ENVIRONMENT
Panda Hall closed temporarily
The Taipei Zoo will close its Panda Hall for four days starting today to prepare for the mating of its two giant pandas — Tuan Tuan (團團) and Yuan Yuan (圓圓), and hopes that a baby panda can be born in the zoo as early as May. Taipei Zoo director Jason Yeh (葉傑生) said yesterday that Yuan Yuan showed obvious signs of estrus in the past two days, including walking around and an increase in body temperature, and Tuan Tuan also reached maturity this year. He said the following four days are a “critical time” for a possible breeding, and the zoo would consider using artificial insemination if the pair failed to breed during the period. It was the first time the zoo has closed the Panda Hall. The zoo has invited two experts from the Wolong Giant Panda Reserve Centre in Sichuan Province to help with the breeding.
CRIME
Chiang case investigated
Taipei prosecutors yesterday examined the Air Force Songshan Base Command to investigate the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl 14 years ago and determine whether Chiang Kuo--ching (江國慶), who late last month was found by the prosecutors to have been wrongfully executed by the military for the crime, was tortured during the investigation. Prosecutors said that according to the military’s investigation, the girl was raped and murdered in a restaurant restroom, and her body was found outside the restaurant. Prosecutors said they carefully examined the site and examined a room where Hsu Jung-chou (許榮洲), who has been detained by the court on suspicion of committing the crime, lived while a solider at the base. Prosecutors also visited an investigation room where Chiang was allegedly seriously tortured before making a confession.
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