National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) yesterday offered an apology after some of its students left graffiti at one of the nation’s major natural scenic attractions.
“We are very sorry [for the students’ misconduct]. We will oblige them to do volunteer community service after school begins [later this month],” said Liu Ine-wei (劉英偉), secretary-general of the school.
The school was forced to offer the apology after four students from the school’s Department of Soil and Water Conservation were found to have scribbled on the pillars of a public pavilion during a visit to the Jhihben (知本) National Forest Recreation Area in Taitung County on Dec. 13.
CORRECTION FLUID
The students wrote their names, the name of their department, the initials of the school and the date of their visit in correction fluid on the pillars.
The school subsequently received a number of complaints from angry visitors to the area, prompting authorities to take action.
“Their adviser demanded that the four students call the East Coast National Scenic Area Administration and apologize,” said Wu Chia-chun (吳嘉俊), chairman of the student’s department.
FORGIVE
Despite the students’ misconduct, the school administration had decided to forgive them and said that administration staffers would remove the graffiti, Wu said.
The NPUST students were not the only ones who have recently left their mark at a national scenic area.
Earlier last month, several students from Tunghai University’s Department of Industrial Engineering were disciplined by the school for scribbling on a plaque at Wuling (武嶺) on the New Central Cross-Island Highway (新中橫公路) — about 3,275m above sea level.
CRITICISM
The incident drew widespread criticism of the students on the Professional Technology Temple (PTT) — one of the biggest college bulletin board systems in the nation.
The Tunghai students were required to return to Wuling and clean up the graffiti they had left.
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