■ Politics
No changes to nominee list
A spokesman for the Presidential Office yesterday dismissed reports that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will revise his Control Yuan nominations. Chen Wen-tsung (陳文宗), director of the Department of Public Affairs, said the president has no intention of altering his nominations. He was responding to reports that Chen will change some of his nominees to facilitate approval by the Legislative Yuan. The reports claimed that the new nominees for president and vice president of the Control Yuan will be Clement Chang (張建邦) and former Grand Justice Su Chun-hsiung (蘇俊雄), instead of Chang and academic Michael Hsiao (蕭新煌). Some of the nominees who have been given new posts, such as Wu Feng-shan (吳豐山), who has been appointed as a minister-without-portfolio, and Liu Yu-shan (劉玉山), who is now secretary-general of the Executive Yuan, will not be replaced. He urged the legislative caucuses to coordinate between themselves to confirm the nominees as soon as possible.
■ Society
Foundation touts law
The Modern Women's Foundation urged the government yesterday to set an example in implementing the new Sexual Harassment Prevention Law (性騷擾防治法). "The law is re-establishing a friendly environment for the public, and the government needs to lead the efforts in implementing the law, foundation chief executive officer Chang Chin-li (張錦麗) said. "We will carry out an impromptu inspection of government agencies in March to see how they are doing with the law." Under the new law, a victim of sexual harassment can file a complaint with the company for which the perpetrator works or with the local government. The agency or the local government must then complete investigations into the complaint within a certain period a time. Chang said the law stipulates clear penalties for perpetrators, but the mechanisms need to be carried out by the agencies and prevention committees of the local governments. She said implementation of the law may be difficult and she hopes the local governments cooperate with employers to expedite the process.
■ Society
Lee to grace book fair
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) will visit the 2006 Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) on Sunday to sign copies of new books published by Taiwan Advocates, a think tank founded by Lee. This will be the first time that Taiwan Advocates will have a booth at the TIBE, which is slated to be held from today through Sunday at the World Trade Center. The foundation's booth will feature its two newly-published books, titled Taiwan Does not Belong to China and The Taiwanese in the New Era in Chinese, as well as the seven-volume Prospects -- Taiwan series which is scheduled to be released on Saturday.
■ Politics
Ex-CLA boss eyes race
Former Council of Labor Affairs chief Chen Chu (陳菊) said yesterday in Kaohsiung that she will seek the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) nomination for Kaohsiung mayor. Chen, who left her post at the council on Sept. 2 last year to take the blame for an Aug. 21 riot of Thai laborers, said she would follow the DPP process for choosing its candidates. If she fails to win the nomination, she said, she will throw her weight behind the party's candidate. She has installed campaign billboards around Kaohsiung although she has not formally announced her bid.
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