DISASTER
Taiwanese among the dead
A Taiwanese expatriate living in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, has been identified as one of the victims claimed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the Taipei-based Association of East Asian Relations said on Wednesday. Huang Ming-lang (黃明朗), the secretary-general of the organization established to handle Taiwan-Japan exchanges in the absence of diplomatic ties, said the Taiwanese victim was only identified by her surname, Lee (李), citing information provided by Taiwan’s representative office in Japan. The 81-year-old woman was married to a doctor surnamed Chang (張). However, as of Wednesday evening, no details had been released on how long she had lived in Japan, or how she ended up taking residency there. Her daughter, who lives in Tokyo, went to Miyagi to identify the body. She handled the cremation of her mother’s remains late on Wednesday, Huang said. The daughter has asked the office to help deliver her mother’s ashes to Taiwan.
HEALTH
Mail from Japan to be tested
Mail and parcels from Tokyo are now required to undergo inspection for radiation levels both in Japan and Taiwan and will be intercepted if the inspections reveal abnormal readings, Taiwan’s state postal company said yesterday. According to Chunghwa Post Co president Hu Hsueh-yun (胡雪雲), his company was notified by Japan’s postal authorities on Sunday that all mail and parcels in Tokyo had to pass a radiation inspection. To be extra cautious, the company began to inspect the radiation levels in mail and parcels from Japan on Tuesday, Hu said, adding that no abnormalities have been detected. Hu said the company would make sure that no radiation-contaminated mail or parcels are delivered.
JUSTICE
Executions to continue: Ma
Taiwan will continue to carry out executions of death row inmates as the country’s laws mandate, but the government has worked toward reducing the use of capital punishment, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday. The government’s policy, he said, is to phase out the use of capital punishment through existing laws and regulations. However, death-penalty convictions should still be carried out in accordance with the law. His remarks came after Beverley Wakem, president of the International Ombudsman Institute, said at a Control Yuan seminar that some countries were violating human rights by implementing the death penalty. Ma reiterated that Taiwan was dedicated to human rights protection. Taiwan resumed executions in April last year, ending an unofficial moratorium that had existed since 2005. Earlier this month, the government carried out five executions, drawing protests from the EU and human rights groups. There are still 41 prisoners awaiting execution in the country’s penal system.
TRAVEL
US fines Taiwan passenger
A Taiwanese passenger carrying bottles of cough syrup was stopped and fined by a customs officer at a US airport, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. It turned out that the syrup contained opium, and was therefore deemed illegal by the customs security agents, Bruce Linghu (令狐榮達), director-general of the ministry’s Department of North American Affairs, told reporters at a regular press briefing. The bottles were confiscated and the passenger was fined US$500, Linghu said. Travelers are urged to check with relevant authorities for restricted and prohibited items before traveling, Linghu 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