■SOCIETY
Scooter and owner reunited
A motorcycle exhibition at the National Science and Technology Museum in Kaohsiung City was recently the setting for a reunion between an old Suzuki Landie 50 scooter and its former owner. Huang Shih (黃寔), 69, is a voluntary worker at the museum. The moment she saw the moped she had owned for dozens of years before being forced to auction it online over two years ago because of financial problems, Huang shed tears of joy. Huang was despondent when she handed more than the scooter to Chen Yen-shan (鄭燕山), a 30-year-old antique motorbike collector from Kaohsiung County, and pleaded with Huang not to tear the bike apart. The exhibition, which runs through May 10, displays motorcycles that have run on Taiwan’s roads and streets over the past half-century. Chen said the three-gear Landie 50, which was produced in the 1970s, has been his treasure since he first bought it and that he had spent NT$50,000 on the restoration.
■SOCIETY
Ma buys food with vouchers
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) purchased food yesterday at a Taipei traditional market using cash and consumer vouchers as part of his effort to promote plans to help boost the country’s sluggish economy. Ma made the purchases while accompanying his mother, Chin Hou-hsiu (秦厚修), on a trip to buy Lunar New Year treats at Xinglong Market in the Wenshan district. The NT$3,600 consumer vouchers were distributed on Jan. 18 by the government in an attempt to stimulate consumption.
■DIPLOMACY
Taiwan donates to disabled
Representative to the Philippines Liu Shan-shan (劉姍姍) donated equipment for the disabled to the Philippines on Friday following the signing of a memorandum of understanding on the issue with the Philippines’ Department of Social Welfare. Liu, on behalf of the Taiwan-based Eden Social Welfare Foundation, donated the equipment, which included 65 wheelchairs, 150 crutches and 10 walking sticks for the blind, during a ceremony in Manila. Department of Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral signed the memorandum of understanding on behalf of the Philippines and expressed gratitude to the Eden Social Welfare Foundation for the donation, part of which will be given to the Philippines chapter of the Women’s Federation for World Peace. Taiwan donated relief supplies and humanitarian aid to the Philippines in 2005 and again last year after areas of the country were devastated by typhoons.
■SOCIETY
Hakka culture park planned
Construction of a Hakka culture park in Miaoli County began on Friday and is scheduled to be completed in 2011. Addressing the park’s groundbreaking ceremony, Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) said the park would be a landmark in Miaoli, but also a “spiritual fortress” for the nation’s Hakka population. Located in the southern section of the Tongluo Science Park, the Hakka cultural center will be the only one in Taiwan to comprise both cultural and industrial structures. Siew said he hoped that high-tech companies in the Tongluo park would support cultural development and the new Hakka park would inspire and enrich Taiwan’s scientific and technological development. Council of Hakka Affairs Minister Huang Yu-chen (黃玉振) said the new culture park was expected to work in concert with the existing Liuduei Hakka Culture Park in Pingtung County to preserve and spark a rennaissance of Hakka culture.
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