■AGRICULTURE
Thousands of sheep culled
More than 8,000 sheep infected with goat pox virus (GPV), a disease that can be spread by saliva, feces or sheep skin, have been culled across the country, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPIQ) said. Because of a rapid spread of the epidemic, 8,419 sheep at 56 farms scattered over nine cities and counties have been killed, the bureau said. Taiwan reported its first goat pox case in July 2008 on a ranch in Taoyuan County among a herd of goats that were allegedly smuggled into Taiwan. The second case erupted in early April in Yunlin County. Goats from two more farms were found to have contracted goat pox virus on Friday afternoon. The bureau said it is considering purchasing 50,000 vaccinations from a pharmaceutical company in Jordan to contain the epidemic.
■MILITARY
Arms sales help ties
US sales of defensive arms to Taiwan are conducive to the development of cross-strait ties and will help Taiwan negotiate with China on an equal footing, a former US official said on Friday. Brushing aside speculation that US arms sales would escalate tensions, former deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia Tom Christensen said the US would continue selling defensive weapons to Taiwan unless China gives assurances that it will not use force against Taiwan. The US sale of arms to Taiwan represents a show of support rather than an attempt to make trouble, Christensen said at a seminar sponsored by Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. At the seminar, retired US Navy rear admiral Eric McVadon, said he does not think that China has the military strength to seize Taiwan right now. China should not underestimate US resolve to help defend Taiwan, although the two are unlikely to go to war because of Taiwan, he said.
■CRIME
Man shot dead in Taichung
Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) said yesterday that a fatal shooting the previous day had destroyed the city’s efforts to maintain social order. He vowed to take serious steps to crack down on gangsters. Hu’s remarks came after an unknown assailant shot a biotech company executive and one of the executive’s friends at the company’s office in downtown Taichung. The executive was pronounced dead on arrival, while his friend was said to be in critical condition. Taichung police have concluded that the incident was a fight between gangsters and that the executive was probably targeted because of a gambling dispute. “I do not like that gangsters are making Taichung a place to settle their scores,” Hu said, adding that he is prepared to work with other cities, counties and the central government to stamp out gangsterism once and for all.
■TOURISM
Chinese firm eyes Kinmen
The Kinmen County Government said yesterday it welcomes a partly Chinese-funded joint venture that will build a resort and shopping center on the island of Kinmen. The Investment Commission under the Ministry of Economic Affairs approved the project on Thursday, in which a Chinese company from Fujian Province plans to invest about NT$50 million (US$1.56 million) to set up a company with a Taiwanese partner on the island. The joint venture — which will be 49 percent owned by the Fujian-based company and 51 percent by the Taiwanese side — marks the first time a Chinese company has invested in Taiwan’s tourism industry.
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