■ DEFENSE
Report remains unconfirmed
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday refused to confirm reports that the military had been instructed to manufacture up to 300 cruise missiles. When contacted by the Taipei Times for comment, officials from the ministry’s spokesman’s office would not confirm whether they had received the order, but said that it was their duty to follow government policy. The comments came in response to a report in yesterday’s Chinese-language China Times that quoted an unnamed military source as saying: “President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has given the order for the production of 300 Hsiung Feng 2E cruise missiles.” However, the paper said it was not clear when the missiles would be put into service. The paper said that Hsiung Feng 2E, which was developed by the military-run Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, has a range of around 600km. The missile could be launched on land or at sea, the paper said.
■ DIPLOMACY
Ma ‘working hard’ on envoy
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday that the government was “working hard” to send a high level official to the annual meeting of the APEC forum scheduled to open in Lima, Peru, on Nov. 22. In an interview with CNA on Friday, Ma said that the annual APEC informal leadership meeting is attended by the heads of government of all the member economies except for Taiwan, which faces restrictions because of various factors. Saying that concerted efforts were being made to address this issue, Ma said that the government would soon announce its plans regarding sending an envoy to the APEC meeting. Pressure from China means that Taiwan has had to send a special envoy to represent the president at the annual APEC gathering in past years.
■ CRIME
Koo returns from California
China Development Financial Holding Corp president Angelo Koo (辜仲瑩) returned to Taiwan from Los Angeles yesterday ahead of his likely questioning by prosecutors investigating charges of money laundering against the former first family. The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Panel wants to talk to Koo about US$1 million that was wired from the company to the former first family’s foreign bank accounts. Koo arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 7am. Upon his arrival, customs officers alerted prosecutors, but they decided not to detain him, instead asking him to wait for further notice over questioning. Panel spokesman Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) said that prosecutors would speak to Koo before the end of the week.
■ CRIME
Chen allegations probed
Prosecutors said yesterday they were looking into allegations that former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) removed more than 400 confidential national security documents from government files. Prosecutor Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南), director of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Panel, said the division would seek the assistance of leading national security agencies to investigate the allegations. “The division will not exclude the possibility of assigning the matter to a prosecutor to initiate a probe if the report is found to be true,” Chen Yun-nan said. Chen made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about a report in yesterday’s Chinese-language China Times that the former president had spirited away 449 national security documents classified as “confidential” while he was in office.
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