■ MEDIA
‘Commons Daily’ shuts down
The Chinese-language newspaper Commons Daily yesterday announced it is terminating publication because of management disputes. On Sunday, the computers at the 60-year-old newspaper’s headquarters in Kaohsiung were taken by an unidentified person, making it impossible for staff to publish the newspaper. The paper’s deputy editor-in-chief, Chang Hung-kuang (張弘光), reported the incident to police. The management dispute was rumored to be between Eastern Multimedia Group’s Tsai Hao (蔡豪) and Wang Shih-chun (王世均). However, both issued statements saying they were not involved in the management of the Commons Daily, causing much confusion for the paper’s staff.
■ TRAVEL
Tourism office opens in PRC
Taiwan yesterday officially inaugurated its tourism office in Beijing — the first semiofficial agency set up by Taiwan in China. The office is formally known as the Beijing office of the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association (TSTA), with its principal mission promoting tourism in Taiwan among Chinese citizens. Tourism Bureau Director-General Janice Lai (賴瑟珍), who serves as chairwoman of TSTA, presided over the inauguration ceremony. Also attending were Shao Qiwei (邵琪偉), director of China’s National Tourism Administration, and Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中), executive deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office. Shao is also president of the Cross-Strait Tourism Association (CSTA), the TSTA’s Chinese counterpart. The Taipei office of the CSTA will be opened Friday.
■ TRAVEL
Fuel surcharge approved
The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) has approved a request by Taiwanese carriers to increase fuel surcharges on international routes to help them offset an increase in aviation fuel prices. The new measures, to take effect on tickets issued from May 17, will see the surcharge raised to US$20 from US$17.50 per passenger for short-haul flights and to US$52 from US$45.50 for long-haul flights. The increase came after state-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan, announced on Monday it would raise the price of aviation fuel to US$103.18 per barrel, prompting local carriers flying international routes to petition the CAA for an increase in the surcharge. This is the first time Taiwan’s airlines have increased surcharges since Dec. 15. Meanwhile, China Airlines and EVA Airways Corp, the country’s biggest carriers, will from next Tuesday raise the surcharges on flights between Taiwan and Hong Kong by US$1 to US$11.80 based on Hong Kong’s adjustment mechanism.
■ TRAVEL
New ship line to begin
A Chinese passenger cargo ship will sail directly from Xiamen to Kaohsiung for the first time next week, opening a new transportation route for people traveling between China and southern Taiwan. The Hong Kong-registered Cosco Star, which will make its maiden voyage between Xiamen and Kaohsiung on Monday, expects to launch regularly scheduled services between the two cities once a week, the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau said on Monday. The cruise ship, which can carry more than 600 passengers, already sails regularly between Xiamen in Fujian Province and Taichung and Keelung. More than 100,000 Fujian residents are expected to visit Taiwan this year, the Tourism Bureau said. The Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau and the Xiamen Port Authority will also sign a letter of intent on that day to enhance cooperation, officials 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