■ Foreign affairs
Legislators leave for India
A group of legislators left for India yesterday on a week-long visit to promote economic ties and to see if the labor-intensive country can replace China as a favorite investment location for Taiwanese businesspeople. "We hope to get a better understanding of the economic and political situations of India during our visit," group leader Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hou Shui-sheng (侯水盛) said before the group's departure. He said the primary aim of the trip is to promote Taiwan-Indian cooperation in various fields. The government hopes that India, with its cheap labor and high level of economic development, will attract Taiwanese investment away from China. The Taiwan-India Cooperation Council was established on Saturday, with DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun serving as council head.
■ Environment
Schools exposed to radiation
A total of 144 elementary and junior-high schools are exposed to dangerous electromagnetic fields, according to yesterday's Chinese-language the China Times. The paper quoted a survey conducted by a professor of public health at Fu Jen Catholic University, under the commission of the Ministry of Education, as warning that the health of more than 18,000 students could be threatened by the electromagnetic fields. Judged by the locations of the schools, the survey found that 95 elementary schools and 49 junior-high schools have part of their campus within 20m of high-voltage power lines or within a 50m radius of a substation.
■ Foreign Affairs
MOFA lauds US appointment
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday welcomed the US government's appointment of Stephen Young, a career diplomat with experience in Taiwan and China affairs, as its new representative in Taipei. Washington announced on Friday that Young, a former US ambassador to Kyrgyzstan and currently a member of the Policy Planning Staff under the State Department, will be the new director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Taipei Office. Young, who joined the US foreign service in 1980, is expected to arrive in Taipei next month to assume his post, replacing Douglas Paal, who returned to the US last month after completing a three-and-a-half-year term in Taiwan. Foreign Ministry officials said they believe that after Young assumes his Taipei post, he will fully reflect the Bush administration's policy toward Taiwan and will help bolster bilateral substantive relations between Taiwan and the US. AIT is the quasi-official US liaison office authorized to handle relations with Taiwan in the absence of formal diplomatic ties. Young lived in Kaohsiung between 1963 and 1965 as the child of a US military officer stationed there.
■ Health
Tipoff rewards boosted
The maximum reward for reporting smuggled animals or plants will be raised from NT$3.5 million (US$108,700) to NT$5 million in a bid to safeguard the nation against avian influenza, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine announced yesterday. Bureau officials said that in view of the spread of avian flu around the world, they have increased the rewards. Those who report smuggled animals or plants that are later found to be carriers of the H5N1 strain of bird flu virus, the foot-and-mouth disease virus or rabies will receive a reward worth 10 times the value of the smuggled animals or plants.
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