■ POLITICS
DPP takes Ma to task
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday called on President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to keep a campaign promise by donating or cutting his salary. DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) said Ma should learn from South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who announced he would donate his salary and part of his property for failing to achieve some of his campaign promises. Gao said that if Lee could keep his promise, then Ma could, too. The president failed to meet his 6-3-3 campaign pledge of 6 percent annual GDP growth, 3 percent unemployment and an average annual income of US$30,000, and he said during the campaign that he would cut his salary by half if he failed, Gao said. The lawmaker said it was irresponsible of Ma to claim he could achieve his 6-3-3 pledge within eight years if he were re-elected. He called on the Presidential Office to stop its “cover-up” for Ma. The government announced last month that unemployment rose to 5.82 percent in May, while the economy shrank a record 8.36 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter.
■ TRANSPORTATION
Free buses during Games
With less than 10 days to go before the World Games, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said yesterday she would grant residents and tourists free bus rides during the games. The benefit will apply to the 83 bus routes and shuttle buses between the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit stations between July 16 and July 26, Chen said. Transportation Bureau Director Wang Kuo-tsai (王國材) said the city government made the decision to make it more convenient for residents and tourists to go to the Games or go shopping during the international sports event. The plan, which is expected to cost the city government NT$14 million (US$424,000), will be covered by the air pollution prevention fund of the city’s Environmental Protection Bureau, Wang said.
■ SOCIETY
Fire kills four, injures two
Four people were killed and two injured in a fire at a building on Huacheng Rd in Sinjhuang, Taipei County, yesterday morning. The fire, which started at about 3am, was put out in 40 minutes by 74 firefighters and 34 fire engines. However, they were unable to prevent the flames from spreading to buildings nearby, including a bakery, a printing plant and a corrugated steel structure. The bodies of a man and a woman were found in the printing plant and were identified as the business owners. Four people, including a mother who ran the bakery and her two children, were sent to Taipei Hospital in Sinjhuang, Taipei County Hospital in Sanchong and Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei. Only the mother survived.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Japanese donates to Tainan
A 26-year-old Japanese environmentalist who recently traveled around Taiwan on foot in less than three months donated NT$30,000 to the Tainan City Government for use in environmental protection initiatives yesterday. Yuji Miyata set off on his walking tour from Tainan on April 22 and headed south, then walked counter-clockwise around the country. As the Japanese environmental activist circled the country, he planted trees in an effort to help create a greener planet. He said he intends to plant more trees in Tainan and Kaohsiung before he leaves for Japan on July 22. Miyata said he was very impressed with many places and people in Taiwan, adding that there were several areas in Hualien and Taitung counties on the east coast that had not been touched by pollution.
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