The Government Information Office (GIO) announced a torch relay will begin on Oct. 24 as part of the government's efforts to push for the nation's UN membership bid.
GIO Minister Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) said yesterday that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) would lead the relay, which will kick off in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard at 7am.
Shieh said that Oct. 24 is of historic importance as it is the day the UN Charter went into effect, adding that Oct. 25 is the day the Republic of China (ROC) left the UN.
PHOTO: CNA
"We would like to use the occasion to lodge a protest against the UN, which trumpets universal participation, and send a clear message to the world that the people of Taiwan want [their country] to become a member of the international body," he said.
Shieh said the 11-day event will be open to all political parties, ethnic groups and people of all ages, adding he hoped it would attract 100,000 participants.
Organizers said 17 athletes and celebrities will carry the torch through 25 counties and cities, including Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu.
Shieh welcomed the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to participate in the event.
He said the administration had every legitimate reason to use public money to finance the UN membership bid because the bid is a government policy.
"We will continue the initiative until Taiwan enters the United Nations," he said.
Shieh said the Oct. 24 event will cost an estimated NT$10 million (US$306,000) and that the budget would come from the Sports Affairs Council. He dismissed allegations that the Ministry of Finance had financed the UN campaign.
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