■ DOCUMENTARIRES
Discovery invites producers
The Discovery Channel is inviting proposals for a new documentary series focusing on the “100 years of the Republic of China (ROC),” the company said yesterday. Submissions are open only to production companies registered in Taiwan, and at least 50 percent of the production team's main staff should be Taiwanese nationals, the company said. The deadline for submission is March 31. The series, titled Taiwan Revealed, will be broadcast in 32 countries across Asia next year to coincide with the 100th founding anniversary of the ROC. It is the latest cooperation project between Discovery and the Government Information Office after Portraits Taiwan, Unknown Taiwan, and Focus Taiwan. For more information, contact the Taiwan office of the Discovery Channel at (02) 6639-9355.
■ FESTIVALS
Calla Lily fest coming up
The annual Calla Lily Festival will start on March 26 in Yangmingshan’s Zhuzihu (竹子湖), where the white flowers cover the valley every year and visitors can enjoy musical performances while admiring the view. The festival will run through April 25, and more than 45 calla lily farms in the area will open their doors to visitors. Beitou Farmers’ Association, one of the organizers of the festival, said about 40 percent of the calla lilies in Zhuzihu have already blossomed. The calla lilies will be in full bloom during the festival. In addition to enjoying the fresh air and beautiful flowers, visitors can pick flowers in the fields. The Taipei City Department of Economic Development said admission for flower-picking is NT$100 and each visitor would be allowed to pick a bouquet of 10 flowers. The festival will also feature floral design exhibitions and music performances, the department said.
■ CRIME
Couple traded black coral
A Taiwanese couple have pleaded guilty to illegally exporting hundreds of kilograms of protected black coral to the US Virgin Islands. The plea deal says Ivan and Gloria Chu got the coral from a warehouse in China for their business supplying materials for jewelry design. From 2007 to last year, they sent more than US$194,000 worth of black coral to an unidentified St Thomas merchant. The couple pleaded guilty on Thursday to federal charges, including making false statements and violations of the Endangered Species Act. Ivan Chu agreed to serve two-and-a-half years in prison, and Gloria Chu agreed to serve 20 months. Black coral is a fragile organism that attaches itself to rocks in deep ocean water.
■ SOCIETY
Book sale to help orphans
The Taipei American School's (TAS) Orphanage Club will hold its annual book sale today from 10am to 5pm in the lobby and forecourt of the school. Club members have collected hundreds of books, magazines and games. The books include recent best-sellers, manga, mysteries, biographies, histories, children's books and English-teaching books. There is an especially large number of books for teenagers this year. Scores of books in Chinese, Japanese and other languages are also available. Money raised from the book sale will go to help orphans and other needy children in Taiwan and abroad. The school is located at 800 Zhongshan N Rd, Sec 6, in Tianmu (天母). In the event of rain, the sale will be postponed to next Saturday.
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