■NATURE
‘National Day Birds’ on way
Gray-faced buzzard eagles, also known as the “National Day Bird,” will soon pass through Kending (墾丁), the Construction and Planning Agency said in a statement yesterday. To welcome the rare migratory birds, listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, Kending National Park will hold an eagle-watching event that will include various bird-watching and environmental education activities. Appendix II includes species for which trade must be controlled to “avoid utilization incompatible with their survival.” The gray-faced buzzard may be the most famous of 200 bird species that transit through Kending National Park every year as they migrate, and because its migration period usually comes around the Oct. 10 national day celebrations, it is nicknamed the “National Day Bird.” The birds usually rest in Kending for about 20 days from early to mid-October and can be seen flying in groups above the ocean. They breed in eastern China, eastern Russia and Japan and winter mainly in Indochina, Malaysia and the Philippines. Their preferred habitat is low mountains, hills and foothills
■DIPLOMACY
AIT envoy assumes duties
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday announced that Eric Madison assumed his duties as deputy director of the Taipei Office on Friday. “A career foreign service officer, Madison served most recently as economic counselor at the American Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during the past year,” said a statement released by the AIT. “Prior to that, he served as deputy counselor in the economic section at the American Embassy in Beijing.” Madison had previously served at the AIT as the deputy chief of the Economic Section from 1992-1995, the AIT added. In related news, the AIT yesterday announced that all its offices will be closed on Monday to mark Columbus Day in the US. The offices will re-open on Tuesday.
■TRAVEL
MOFA passes on advice
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday reminded all Taiwanese travelers to European countries, especially the Czech Republic, to carry proof of medical insurance at all times in case of random police checks. Chiu Jong-jen (邱仲仁), the director-general of the Department of European Affairs, said the Czech Republic representative office called the ministry last week to ask the government to pass on the advice to all those traveling to the country. Chiu said the message was not targeted at Taiwan specifically but generally to travelers worldwide. He also said random police checks are uncommon but it is always a good idea to carry all relevant documents while traveling abroad.
■DIPLOMACY
Sapporo office to open soon
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said its Sapporo branch office is scheduled to open on Oct. 24, with Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony. At a press conference in Tokyo, Representative to Japan John Feng (馮寄台) said the opening of the office holds special significance for Taiwan-Japan ties and the office will be able to serve more than 300,000 Taiwanese tourists that visit Hokkaido each year. Sapporo will be the third branch office under the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Relation Office in Tokyo in addition to Naha and Yokohama. Taiwan also has a representative office in Osaka.
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