■ DIPLOMACY
Medics visit El Salvador
A medical team from Taiwan has launched a two-week mission in El Salvador. The team, organized by the quasi-governmental International Cooperation and Development Fund, comprises 13 medical professionals in the fields of pediatrics, internal medicine, surgery, dentistry, ophthalmology and Chinese herbal medicine. Taiwan’s Ambassador to El Salvador Carlos Liao (廖世傑) said Taiwan and El Salvador have maintained a close relationship over the years. He said Taipei has provided assistance to its Central American ally, including organizing training programs in Taiwan for Salvadoran medical professionals to help upgrade the level of healthcare in El Salvador. Liu said a Taiwanese medical team first visited El Salvador two years ago.
■ ECONOMY
Cabinet withdraws bill
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the withdrawal of the national budget bill for the next fiscal year and two administrative projects, calling for austerity measures in response to a shortfall in the government’s coffers. Executive Yuan Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) said next year’s national budget bill and two administrative projects, which were sent to the legislature for screening before the Cabinet reshuffle on Sept. 10, would be reconsidered. The two administrative projects to be redrawn are the special budget bill for increasing public infrastructure construction, which was originally aimed at creating more jobs to help alleviate high unemployment, and the special budget bill for reconstruction in the areas hardest hit by Typhoon Morakot. A new national budget bill, which is to be redrawn by the relevant government agencies, is to be sent to the legislative floor for screening next Thursday, Su said.
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