■ OLYMPICS
Taipei willing to talk
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) said yesterday that Taipei would be willing to talk with Beijing about next year's Olympic Games but emphasized that Taiwan's sovereignty and integrity must be upheld. Chang said the country hopes to sit down with China and negotiate a way to properly tackle the matter. The guiding principle at the administration is that Taiwan's sovereignty and dignity must be sustained, Chang said. Chang made the remarks in response to Beijing's move to downgrade Taiwan's sovereignty by calling Taiwan "Taipei, China" and not "Chinese Taipei" as Taiwan is called in the Olympic Games according to an 1989 agreement. China received a warning from the International Olympic Committee, which asked Beijing to abide by the 1989 agreement.
■ SPORTS
Meet in Changhua County
Changhua County has been chosen to host the 2011 National Athletic Meet. Changhua County Commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) inked the contract at a ceremony with Yang Chung-ho (楊忠和), head of the Sports Affairs Council. Cho said the Changhua County Government will call on the public to provide "100 creative ideas" to make the 2011 athletic meet a memorable event, as that year will be the Republic of China's 100th anniversary. The event will be the first major athletic meet in Changhua County in 26 years, after hosting a Taiwan Area Athletic Meet in 1985. The National Athletic Meet has been held every two years since 1999, when it replaced the Taiwan Area Athletic Meet, which had taken place annually since 1974. This year's National Athletic Meet will be held in Tainan, while the 2009 event will take place in Taichung.
■ JUDICIARY
Chen wants receipts back
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday asked the Taipei District Court to return within five days all materials collected as evidence in the "state affairs fund" case investigation. The Presidential Office issued a statement last night saying Chen filed the request yesterday afternoon, asking the return of receipts which the president claimed had been obtained without his consent and without following legal procedures. The testimony Chen gave prosecutors and other evidence relating to the case must also be returned because the disclosure of such information would put national security and interest at risk, the statement said. It added that the Council of Grand Justices had already ruled that the president enjoys "state secret privilege" and therefore has the right to refuse to surrender such evidence to court.
■ CULTURE
Kaohsiung offers street music
The Kaohsiung City Government's Bureau of Cultural Affairs has signed up musicians to stage street performances over the next three weekends, a spokesman for the bureau announced on Wednesday. The spokesman said Kaohsiung residents were invited to enjoy live music performances at the Pier-2 Art Center, a former warehouse at Kaohsiung harbor. First to appear on the stage tomorrow and on Sunday will be the Kaohsiung Philharmonic Brass Ensemble. The ensemble will play Bach's Minuet, Casablanca, Quandoquando, Yesterday on Cemore and the theme song of the movie C'est la Vie, Mon Cheri.
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