SOCIETY
New Taipei City approved
The Ministry of the Interior yesterday officially approved the New Taipei City (新北市, the upgraded Taipei County) Government’s application to translate the city’s name literally as “New Taipei City,” instead of translating it phonetically as most other cities do. “Although, according to the Standardized Place Names Translation Act (標準地名譯寫準則), place names are to be translated phonetically, place names can also be translated literally based on the reason of history, language, customs, religious belief, common international practices or other reasons,” the ministry said in a press release last night. “The best known example of literal translation is ‘Sun Moon Lake.’” The ministry said the results of polls conducted by the city government showed that most of the people in the city support translating the city name as “New Taipei City,” therefore it will respect New Taipei City Government’s opinion on the issue.
SOCIETY
Ticket buyers to enter draw
A prize worth NT$50,000 will be awarded to one of the 1,100 visitors who purchase a Taipei International Flora Expo entry ticket before or after the 3 million ticket mark. The expo organizers said that with more than 50,000 people visiting the expo each day since it opened nearly two months ago, the 3 millionth visitor is expected on Monday. Holders of the 550 tickets issued before and after the 3 millionth ticket will be entered in a draw for prizes, including two vouchers for upmarket hotels at Sun Moon Lake and in Taipei worth NT$50,000. Other prizes will include gift packs and coupons for coffee. Ting Hsi-yung (丁錫鏞), director of the expo’s organizing committee, said a number of new exhibitions will be staged to welcome the 100th year of the founding of the Republic of China this year, including an agricultural technology show featuring cloned sheep.
POLITICS
NCC reversal order blocked
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday blocked a Democratic Progressive Party caucus proposal to demand that the Executive Yuan order the National Communications Commission (NCC) withdraw its decision to revoke the license for Era TV’s variety channel. The NCC’s decision on Wednesday drew widespread criticism from lawmakers from both parties. NCC Chairwoman Su Herng (蘇蘅) said on Monday that the variety channel’s license was officially invalidated on Wednesday because the channel had repeatedly failed to distinguish between programs and commercials, one of the conditions set when the commission renewed the license in February last year. The channel was taken off the air at 12am yesterday.
TRANSPORTATION
Traffic plan unveiled
The National Freeway Bureau has unveiled its plan to facilitate the traffic during the upcoming Lunar New Year holidays. The first day of the Lunar New Year falls on Feb. 3. The bureau said it plans to execute the High Occupancy Control Policy, which requires a motor vehicle to carry at least three passengers, on Feb. 2, Feb. 5 and Feb. 6. Toll booths will be closed between 12am and 7am from Feb. 2 to Feb. 7, it added. The proposed traffic measure for the Lunar New Year holidays is now pending final approval from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the bureau 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