■ DIPLOMACY
Envoy to US approved
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) confirmed yesterday that the US had approved the appointment of Jason Yuan (袁健生) as the nation’s envoy to the US. Yuan is expected to begin his job next month. “The ROC [Republic of China] representative office in Washington received formal notice of the US’ approval of the appointment on Friday afternoon,” said Harry Tseng (曾厚仁), director-general of MOFA’s Department of North American Affairs, at a press briefing. “Yuan is well-connected in the US as he has been working there for a long time. His excellent experience and educational background make him very suitable for the post,” Tseng said.
■ DEFENSE
Ma to attend Han Kuang
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will be in a command center to observe the annual Han Kuang series of military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said on Monday. It did not confirm when Ma would participate in the simulation. The computerized warfare simulation began on Sunday and will end on Friday, while live-fire drills will be held from Sept. 22 until Sept. 26. Ministry spokeswoman Lisa Chi (池玉蘭) said it would be inappropriate for the ministry to disclose when the president would be present at the Hengshan Command Center for the exercises. Sources at the ministry said this year’s war games would break with past practice of holding air, sea and land defense drills, and would instead spend one day on sea warfare and four on land warfare, with a ground war in the northern parts of the country and a diversionary battle in central and southern Taiwan.
■ POLITICS
Ma accepts apology
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said yesterday that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) respected National Chengchi University’s decision not to renew former Ministry of Education deputy-general Chuang Kuo-rong’s (莊國榮) contract, adding however that Ma did not want that decision to prevent Chuang from finding employment elsewhere. Wang told reporters that Chuang had apologized for the remarks he made about Ma and his family and that Ma had accepted the apology and chosen to drop the matter. Chuang is a young academic and the public should give him another chance, Wang said. Chuang sparked controversy during the presidential campaign in March when he implied that Ma’s late father had had a salacious relationship with his goddaughter.
■ CRIME
DPP opposes amendment
Democratic Progressive Party legislative caucus whip William Lai (賴清德) complained yesterday that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Ching-chi’s (吳清池) proposed amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code (刑事訴訟法) would deprive defendants of their right to appeal convictions. “Most defendants — about 95 percent of them — will not be able to appeal if Wu’s proposal is approved,” Lai said during a press conference yesterday morning. At present, the code stipulates that only cases with a potential sentence of six months or less are ineligible for appeal with the high court. Through his amendment, Wu is seeking to increase the threshold from six months to two years. Quoting studies, Lai said that of those convicted last year, 95 percent were convicted and sentenced to less than two years in prison. Under Wu’s system, such people would no longer be able to appeal their verdict, he said, adding that “Wu’s proposal will actually violate defendants’ legal rights.”
■ POLITICS
Wu should stay on: Ma
The Presidential Office said yesterday that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wanted Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) to stay at his post, despite calls by some party members to amend the party charter and allow Ma to double as party leader. Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) told reporters that Ma had made it clear that he has no intention of becoming party chief, nor did he intend to endorse Taoyuan County Commissioner Chu Li-lun (朱立倫) as Wu’s replacement. Wu had made a vast contribution to the party by leading it to victory in the legislative elections in January and the presidential poll in March, Wang said. On Monday, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported that party representatives had been pushing to amend the party charter so Ma could double as party chairman to improve the party’s coordination with the government.
■ SPORTS
Lin calls for better welfare
Ultramarathon runner Kevin Lin (林義傑) said yesterday that he would push for an amendment to the law to improve welfare for retired athletes and encourage more people to work out. Lin said athletes in Taiwan are disadvantaged compared with their Western counterparts. The 32-year-old urged the government to amend the National Sports Act (國民體育法) to give retired athletes career alternatives other than teaching or coaching. The act requires owners of companies with at least 500 employees to hire sports professionals to help design employees’ sports activities and offer counseling, he said. However, it has never been put into practice, Lin said, adding that more exercise can actually improve employee efficiency. Lin has placed in ultramarathon races in the Amazon jungle, the Gobi desert and Antarctica.
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