■ POLITICS
Su takes up GIO post
New Government Information Office Minister Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) was inaugurated yesterday, saying that he wasn’t brave enough to refuse when asked to take the position in view of the critical economic situation facing the nation. Su succeeds Vanessa Shih (史亞平), who will leave for Singapore to serve as the nation’s representative there. Minister Without Portfolio Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗) presided as Shih gave her office seal to Su at a handover ceremony at the Executive Yuan yesterday morning. “I am not here to make government statements, nor am I here to have debates. I am here to do something [for the country],” Su said. Su praised Shih for establishing a sound foundation during her seven-month tenure and leaving him an excellent team to work with. Born in 1976, Su will be the youngest member of the Cabinet. Tzeng commended Su for his eloquence while serving as spokesman for President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) presidential campaign, saying that he would be good at conveying government policies to the public.
■ TRANSPORTATION
Taxi drivers announce fees
Because of the economic slow down this year, taxi drivers in Taipei City and county and Keelung have decided not to add a Lunar New Year holiday surcharge. Taipei Taxi Association president Liang Ping-liang (梁平良) said many taxi drivers earn less than NT$1,000 a day, and he hoped the decision would increase the public’s willingness to travel by taxi during the holiday. Taxi drivers in Taichung will add NT$85 to the meter from Lunar New Year’s Eve, which falls on Jan. 25, to the fifth day of the lunar new year, which falls on Jan. 30. A Taichung County traffic official said no decision had been made, but that they might follow the lead of Taichung City. Hualien taxi drivers will apply the night tax — an additional 20 percent to the meter — throughout the day. A Kaohsiung Taxi and Bus Association official said the city’s taxi drivers probably would follow Taipei’s example, but that the issue had not been discussed.
■ SCIENCE
Chicken shots a success
The National Science Council (NSC) yesterday claimed preliminary success in developing a three-in-one vaccine for chickens, which will help the birds ward off Newcastle Disease, Infectious Bursal Disease and fowl pox. Project leader and veterinary medicine professor at the National Chung-hsing University Lee Long-huw (李龍湖) said if his team succeeded, the vaccine would be the first three-in-one for chickens in the world.
■ TRAVEL
US visa-free path opens
Taiwan has recently forged a cooperative agreement with the US on improving travel security, paving the way for possible visa-free US entry for Taiwanese citizens, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said on Tuesday. An exchange of notes concerning the initiative was completed on Dec. 19 in Washington by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US and the American Institute in Taiwan, MOFA said in a statement. According to the Principles for Cooperation on Improving Travel Security established between the two countries, they will work together to crack down on forged documents, share traveler information, promote the issuance of e-passports and exchange information on terrorists, MOFA said. The two sides will work together on these and other measures as Taiwan must meet the requirements before further negotiating with Washington for visa-free entry, the ministry added.
■ HEALTH
Bureau earmarks funds
The Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) has appropriated NT$100 million (US$3 million) to open clinics at elementary schools in remote villages that lack medical facilities. A BNHI medical affairs management official said yesterday that there are 53 mobile medical teams circulating among remote villages offering medical treatment. Every year they offer services to 530,000 people, the official said, adding that the BNHI has appropriated NT$400 million a year for the program. Nevertheless, there are still more than 40 villages not on the circuit that lack medical resources, prompting the BNHI to decide to open the additional clinics, as well as provide vehicles to bring patients to the clinics, the official said.
■ SOCIETY
Calligraphy event to kick off
More than 10,000 people are expected to take part in a calligraphy event today in Taipei to set a record for submission to the Guinness Book of World Records, the city’s Cultural Affairs Department said yesterday. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will be one of 16 officials to open the event, which will take place at the Huashan Cultural-Creative Park at 1pm today. Ma and the 15 other officials will write 16 propitious words with writing brushes and ink, department officials said. The ceremony will be followed by a mass calligraphy event in which more than 10,000 people are expected to take part, the officials added. The department is hoping to have the event included in the Guinness Book of World Records, as there is no record for large numbers of people performing calligraphy simultaneously at a single location.
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