■ TRANSPORT
THSRC plans more stations
The Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) is working on plans to add three stations, including one in Changhua, to its existing eight stations, a Changhua County Government task force said. The task force, headed by Changhua County Commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源), held a meeting with THSRC executives and officials from the Bureau of Taiwan High Speed Rail to discuss whether the plan might be realized at an early date to meet the county's development needs. THSRC executives said the initial planning of the three stations in Changhua, Yunlin and Miaoli will be completed by the end of June. Hu Hsiang-lin (胡湘麟), deputy director of the Bureau of Taiwan High Speed Rail, said the Ministry of Transportation and Communications would like to see the three stations become operational at the same time, and that the ministry would do its best to provide assistance to the local governments.
■ TECHNOLOGY
Building safety breakthrough
Researchers at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology have developed an earthquake-resistant structure component for buildings that they say is easily installed and offers superior protection in the event of a tremor. Chen Sheng-jin (陳希舜), a professor in the university's Department of Construction and Engineering, said yesterday that the new component had been shown to outperform conventional components in terms of its ability to absorb seismic waves and so protect buildings. Chen said the new component could endure a shear deformation angle of more than 16 degrees, far greater than required under building safety standards. He said this would help to protect buildings during even severe earthquakes. In a test, Chen said, the new component, combined with high-strength beams, had kept a building intact through a lateral displacement of 6 degrees, bettering the requirement of between 2 degrees to 4 degrees. The university's research team is studying how to integrate the component with shear walls, Chen said.
■ DIPLOMACY
AIT chairman to visit
American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond Burghardt will arrive in Taipei tomorrow for a brief visit. He will meet with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and other major political figures, including Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷). It will be Burghardt's third trip to Taiwan since his appointment as the AIT's chairman in February.
■ HEALTH
Kiribati patients doing well
The surgery performed on three Kiribati women who arrived in Taiwan last month to have treatment for rheumatic heart disease has been successful, a doctor at the Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei said yesterday. The hospital threw a party on Wednesday for the patients, heart specialist Lee Chun-yi (李君儀) said. The three patients have recovered well and will soon be able to return to Kiribati, Lee said. Nurses at the hospital have created posters with explanations in both Kiribati and Mandarin in an effort to provide a friendlier environment and to communicate better with the patients, Lee said. Mackay Memorial Hospital has a sisterhood agreement with the Tungaru Central Hospital in Kiribati.
■ TOURISM
Ocean park project inked
The Ilan County Government signed a contract on Tuesday with two private investors for the construction of an ocean park, officials said. The park, which will be located in Wuchieh Township (五結), will feature a polar animal zone -- the first of its kind in Taiwan -- and a 118m-long transparent, underwater tunnel that would be the world's longest. The NT$2.7 billion (US$83.6 million) project is being built jointly by Taiwan-based Turtle Mountain Island Ocean Development Co and KMzone Business Community of Malaysia, which has taken part in the development of several ocean parks in China. Construction of the park is scheduled to start in March, and the facility is expected to be open to the public in three years, officials said.
■ AGRICULTURE
Orange festival begins
A 31-day orange festival starts today in Yunlin County, home to a large proportion of the country's agricultural produce, Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) said yesterday. "The Council of Agriculture has been pondering how to increase the profits of orange growers in this area," council Chairman Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said, adding that this year's festival would offer a variety of interesting activities and seek to emulate France's orange festival in order to attract both buyers and tourists. Yunlin County is also well known for its coffee, seafood and puppet shows, Su Jia-chyuan said, expressing hope that the combination of the orange festival and local tourist attractions would help bring more benefit to farmers in the county. Su Chih-fen urged everyone to eat an orange a day which would not only benefit their health but also the nation's orange growers.
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