INTERNET
Facebook head in Taiwan
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was spotted in Taiwan on Thursday visiting Taipei City’s Huaxi Street (華西街) night market. Zuckerberg visited China on Dec. 20 last year. A few days ago Taiwan’s Netizens reported that he was sighted in Taipei. The rumor was later confirmed when Cha Heng (查恆), an acting teacher in Taipei, posted online a picture of him taken with Zuckerberg at the night market. Cha said he asked to take a photo with the Facebook boss when he spotted him, accompanied by his girlfriend, watching snakes. “I thought he looked like the Facebook chief executive and I googled him quickly on my cellphone and confirmed it,” Cha said, adding that when he approached Zuckerberg for a photo, the latter appeared surprised to be recognized.
WEATHER
Expect less rain: CWB
The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) forecast that total rainfall from this month to March will be near or below average around Taiwan, as the nation is experiencing a La Nina event. According to the bureau, the probabilities of predicted rainfall in three categories — below normal, near normal and above normal — over the next three months nationwide are 40 percent, 40 percent and 20 percent, respectively. This month, normal rainfall in northern Taiwan is defined as between 60mm and 100mm, while in the south it is defined as between 45mm and 70mm. The CWB said that the current La Nina, reflected by below-average sea surface temperatures across the equatorial Pacific, is a moderate to strong one. A moderate La Nina episode tends to be accompanied by less rainfall in spring in Taiwan, the bureau said.
HEALTH
AIDS site to include culture
Reviews of books and albums popular with the homosexual population in Taiwan will be featured on a quasi-governmental gay Web site that was launched yesterday, in an attempt to satisfy the increasingly diverse needs of the community, according to the Web site manager, the Taiwan AIDS Foundation (TAF). Gay people lead diverse lifestyles,” said Bevis Tseng (曾壹靖), a TAF employee, in explaining the motive for expanding the content of the Web site from basic information about disease prevention to that including gay-friendly news, events, trips and artwork. He said that music reviews on gay idols such as Lady Gaga and book reviews on important gay literature help to enrich the lives of gay people. “After all, living a vibrant life is what makes you healthy in the first place,” Tseng said. The Web site, called “Enjoy Sex,” was commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control in 2008 to help combat AIDS.
CULTURE
‘Duzhe’ comes to Taiwan
The first magazine published in China ever to be approved for sale in Taiwan will be available on the local market beginning this month. Duzhe (讀者), meaning “reader,” will be published in traditional Chinese characters every month for Taiwanese readers, as it is now for Chinese-speaking readers in Hong Kong and the US. Dubbed “Chinese people’s Chicken Soup for the Soul,” the magazine was approved for sale in Taiwan by the Government Information Office in August. Ji Xipin (吉西平), chairman of the Duzhe publication group, and Taiwanese writer Tom Wang (王文華) attended a press conference in Taipei on Friday to launch the publication in its new market. The magazine has a monthly circulation of about 8 million in China.
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