■POLITICS
Ma makes new faux pas
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) made yet another slip-up yesterday when he mistakenly called the Caribbean the “Worthless-bean.” During a meeting with members of the Ministry of National Defense’s training programs of senior military and government officials at the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon, Ma substituted the first part of the word “Caribbean” as “Bala,” or guava (芭樂), in Chinese, saying “Bale-bean.” Bale is the Chinese equivalent of “worthless” or “unimportant.” This was not the first time Ma made a faux pas since he took office in May last year. In August, Ma referred to Sao Tome and Principe as Burkina Faso while welcoming the foreign minister of Sao Tome and Principe and his wife at the Presidential Office. In January, Ma referred to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) as Hu Yaobang (胡耀邦), a former Chinese Communist Party secretary-general. When attending the funeral ceremony of a Buddhist monk in March, Ma referred to the deceased by two different names, neither of which was correct.
■DEFENSE
US official guilty of spying
James Fondren, a former US Pacific Command (PACOM) official, was found guilty of spying on Sept. 25 for his involvement in a Chinese spy ring, military periodical Defense News reported yesterday. Fondren faces up to 15 years in jail, the report said. Fondren retired from the US Air Force in 1996 before rejoining PACOM as a civilian employee in 2001. He was deputy director of the command’s Washington liaison office. He is the second US government official found guilty of involvement in the spy ring run by Kuo Tai-shen (郭台生), a Taiwan-born naturalized US citizen who worked for US defense companies. Another man, Gregg Bergersen received 57 months in prison in July last year while Kuo received 15 years last May as part of plea bargains. Fondren was convicted of supplying classified information to Kuo. He also was found guilty of two counts of making false statements to the FBI, the article said.
■POLITICS
Chen’s detention challenged
Tainan Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財), who also serves as convener of a Release former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) task force, yesterday proposed mobilizing 1,000 people to sue the Council of Grand Justices next month for malfeasance over Chen’s “illegitimate” detention since December. DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has yet to throw her weight behind the proposal. Speaking to reporters, Hsu said the movement was to mark the one-year anniversary of Chen’s incarceration and to bring attention to the flaws in the nation’s legal system.
■ENVIRONMENT
Pick up garbage, get reward
The Environmental Protection Bureau in Taichung City said yesterday it was encouraging the public to pick up garbage, including dog excrement, for rewards in the first move of its kind to clean up the environment. The bureau said it is offering a gift voucher of NT$100 for each kilogram of dog excrement collected. To collect vouchers, residents must haul the canine droppings and other garbage to specified locations, the bureau said. “By offering rewards, we hope people will help clean up and conserve the environment so we can have a clean city,” the bureau said in a statement. It is also giving vouchers for picking up plastic, paper and Styrofoam cups as well as plastic bags. Dog excrement collection, however, is limited to 2kg per person per day, TV news reports said.
■DEFENSE
Ministry remembers battle
The Ministry of National Defense will invite former Kinmen commanders and veterans of the Battle of Guningtou (古寧頭炮戰) to a ceremony in Kinmen on Oct. 25 to commemorate the battle that kept the island out of China’s hands. To commemorate the battle, the ministry is also holding essay competitions, art exhibits and seminars leading up to the main event — the opening ceremony for Peace Memorial Square on Oct. 25, Deputy Minister of National Defense Huang Yi-bing (黃奕炳) said yesterday. Huang said the public should remember lessons of the past and promote peace for future generations. The Battle of Guningtou began on Oct. 25, 1949, when communist Chinese warships carrying more than 10,000 troops landed at Guningtou, located on the northwestern tip of the main island of Kinmen. After three days of fighting, Chinese Nationalist Party troops forced the surrender of thousands of communist troops. Kinmen County Commissioner Li Chu-feng (李炷烽) suggested yesterday that the ministry establish a military museum in Kinmen, an idea that Huang said the military supports.
■CRIME
Birthday boy robs stores
A man has been arrested for allegedly robbing three convenience stores, saying he was upset that nobody had celebrated his birthday, media reported yesterday. The 33-year-old, identified only by his surname, Tseng, said his “erratic behavior” was prompted by the birthday blues, the China Post reported. According to the police, Tseng said he suffered psychiatric disorders and had a criminal record for theft. Tseng, who robbed the three stores in Taipei within 23 minutes, was found drunk and carrying NT$13,200 in cash at the time of his arrest, the report 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