The Ministry of Justice yesterday said it would begin a crackdown on businesses and individuals that drive up the prices of goods after Typhoon Morakot caused major damage to the south of the country.
Yesterday morning, Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) met with the ministry’s three deputy ministers, State Prosecutor-General Chen Tsung-ming (陳聰明) and other top prosecutors and department heads to discuss ways to help the country recover from effects of the typhoon.
The ministry said it would mobilize all district prosecutors’ offices to make the processing of missing persons files and maintaining of death tolls a high priority, as well as instructing prosecutors and investigators to look into whether businesses or individuals had driven up the prices of goods or committed fraud by taking advantage of recovery efforts following the typhoon, Deputy Minister of Justice Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) said.
The ministry said it would also investigate whether public officials were liable for substandard public construction projects that led to the erosion of foundations and destruction of bridges and roads, as well as probe for corruption that may have taken place.
Wang also encouraged ministry officials to participate in a “one-day donation” program, where ministry officials contribute a day’s salary to the relief efforts. The ministry estimated the program would be able to contribute about NT$35 million (US$1 million) to the relief effort.
The Association for Protection of Victims of Crime is to provide NT$6,000 a month for three months to each family member of victims of crime that have been affected by the typhoon. Victims in poverty or who are unable to work to support themselves may also apply to the association for more assistance.
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