■ POLITICS
No reshuffle on Monday
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) yesterday revealed that a Cabinet reshuffle will not be announced on Monday, as many in the media have speculated. Wang, however, said it should be finalized by Thursday as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) have made it clear that they want to finalize penalties for officials responsible for the devastation caused by Typhoon Morakot and replace any Cabinet members implicated early this month. Until then, Wang urged the media and public to refrain from speculating on the matter. Meanwhile, Executive Yuan Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) denied speculation that Minister of the Interior (MOI) Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) will replace Hsueh Hsiang-chuan (薛香川) as secretary-general of the Executive Yuan, and that Hsinchu Mayor Lin Jung-tzer (林政則) would be appointed the new MOI minister. “As far as I know, the reported reshuffle is not true,” Su said.
■ MILITARY
Walkway report denied
The Air Force yesterday denied press reports that a new passenger walkway would be built to enable the president to board his plane at the Air Force’s new main administrative building at its Songshan Air Force base. The base is the Air Force Administrative Fleet’s headquarters, as well as a civilian airport. The main administrative building is in the military zone next to the airport’s civilian terminals. The fleet has a Boeing 737-800, the presidential aircraft, but the military base does not have a boarding walkway. The Air Force is planning to re-build the administrative building and the original plan included a walkway and a presidential waiting room next to the gate. “The bridge was designed to protect and ensure that there would be no security concern for the president when he needs to board his plane,” the original budget plan said. The Air Force said in a statement that while the bridge was part of the original plan and the cost had been estimated at NT$10 million (US$304,000), the plan for the bridge was canceled last year because “the need for it does not exist anymore” and it would be costly to maintain in the future.
■ WEATHER
Air quality to worsen
Air quality on the west coast and in Taitung County is expected to worsen over the next few days because of dust particles, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday. The EPA attributed the phenomenon to an approaching tropical depression and sand and silt deposits left in the wake of Typhoon Morakot. The results of air quality monitoring conducted by the EPA showed that many areas in the west were affected by dust particles on Wednesday, with the concentration of suspended particulate matter registering up to 200 micrograms per cubic meter. In Taitung County, a concentration of up to 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter was recorded.
■ DIPLOMACY
ICDF to stage exhibit
The International Cooperation Development Fund (ICDF) will hold a 50-year anniversary exhibit in New York from Sept. 18 to Sept. 23 to celebrate five decades of Taiwan’s international humanitarian outreach program, ICDF secretary-general Chen Lien-gene (陳連軍) said. Historical photos, exhibits, documentary films and publications are to feature at the exhibition, Chen said, adding that visitors would be able to gain a deeper knowledge and appreciation of Taiwan’s charitable works around the world. The exhibit is to be held in the lobby of the representative office in Manhattan.
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