BUSINESS
Defense show to open
The Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition 2011 will be held from tomorrow through Sunday at the Taipei World Trade Center as part of government effort to generate more business in the field, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said yesterday. About 90 exhibitors from around the world have registered to display aerospace and military products at 689 booths at the biennial trade show, the council’s Web site showed. Exhibitors include US defense contractor Raytheon, Lockheed Martin Corp, Taiwan’s state-run Aerospace Industrial Development Corp and unmanned aerial system specialist Carbon-Based Technology. The show is aimed at generating NT$1 billion (US$34.4 million) in deals, TAITRA said. One of the highlights of the show this year will be the Pavilion of National Defense, at which more than 160 products will be on display, including war robots and military computers that can be jointly developed by the military and private sector.
POLITICS
New officials take office
Department of Education Commissioner Ding Ya-wen (丁亞雯) and Taipei City Deputy Secretary-General Chang Pei-yi (張培義) assumed office yesterday, promising to spare no efforts in assisting Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) with city affairs. Ding took over from Kang Tzong-huu (康宗虎), who resigned late last month to take responsibility for the controversy surrounding the tri-city high school entrance exam policy. A veteran educator with more than 30 years of experience, Ding said she would promote diverse education and a multiple-school entrance mechanism, but declined to say if the city would continue the controversial exam policy next year. “We will seek advice from students, parents and experts before making a final decision,” she said. Chang, former deputy commissioner of the city’s Department of Rapid Transit Systems, was promoted after the city increased the number of deputy chiefs of its secretariat to three.
SAFETY
Contaminated drinks found
About 6.3 percent of drinks and ice products in Taipei City failed a safety test because of high levels of bacteria, the city’s Department of Health said on Monday. Nine of the 144 samples tested were found to be contaminated with E. coli, said Chen Li-chi (陳立奇), head of the Food and Drug Division. The department said although most strains of E. coli were harmless, high levels of the bacteria in food indicate poor sanitation and contamination during the production process. It advised consumers to check the sanitary conditions at shops to see if there are insects and whether the ingredient containers are properly covered, it said. In a second round of drink shop inspections this summer, the department tested 50 ice cube samples, 36 drinks, 17 sorbets, 18 shaved ice dishes and 23 flavorings. Chen said shops that failed the tests would be given a grace period to improve and could be fined NT$30,000 to NT$150,000 if they fall below standards in follow-up tests.
DIPLOMACY
Taiwan donates laptops
Taiwan has given 2,400 laptops to St Kitts and Nevis. Kittian Prime Minister Denzil Douglas said the laptops would be distributed to high school students at the start of the new school year next month. Another 2,400 laptops will be given to students later in the year. Douglas accepted the computers from Ambassador Miguel Tsao (曹立傑) in the country’s capital, Basseterre, on Monday.
TRANSPORTATION
Taipei overhauls route maps
The Taipei Public Transportation Office announced yesterday that it had overhauled route maps on a city bus route in response to passenger complaints and would assess the public’s reaction to the overhaul before changing other signs in the city’s bus network. The office said that in surveys by the Taipei Joint Bus System in 2009 and last year, commuters had complained about the tiny fonts used for written information on maps posted in buses, the lack of route maps and the lack of signs in English explaining how to pay bus fares. To provide better service, the office and bus agencies designed new maps on a trial basis for bus route 205, with larger fonts and colors to show how fares should be paid.
SOCIETY
Breastfeeding law enforced
Public venues that fail to provide breastfeeding rooms will soon be subject to fines, the Department of Health said. A law mandating that breastfeeding rooms be placed in public locations that was passed in November last year will officially go into effect on Nov. 24. The law requires that all government agencies and state-run enterprises with more than 500m2 of floor space, train stations, airport terminals and transit centers with more than 1,000m2, and department stores with more than 10,000m2 establish designated breastfeeding rooms. The law stipulates that the authorities managing such areas will be subject to fines of NT$6,000 to NT$30,000 if they fail to provide breastfeeding facilities. In addition, women cannot be banned, disturbed or asked to move if they are breastfeeding their babies in public places such as parks, department stores, buses or on the mass rapid transit system, department officials said, adding that violators could be fined up to NT$30,000.
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