POLITICS
Hau names deputy mayor
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday confirmed that Ministry of Transportation and Communications Administrative Deputy Minister Chen Wei-jen (陳威仁) will take over as Taipei deputy mayor. Hau praised Chen for his previous experiences addressing municipal issues as a former city official and thanked him for being willing to take up the challenging post. Chen, 62, served as the commissioner of Taipei City’s Department of Urban Development and the head of the city’s Public Works Department when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was serving as Taipei mayor. Dubbed a member of the so-called “Ma troop,” Chen has also worked with Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) as his deputy commissioner in 2006 before moving on to his current position last year.
CONSERVATION
Donation made to UK’s WWT
The central government has donated US$5,000 to Britain’s Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) to support its wild bird conservation program in the far east of Russia. The donation was presented on Thursday by Lee Hsian-chang (李憲章), an official of the Taipei Representative Office in the UK, to Baz Hughes of the WWT on behalf of Taiwan’s Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture. Hughes expressed thanks for the contributions from Taiwan that began in 2006 which support the conservation of scaly sided Mergansers, an endangered species that lives on wetlands in Russia’s far east. The donations have enabled the WWT to regularly monitor the bird’s population, as well as relevant research. Because of the work of the organization, the Merganser population has increased to 10,000 as of this year, Hughes said. The population of scaly sided Mergansers in the Russian far east dropped to 4,500 at one point because of fishing and logging activities that damaged the bird’s habitat and made it one of the rarest fowl species in the world, Hughes said.
MEDIA
Tsais’ purchase approved
The acquisition of Kbro, the nation’s largest cable TV operator, from US private equity firm the Carlyle Group by Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and his brother Richard Tsai (蔡明興), scions of one of Taiwan’s richest families, was approved by the government yesterday. The Tsai family’s acquisition of Kbro through the recently established Da-fu Media will hand them Kbro’s 80 percent stake in 12 cable television systems, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs officials. Kbro keeps the other 20 percent share in the deal worth NT$36 billion (US$1.2 billion). The Tsais firm received key approval from the National Communications Commission last month after it clearly outlined its plans for developing a platform for digital TV and providing consumers with better quality programs.
CULTURE
Red House reaches 102
The Red House, a historical Taipei building that will celebrate the 102nd anniversary of its establishment on Monday, has been successfully transformed into a hub for cultural and creative industries, Taipei Culture Foundation CEO Johnson Chiu (邱正生) said yesterday. Chiu said the Red House has seen positive changes since the foundation took over the operation of the octagonal brick building three years ago. From its completion in 1908, the Red House, located in Ximending (西門町), has stood through the Qing Dynasty, the Japanese occupation and the influence of Shanghai and Western cultural and fashion trends.
TRANSPORT
New driving test introduced
An experimental new road-based driving test will be introduced by a driving school in the north next year. Prospective drivers will need to take a road test on real roads in addition to a track at a test center from July at the Northern Region Training Institute, Directorate General of Highways director Wu Meng-fen (吳盟分) said. Testing on real roads will allow learner drivers to gain real-life experience, Wu said, adding that it can also boost new drivers’ confidence. In an agreement between the Directorate General of Highways and insurance firms, drivers on public roads with a learner’s license will be fully insured against accidents, Wu said. The new road test will be implemented in other regions of the country if the trial proves successful, Wu said.
DIPLOMACY
Wu to visit Burkina Faso
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) will depart today for Burkina Faso to attend a ceremony marking the inauguration of President Blaise Compaore for a new term, Taiwanese diplomats stationed in the West African country said yesterday. Wu will attend the ceremony scheduled for Dec. 19 on behalf of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the officials said. Wu’s visit has drawn the attention of the Burkina Faso diplomatic community because he will be Taiwan’s first premier to visit since the two countries resumed diplomatic ties in 1994, according to the officials. Minister of National Defense Kao Hua-chu (高華柱) visited the country in August for its 50th independence anniversary.
SOCIETY
Friends set to tour Taiwan
Two young women have received NT$500,000 in sponsorship from shop owners in Taichung County’s Sinshe Township (新社) to go on a 100-day trip around Taiwan, the Shinshe Township Recreation and Agriculture Development Association said. Huang Wei-ting (黃唯婷) and Tseng Wan-ching (曾婉菁), who became friends when they were students at Nanhua University in Chiayi County, will hitchhike around the country, hugging everyone they meet and encouraging them to pursue their dreams. At the end of the trip, they will upload 18 videos to social network sites, they said. The women have already started to shoot a video featuring the 50 shop owners who are supporting the “Make a Wish” initiative and who have fulfilled their dreams by creating their own businesses. Huang and Tseng will begin their tour on Jan. 1.
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