■ DIPLOMACY
Lee visits Okinawa
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) left for a four-day visit to Okinawa yesterday at the invitation of Kyushu University. Representative to Tokyo John Feng (馮寄台), who was scheduled to take office on Saturday, saw Lee off at the airport. Lee will tour historical sites from World War II, including the Okinawa Peace Memorial Park. He is scheduled to give a keynote address at the Okinawa Convention Center today on the evolution of knowledge and the characteristics of Japanese culture. Tomorrow he will visit Shurijo Castle, home of the former kings of the Ryukyus. He will also tour the Southeast Botanical Gardens, which is managed by Taiwanese expatriates. Lee will return home on Thursday.
■ ENTERTAINMENT
Asiavision contest planned
Asia is to have its own version of the Eurovision Song Contest next year, with at least seven countries and territories taking part, including Taiwan, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported yesterday. China, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong have also committed to taking part in the contest. Competitions to select the entries will be held early next year before a three-hour finale at a venue yet to be decided, the newspaper said. Asiavision, the company set up to arrange the event, said that unlike Eurovision, the Asian contest would feature existing pop stars. Asiavision spokesman Mishal Varma said Eurovision organizers had been consulted about the idea and partnerships would be formed with broadcasters in each of the participating countries and territories.
■ SOCIETY
CCA plans ‘Taiwan Award’
The Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA) plans to present an award each year to a person of Chinese descent who has made significant contributions in arts and humanities around the world. The winner of the Taiwan Award will receive NT$15 million (US$465,600) in recognition of his or her outstanding achievements in global arts and humanities development, the council said. It also said it would do more to restructure and revitalize cultural organizations as well as develop the arts and the cultural industry. The council plans to transform itself into a culture and tourism ministry that will integrate cultural, arts, tourism and media administration. It also plans to come up with a four-year program to promote the establishment of Taiwanese culture centers abroad to help promote cultural exchanges.
■ CROSS-STRAIT TIES
Forum focuses on farming
The biggest forum in recent years on cross-strait agricultural exchanges will be held in Tainan County today and tomorrow, with more than 300 representatives of agricultural associations in Taiwan and China taking part, the organizer yesterday. The forum was organized by the Tainan-based Chinese Taiwan Strait Agriculture Association in collaboration with farmers associations in Tainan County.
■ SOCIETY
Teen wins piano award
Teenager Chang Yen-cheng (張晏晟) received a special prize in the youth category of the 12th International Taipei Chopin Piano Competition at a ceremony on Sunday. The competition attracted 266 musicians from Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan, said Azusa Anna Fujita, founder of Frederic Chopin Foundation of Taipei, which organized the contest. The visually impaired 15-year-old’s music was filled with passion, Fujita said.
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