■ Society
Lin ready to give back
In her first public appearance in more than three months, the nation's top model Lin Chi-ling (林志玲) told a packed Taipei press conference yesterday she was considering establishing a charitable foundation "to pay back society" for all it has given her. Lin, who broke six ribs in a horse riding accident in China on July 8, looked pert and cheerful as she told reporters that she'd beaten doctors' estimates that her recovery would take six months. "I was lucky," she said. "I've recovered well in three months." Lin, 32, said she was particularly interested in helping the sick and needy. "I've grown up in love," she said. "It would be a wonderful thing if [I] could give love and care to those who are ill."
PHOTO: HUANG PO-JUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
■ Media
Evening paper says adieu
The evening newspaper the China Times Express folded yesterday, becoming the latest victim of the dominance of electronic media. In its farewell issue yesterday, the 18-year-old Chinese-language China Times Express thanked its readers for their support and apologized for ceasing publication, citing fallen subscriptions due to competition from electronic media. In 1999, Taiwan had four evening papers. All but one, United Evening News, have folded due to competition from daily print newspapers, online newspapers and 24-hour TV news broadcasts. The China Times Express belongs to the China Times Group which publishes the China Times daily, the Commercial Times daily and the China Times Weekly magazine. The print competition heated up in 2003 when Hong Kong-based Apple Daily launched in Taiwan. Within two years, the 85-page tabloid-style paper has won more than 30 percent of the nation's newspaper market.
■ Cross-strait ties
Lying immigrants on the rise
Illegal Chinese immigrants are increasingly entering the country not by being smuggling in, but by getting visas from the Taiwanese government under false pretenses, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Vice Chairman Johnnason Liu (劉德勳) said. "The illegal immigrants come into Taiwan in the name of getting married, visiting their relatives, vacationing or working with fishermen," Liu said. Liu said that the government detained 893 illegal Chinese immigrants during the first nine months of this year, 739 of whom are male. Liu said that the crackdown on illegal immigration from China has had a deterrent effect.
■ Health
Hepatitis drug to be covered
Doctors from Chung Gung Memorial Hospital yesterday announced that the newest generation of treatment for hepatitis, called Pegasys, will be covered under the national insurance as of today. In Taiwan, hepatitis is a serious problem affecting 3 million people and ranking 6th among the top 10 causes of death. "If untreated, hepatitis will lead to the hardening of the liver, and eventually cancer," said Chien Rong-nan (簡榮南), chief of the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hepato-Gastroenterology at Chung Gung Memorial Hospital in Keelung. Pegasys, produced by the Swiss company Roche, is injected into the patient once a week. According to Chien, it boosts the immune system and counters the virus in the bloodstream.
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