■POLITICS
Would-be mayor files lawsuit
Huang Shih-yin (黃石吟), an independent politician who planned to run for mayor in Chiayi County’s Dongshih Township (東石), filed a lawsuit yesterday against Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairman Lai Hao-min (賴浩敏) and Chiayi County Election Commission Chairman Wu Jung-huei (吳容輝) for blocking his candidacy. He was barred by the CEC for non-payment of a fine for a criminal offense committed before he signed up to run in the election. On Tuesday the county election commission approved his candidacy based on the premise that Huang’s political rights should be protected. However, the CEC annulled that approval later the same day. Huang filed the lawsuit after the county election commission declined to allow him to draw a number yesterday. Both CEC Secretary-General Teng Tien-yu (鄧天祐) and Wu said they would respect Huang’s judicial rights.
■LEGISLATION
Committee approves review
The legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee yesterday approved a preliminary review of a provisional decree of government restructuring but left the controversial articles for cross-party negotiations before the bill proceeds to the plenary legislative session for debate. The committee approved the preliminary review of the provisional bill governing the adjustments of the Executive Yuan’s functions and organizations during its reorganization project. Among the controversial issues is the civil servants’ retirement program. Under the Executive Yuan and Examination Yuan proposal, civil servants meeting certain requirements would be eligible for early retirement between June 1 and Dec. 31 next year, with monetary incentives.
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