■ TRANSPORTATION
Chicken-munchers caught
Kaohsiung’s mass rapid transit system reported earlier this week that officials had tracked down two students who violated a prohibition on eating and drinking on the system. Police said the two senior high school commuters were eating fried chicken on one of the trains, filling the carriage with the odor of the greasy treat. The culprits were identified with the help of a local news cable station and video footage recorded by another passenger who filed a complaint. One of the students said that he did not know eating and drinking on the MRT is not permitted, while the other said that although he was fully aware of the rule, he was hungry. The fines for eating or drinking on the MRT range between NT$1,500 and NT$7,500. A total of 7,143 commuters were warned and 112 tickets were issued between January and August this year on the system.
■ EDUCATION
MOE launches ‘dream’ site
The Ministry of Education (MOE) on Friday launched a Web site for students to share dreams that they would like to realize in their lives. Students are invited to e-mail their dreams, by individual or by class, to enews.kh.edu.tw/love99. The project is part of a “Love99” drive the ministry started this year to highlight the importance of “life education” for students. Other Love99 activities include students working as volunteers for a day, sponsoring children from less-privileged families, and practicing “green” consumption. Besides learning to love themselves and others, the drive aims to teach youths to learn how to lead environmentally friendly lives and become “green” consumers, who nurture habits such as turning off lights when they leave rooms and eating vegetarian for a day, the ministry said.
■ CHARITY
Guide dogs tariff-exempt
Guide dogs imported for the underprivileged have been granted duty-free privileges, the Department of Customs Administration said yesterday. The department said, as a charity, the Taiwan Guide Dog Association can import mature guide dogs with an exemption from a 12.5 percent tariff and a 5 percent business tax, saving a total of NT$3,000 per dog. Department officials said the association is devoted to establishing a guide dog system in Taiwan and aside from training guide dogs, it also offers free guide dogs to blind people. Government units and charity groups that import goods to help the sick, the poor and those with physical or mental disabilities are entitled to duty-free privileges, the department said, adding it might expand the tax-free policy to cover imports used in rescue missions.
■ SOCIETY
‘Love of Lives’ awarded
Taiwan’s Chou Ta-Kuan Cultural and Educational Foundation presented a Fervent Global Love of Lives Medal in Toronto earlier this week to Marc Kielburger, a Canadian activist for children’s rights and the founder of the Free the Children organization. At an award ceremony at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Toronto, Kielburger expressed his appreciation for all people who spread love. Wang Kuo-ran (王國然), chief officer of the Taipei office in Toronto, said it is admirable that Kielburger, as a former Rhodes Scholar with degrees from Harvard and Oxford universities, opted for charity work instead of a high-paying job. The foundation has handed out 214 such medals to people from 41 countries. The foundation also announced that next year it would honor Spencer West, a US citizen who lost both his legs when he was five years old.
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