MILITARY
Arsenal not closing: ministry
The Ministry of National Defense said yesterday that a contract to supply ammunition to the US had not been extended, but dismissed a media report that an arsenal will have to be closed as a result. The US armed forces signed the contract five years ago with the ministry to buy 500 million 5.56mm M-16 rifle rounds made by the Combined Logistics Command’s 205th Arsenal, the Chinese-language China Times reported yesterday. The report said that the renewal of the contract, which expired this year, was won by a US company. The ministry said the export deal was terminated because it came to an end and the buyer did not express an interest in continuing the contract. A defense official dismissed the report that the bullet production line at the arsenal would be forced to close.
FISHERIES
Five injured in explosion
The Philippine Coast Guard said the boiler of a Taiwanese fishing vessel sailing near Manila exploded, injuring five crewmen who were evacuated to a hospital. Commander Armand Balilo said the injured — four Indonesians and a Taiwanese — were part of the Ho-Chung’s 23-member crew. The ship was en route from Taiwan to Papua New Guinea when the blast occurred yesterday. Balilo said the coast guard sent a vessel with a medical team to take the men to a Manila hospital. Two of them had to be hooked to oxygen tanks because of exposure to ammonia. Three others suffered bruises and burns. Balilo said the ship continued with its journey, leaving the five crewmen in Manila.
DIPLOMACY
Yuan attends the Oscars
Representative to the US Jason Yuan (袁健生) attended the 83rd Academy Awards in Hollywood on Sunday at the invitation of the organizers. “I feel honored to be invited to the Oscars,” Yuan said, adding that his attendance symbolizes the success of Taiwan’s cultural diplomacy. “It’s a great honor for a diplomat to get an Oscars invitation given the fact that there are almost 200 foreign ambassadors stationed in the United States and a large number of foreign consuls-general in Los Angeles,” Yuan said before entering the Kodak Theater to attend the award ceremony. Yuan said Bruce Davis, the chief organizer, invited representatives from Taiwan to this year’s ceremony as he had attended last year’s Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards in Taipei and had been impressed by Taiwan’s accomplishments in the development of its soft power. “The Oscars attendance marks yet another achievement in upgrading our international profile by integrating our ‘hard power and soft power’ into ‘magic power,’” Yuan said.
POLITICS
Chen Chu to visit Japan
Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) will leave for Tokyo today for a visit aimed at attracting Japanese investors and promoting Kaohsiung’s agricultural products and its business environment, the city government said. Chen will head a delegation that includes Greater Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Lee Yung-te (李永得) and city officials in charge of economic development, environmental protection, mass transportation systems and agricultural affairs, as well as local business leaders. The city government has adopted a policy of developing Greater Kaohsiung into an intelligent green city. Chen and the delegation plan to talk with Japanese enterprises on issues related to financial services, the creation of an “intelligent city” and green energy. They will travel to Kitakyushu on Thursday for a visit to its Eco Town.
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