TOURISM
Jiji Line reopens
The Jiji Line, a scenic branch railway in central Taiwan, reopened yesterday after reinforcement work that took more than a year to carry out. To celebrate the completion of the project, the line will offer free trips until July 17 between Ershui (二水) and Checheng (車埕), stations, a 29.7km ride that offers passengers views of steep foothills, tea plantations and traditional villages. The Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) started the reconstruction work on the Jiji Line in April last year because leakage had damaged the seven tunnels along the old railway, which jeopardized the line’s safety. Built in the Japanese colonial era, the railroad was originally used mainly to haul hydroelectric gear for a power plant at nearby Sun Moon Lake. A major tourist attraction in modern days, the line had been unstable for several years, especially after the devastating earthquake of Sept. 21, 1999, which caused serious damage to central Taiwan. According to TRA estimates, the NT$150 million (US$5.21 million) reconstruction project is expected to increase the capacity of the Jiji Line from 300,000 to 500,000 passengers per year.
POLITICS
Kaohsiung to host summit
Kaohsiung has won the right to host the Asia-Pacific Cities Summit (APCS) in 2013, officials at the city’s Information Bureau said on Friday. Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Lee Yung-te (李永得) telephoned Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) from Brisbane, Australia, earlier in the day, to report the good news soon after Brisbane Mayor Graham Quirk announced at the 2011 APCS closing luncheon that Kaohsiung had beaten out two other cities to win the honor, city officials said. Lee was attending the three-day 2011 APCS that concluded on Friday. Kaohsiung, a sister city of Brisbane, defeated Kunming, China, and Daejeon, South Korea, in the final round of voting.
TOURISM
Taipei photo exhibit opens
The Taipei City Government urged Chinese free independent travelers yesterday to visit a newly opened photography exhibition that documents the city’s development over the past century. With 250 old and new photographs on display, officials described the exhibition as a comprehensive review of the thriving metropolis, which has a history that can be traced back more than 300 years. The free exhibition will run through Aug. 28 at the Bopiliao Historical Block in Wanhua District (萬華).
SOCIETY
Training offered to masseurs
Free training courses provided by the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) are to be made available to help the vision-impaired and reduce the impact of new rules for the massage industry, an official said yesterday. The new Disabilities Rights Protection Act (身心障礙者權益保障法), which will allow anyone to work in the massage industry rather than restricting such jobs to the vision-impaired, will take effect on Oct. 31. The new rules are being enacted in accordance with a Council of Grand Justices ruling that a ban on non-vision-impaired people engaging in massage services is unconstitutional. In response to the changes, the government is scheduled to launch the series of free training programs from next month through December to help the vision-impaired to upgrade their professional skills and management abilities, CLA official said. Under the new regulations, the vision-impaired will be allowed to operate their own massage studios, paying business income tax at a rate of just 1 percent.
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