■POLITICS
Combined election date set
The Central Election Commission decided yesterday to combine the elections for county and city heads and councilors, as well as township mayors, on Saturday, Dec. 5. Council Secretary-General Teng Tien-yu (鄧天祐) told a news conference after the meeting that the elections would be held together to cut down on expenses. The combined election would be held from 7am to 5pm that day, giving voters two more hours than the usual 8am to 4pm voting hours. Commission members also heard the dual citizenship case of former Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator George Liu (劉寬平), who only formally gave up his US citizenship in 2007 after he finished his term as legislator from 2005 to 2007. Teng said the commission would not make a decision on revoking Liu’s elected status until after they collect relevant documents.
■POLITICS
KMT pushing assets revision
The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Clean Government Committee is pushing for the early enactment of an amendment to the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) that would lead to the prosecution of civil servants holding assets whose sources cannot be identified. The committee resolved on Tuesday to invite Legislator Lin Yi-shih (林益世), the executive director of the party’s Central Policy Committee, to brief the anti-corruption committee next month on progress made in pushing the amendment through the Legislative Yuan. Lin said he hoped the amendment could be passed this legislative session so that it can take effect as soon as possible. The amendment would hold public officials criminally liable if they cannot account for assets in their possession.
■SOCIETY
Asians sexually unhappy
Fifty-seven percent of men and 64 percent of women in the Asia-Pacific region are dissatisfied with their sex lives, news reports said yesterday. Respondents in only three of the 13 countries where the pharmaceutical firm Pfizer conducted a survey reported satisfaction rates of more than 50 percent. India ranked the highest with 73 percent of respondents to the Asia-Pacific Sexual Health and Overall Wellness survey saying they were satisfied. India was followed by the Philippines at 52 percent, Taiwan at 51 percent and New Zealand at 40 percent. Japan ranked the lowest at 10 percent. The survey by the company that makes Viagra was also conducted in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand. It was conducted from May to July last year among 2,016 sexually active men and 1,941 sexually active women aged 25 to 74.
■VISAS
HK, Macau visas extended
The National Immigration Agency yesterday announced that the duration for landing visas or electronic visas for residents of Hong Kong and Macau would be extended to 30 days from 14 days, effective immediately. In other changes, the Ministry of the Interior announced that individuals deemed to be victims of human trafficking could bypass the visa application process if he or she agrees to help with official investigations. Individuals would be asked to stay in Taiwan as long as necessary to help with ongoing court cases. Meanwhile, missionaries must pass a government agency review process before being permitted to apply for residency in Taiwan, the ministry said.
■RESOURCES
Kinmen wants Chinese water
Kinmen County Commissioner Lee Chu-feng (李柱烽) urged the Cabinet yesterday to allow the island to import potable water from China to solve water shortages. Doing so would also provide an alternative to local water that has long been criticized for its quality, Lee said. He raised the issue ahead of a meeting of the Council for Economic Planning and Development next week that will review the feasibility of a proposal by the Water Resources Agency to import water from China.
■CRIME
Robber leaves his number
A man was arrested over the theft of NT$5,000 from a computer engineer after leaving his phone number with his victim, local television reports said yesterday. The engineer was collecting money at a cash machine in Taichung County on Tuesday night when the man threatened him with a knife, cable news network ETTV said. The robber demanded more money from the engineer, who told him he could borrow NT$20,000 from his friends. The robber then left his phone number with the engineer, who gave it to police, ETTV said.
■CRIME
Court upholds Yeh sentence
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a district court’s verdict that sentenced former Procomp Informatics Co chairwoman Sophie Yeh (葉素菲) to 14 years in prison and a fine of NT$180 million (US$5.2 million) for her role in a NT$7 billion accounting fraud at the chipmaker. Yeh can still appeal. The Shilin District Court handed down the original verdict in December 2005. The High Court said Yeh had misled investors over Procomp by overstating the company’s sales and that her actions led to massive losses for investors and the company.
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