WEATHER
Wu to give rebuilding update
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) is scheduled to give an international press conference on Monday next week on the progress of reconstruction work in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot. Morakot hit Taiwan on Aug. 8, 2009, leaving 724 people dead or missing. At a Cabinet meeting yesterday, Wu pushed government agencies to expedite work on repairing bridges and roads, or building new ones, in rural and mountainous areas battered by the typhoon. As the typhoon season is now in full swing with another storm approaching, Wu called on the Ministry of the Interior and local governments to make sure evacuation and settlement plans are in place, and that rescuers and voluntary workers organized by the Council of Agriculture are fully prepared.
Photo: CNA
TRAVEL
Caution urged over Xinjiang
Travelers to Xinjiang should exercise extreme caution because the region has experienced a new outbreak of violence in recent days, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. Citing Chinese media reports, the council said in a statement that on Saturday, two bombs shook the streets of Kashgar. An hour after the blasts, two attackers hijacked a truck on a nearby street, killed its driver and then drove it into a crowd of pedestrians. The attackers then got out of the truck and began stabbing passers-by. The incident left seven people dead and 28 injured. Less than 24 hours later, a larger group of men carried out a second attack in which six people were killed and 28 injured. The council advised Taiwanese intending to travel to the region to be mindful of news updates and their own safety.
CRIME
Four vendors indicted
Four people were indicted on Wednesday by the Miaoli District Prosecutors’ Office on charges of violating the Health Food Control Act (健康食品管理法) after they were allegedly found selling fake health foods and running TV ads to attract customers. Lin Li-chia (林李嘉), chief prosecutor at the office, said those indicted each owned a company selling health foods. They were found to be selling eight kinds of unregistered and uncertified products between October 2009 and September last year, making more that NT$700 million (US$24.24 million) off at least 100,000 unsuspecting victims, Lin said. Prosecutors discovered that consumers reported a variety of symptoms after consuming the products, such as constant diarrhea, headaches and vomiting.
MEDIA
GIO denies Wu involvement
Government Information Office (GIO) Minister Philip Yang (楊永明) yesterday denied a Democratic Progressive Party allegation that he forced the Central News Agency (CNA) to change a story headline on Wednesday regarding Premier Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) comments on the alleged threat that led taekwondo athlete Yang Shu-chun (楊淑君) to withdraw an appeal against a controversial ruling. Yang said he contacted CNA because his staffers found the original headline to be inconsistent with Wu’s comments and did not reflect the content of the report. It is the GIO’s duty to ask the press to run corrections when there is incorrect news coverage about the government, he said. The headline initially read: “Wu admits he was aware ahead of time of Yang [Shu-chun]’s announcement to drop the appeal.” It was later changed to: “Wu fully supports Yang [Shu-chun] and the government has not changed its position on the matter.”
HISTORY
ROC photos displayed in UK
A photographic exhibition organized by the Taipei Representative Office in the UK and a local research institute opened in London on Wednesday to provide an overview of the unique history and development of the Republic of China (ROC). The opening reception of “Retracing Our Steps: A Photographic Journey Through the 100 Years of the ROC” was held that day in the Brunei Gallery at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. More than 70 photos are on display, recording important events in the ROC’s development, Taiwanese Representative to the UK Katharine Chang (張小月) said. Included in the exhibition is a photo depicting ROC founding father Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) taking office as provisional president on Jan. 1, 1912. There is also a photo of the Cairo Conference, where then-president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), then-US president Franklin Roosevelt and then-British prime minister Winston Churchill are sitting together. The exhibition will run through Aug. 30.
TOURISM
Hotel choices to be limited
The Tourism Bureau said it would soon limit the hotels where Chinese tour groups can stay to reduce travel disputes. The new policy is designed to improve travel quality and will take effect as early as the second half of next year, Tourism Bureau Director-General Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) said. Citing the five-star ratings system the bureau is pushing for, Lai said the lack of a unified rating system has become a major cause of disputes over travel arrangements. According to the bureau, there are 103 tourist hotels and more than 2,600 regular hotels in Taiwan, but only 116 of them are under the evaluation of the ratings system
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