm up the institution and kick out the culture of sycophancy," acting Kaohsiung Mayor Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) demoted yesterday two senior officials who have broken administrative rules. Yeh accepted city government adviser Lee Wen-liang's (李文良) resignation, demoting the former chairman of Taiwan Water Corp to the position of "adviser without pay." Lee broke the rules by moving his office to that of Chao Chih-chiang (趙志強), deputy director of the Bureau of Transportation, Oct. 11 and hanging a sign reading "Office of City Government Adviser" before starting work in the office. Chao was disciplined with a major demerit and demoted to a non-executive position.
■ Politics
There's no `consensus': MAC
A Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) official yesterday dismissed a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposal that Taiwan and China resume dialogue based on the so-called "1992 consensus." MAC Vice Chairman You Ying-lung (游盈隆) made the remarks in response to KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) suggestion to accept the "1992 consensus" during an interview with the Hong Kong-based Ming Pao daily. Ma said both sides of the Strait should resume dialogue as soon as possible based on the "consensus," which the KMT claims was established between representatives of Taipei and Beijing in landmark talks held in Hong Kong in 1992. You yesterday said the consensus never existed. "As there is no such consensus, there is no issue of whether to accept it or not," he said.
■ Diplomacy
No go for quake aid
While Taiwan has yet to receive further news from Pakistan about permission to deliver earthquake aid, the government has prepared an emergency relief hygiene kit, NT$1 million in medication and medical equipment, rice, 6,000 military blankets and 100,000 ration items to help the country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. "We are also planning to dispatch a national emergency medical mission to Pakistan," ministry spokesman Michael Lu (呂慶龍) said yesterday.
"India has expressed its gratitude for our goodwill gesture, but said there was no need for international assistance yet," Lu said, adding the two governments communicated with each other through Taiwan's representative office in India. As for Pakistan, due to a lack of formal channels of contact between Taipei and Islamabad, the selection, delivery and handling of relief materials were encountering difficulties, Lu 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