■ENVIRONMENT
Fish pass dioxin tests
Following reports last week of dioxin contamination at a duck farm in Kaohsiung County, officials from the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) confirmed yesterday that stocks of tilapia found at the farm were within safety limits. The EPA had come under criticism in the legislature earlier for failing to discover that the farm in question was breeding fish in addition to the ducks — which had been found to contain large amounts of harmful chemicals. Officials said analyses showed that the fish had dioxin levels between 0.260 and 0.412 picograms per gram (fresh weight), far below the limit of 4pg/g. However, Kaohsiung County authorities said that thousands of kilograms of tilapia would still be destroyed today as a precaution.
■CULTURE
Kaohsiung to set up zone
A special zone will be established to help preserve Pingpu culture after a park was destroyed by Typhoon Morakot in early August, Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) said yesterday. Yang was referring to the Pingpu cultural park in Siaolin Village (小林), Jiasian Township (甲仙), which was buried under mudslides triggered by the typhoon. The Red Cross Society of the Republic of China has commissioned a consultancy company to plan the new culture park and permanent housing units for the typhoon victims. Yang also said he had asked tax authorities to study the possibility of waiving land and house taxes for the permanent housing units, which are also being built by the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation.
■TOURISM
Janice Lai heads to China
Tourism Bureau Director-General Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) departed for China yesterday at the head of a large delegation to attend an international travel fair. It marks the first time that Lai has led a tourism promotion delegation to attend a travel fair in China in her capacity as president of the Taipei-based Taiwan Strait Tourism and Travel Association. Lai said prior to her departure that the delegation would introduce Taiwan’s natural scenery and other tourist attractions to prospective Chinese and other foreign travelers. The 190-person delegation, composed of representatives of 23 government agencies and business associations, as well as 64 travel agencies and hotel groups, will operate 60 booths in a Taiwan pavilion at the China International Travel Mart to be held in Kunming, Yunnan Province, from today through Sunday.
■EDUCATION
MOE officials visit UK
Ministry of Education (MOE) officials are leading a group of school representatives on a visit to the UK as part of the preparations for an education white paper that is scheduled for release early next year, a ministry official said yesterday. The group, which consists of representatives from graduate schools; senior, middle and vocational high schools; and elementary schools, is being led by Liu Ching-jen (劉慶仁), director-general of the Bureau of International Cultural and Educational Relations. It will visit schools in London and Edinburgh, as well as attend an international education conference for British primary and secondary schools. Liu said the representatives would hold workshops and demonstrate their UK findings upon their return. The white paper for international education in elementary and secondary schools will be published next year to help lay a solid policy foundation, he 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