Survivors of a magnitude 7.3 earthquake that devastated central Taiwan on Sept. 21, 1999, are raising funds and donating supplies to help victims of the powerful temblor and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan on Friday.
Nantou County Government, the region hardest hit by the 921 quake, encouraged county residents to donate a day’s pay to victims of one of the worst natural disasters in Japan’s history.
Nantou County Commissioner Lee Chao-ching (李朝卿), who donated a month’s salary, or NT$150,000, to a special donation account opened by the county government to support Japan’s quake victims, said Nantou’s people received help from around the world when their homes were devastated by an earthquake more than a decade ago.
Nantou residents empathize with people in Japan, Lee said, and he encouraged everyone to make donations.
In addition to the -government-led fundraising event, three high-tech companies based in Nantou — Chip-City Science and Technology Co, Taiwan-Solar Photovoltaic Co and Greendix Electro-Optics Ltd — also donated 500 solar lamps and 500 solar cellphone chargers to Japan.
Given the electricity shortages caused by the natural disaster, practical solar energy products would help meet the needs of Japanese, Lee said.
Meanwhile, Nantou City is planning to send three of the power generators it received from Japan after the 921 quake to disaster areas in the tsunami--ravaged country to help supply electrical power, Nantou City Mayor Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) said.
Another fundraising event was launched on Tuesday by 921 quake survivor Tien Yu-yen (田玉燕) from Taichung City and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chien Chao-tung (簡肇棟)
Tien, who lost her brother and sister-in-law in the earthquake, said that rescue teams from many countries, including Japan, came to their assistance after the quake, and that she was grateful for their help.
Having survived a devastating quake, she said it was time for the victims of the 921 earthquake to return the favor and take action to help the Japanese people in their time of need.
Tien herself was buried in rubble for eight hours before she was found and saved. She suffered a rib fracture and injuries to her head, leaving her hospitalized for a month.
Japan sent a rescue team of 145 people, the largest of any country, to Taiwan after the 921 quake, and donated more than 1,000 prefabricated houses to reconstruction efforts.
The Japanese people also donated close to NT$1.1 billion (US$37 million) to Taiwan through the Red Cross, Chien said.
He said he had already received donations of supplies from across Taiwan and would deliver the items to Japan through the Taiwanese government.
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