■ Transportation
MRT traffic to top 2.5 billion
The total passenger traffic of Taipei's mass rapid transit (MRT) system is expected to top 2.5 billion early this month, the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp announced over the weekend. The figure will represent a 25-fold increase since the system's passenger traffic reached 100 million on Dec. 22, 1998, company officials said. For the second consecutive year, Taipei's MRT system was rated by University of London's Railway Technology Strategy Center as the most reliable system among the world's 25 major metro systems last year, they said. According to Deputy Taipei Mayor Chen Yu-chang (陳裕璋), while the section of the MRT system that is currently in operation totals 76km, another 76km are under construction and 250km are under planning. After all these projects are completed, the density of the MRT network will be similar to that of other major metro systems in the world, he said.
■ Society
Foreign spouses join contest
More than 60 foreign spouses of Taiwanese, dressed in the traditional costume of their countries, took part in singing and oral reading competitions yesterday in Taichung City at an event organized by the Cabinet to help foreign spouses learn Mandarin or local dialects. Lin Feng-hsi (林豐喜), executive director of the Cabinet's Central Taiwan Joint Services Center, said singing and reading are helpful ways to learn a foreign language. In this regard, the center has organized various singing and reading-oriented courses and activities for foreign spouses to help them blend into the local culture. Foreign spouses play an increasingly important role in the country, with one out of every five newlywed couples involving intermarriage and one out of every 6.5 babies born to foreign mothers -- mostly from China and Southeast Asian countries.
■ Transportation
Chen lauds Kaohsiung MRT
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) lauded the Kaohsiung mass rapid transit (MRT) system as better than its Taipei counterpart after taking a test ride yesterday. Chen, accompanied by acting Kaohsiung Mayor Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) and Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp chairman Chiang Yao-tsung (江耀宗), rode an 8km section of the red line between Far Eastern Department Store and Hsiaokang. Yeh said that 20,000 people had taken the test ride on the same section, with more than 95 percent expressing satisfaction with the smooth travel. The MRT's red and orange lines are scheduled to be inaugurated at the end of next year. Chiang, who previously worked for the Taipei rapid transit system, said that the Kaohsiung MRT system has been efficient and that the BOT (build-operate-transfer) model of construction has saved the government NT$44.4 billion (US$1.34 billion). The cost of personnel is also cheaper and more jobs have been created, Chiang added.
■ Leisure
Vote for model villages
The Council of Agriculture urged the public to take part in an online selection of the nation's top 10 model fishing and farming villages for the chance to win big prizes. The selection will run until Feb. 28, and the public is invited to visit the 20 qualified villages -- culled from an initial screening of 50 villages -- on the council's Web site, a council spokesman said. The council will inspect the 20 villages and the results will be combined with the online vote for a final ranking that is slated to be announced in March, the spokesman said. Those who take part in the voting could win prizes ranging from a tour to digital cameras and MP3 players.
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