■ MILITARY
MND unveils ‘carrier killer’
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) has unveiled the first image of a high-tech missile corvette specifically designed to counter the potential threat posed by Chinese aircraft carriers, officials and media said yesterday. A computerized graphic of the 1,000 tonne “carrier killer,” which has so far been kept secret from the public, has gone on display at Taipei’s military museum. The vessel will be capable of cruising at speeds of up to 55kph and boasts technologies helping it to evade radar detection, the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported, citing military officials. The navy hopes to arm the corvette with the home-grown Hsiung Feng III (“Brave Wind”) supersonic ship-to-ship missile, the report said. The military museum did not provide any details, while the defense ministry declined to comment on the report. Taiwanese military analysts expect China to need at least 10 years to build its first operational carrier group.
■ Diplomacy
Iran mulls Taipei Office
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said on Saturday the ministry was in the process of determining whether to grant a request from Iran to open an economic and trade office in Taipei amid international concerns over Iran’s nuclear program. The government-funded Taiwan External Trade Development Council’s office in Tehran informed the ministry that Iran wished to establish an office in Taipei, the ministry said. “We welcome all countries to set up economic and trade offices in Taiwan, but we still need to determine the nature of each request and its function,” said the official, who asked not the be named.
■ Entertainment
Police arrest Da Bing
Entertainer Da Bing (大炳) was arrested yesterday at his Sijhih (汐止) home for drug possession, the Taipei County Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Corp (CIC) said yesterday. Heroin and amphetamines were discovered at his residence when officers raided the house with a search warrant at about 4am, the CIC said in a press release. Officers followed a drug dealer to Da Bing’s home on Sunday night after receiving a tip-off, the CIC said. When police entered the apartment, they arrested five people. This was the third time the star was arrested for drug possession. He was arrested for amphetamine possession at Taipei’s Wego Motel in February 2007 for which he was sent on a 50-day rehabilitation program. In April last year, he was arrested for possession of amphetamines at Zhonghe’s Chingshan Motel. Taipei judges sentenced him to three months in jail, but his sentence was commuted to a fine of NT$92,000.
■ Nature
Team finishes mountain trek
Five members of the Taiwan Mountain Rescuers Association have become the first climbers to traverse the length of eastern Taiwan’s Coastal Mountain Range. “The 37-day expedition was a challenge because the pristine forest is thick with sturdy wild growth and full of venomous snakes, leeches, mosquitoes and yellow vines [Calamus Burret],” Ke Cheng-ming (柯正民), leader of the team, said at the end of the tough 170km trek on Sunday. Although the range is between 600m and 700m above sea level and its highest peak is just 1,682m, its rugged terrain makes it a difficult trek, Ke said. “Many of its ridge lines are formed by fault breccia; we had to brave strong winds to climb the steep cliffs. I have scaled the Central Mountain Range, Jade Mountain and Syueshan, but the Coastal Range was the most difficult,” Ke 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