ENERGY
Taiping to get new solar site
The government is stepping up efforts to use solar power on Taiping Island (太平島), the largest of the Spratly Islands (南沙群島), and will hold a groundbreaking ceremony today for a new solar installation. Officials from the ministries of the interior and national defense, as well as state-owned Taiwan Power Co, arrived at the island yesterday aboard a Coast Guard Administration vessel to attend the ceremony. A solar power system built in 2001 had a capacity of 20.3kWp, enough to supply electricity to four households on Taiwan proper, coast guard officials said. The island still relies mainly on diesel generators for electricity. Although the solar-power plan has practical applications, it is also part of the nation’s broader strategy to sustain its role in the South China Sea and the Spratlys by focusing on scientific research and environmental protection.
POLITICS
Chen’s son starts service
Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), son of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), is scheduled to start community service in lieu of jail time today. He was sentenced last month to three months in prison for perjury and stripped of his post on the Greater Kaohsiung city council and applied to the Kaoshiung District Prosecutors’ Office to perform community service instead of going to jail. His request was granted. Chen Chih-chung went to the prosecutors’ office yesterday, accompanied by his lawyer, to attend orientation for convicts performing community service. The prosecutors’ office said those doing community service can work a minimum of six hours a day in exchange for one day of jail time, but no more than 12 hours per day. The younger Chen is expected to complete his community service by Nov. 25, the deadline for registering for January’s legislative elections.
POLITICS
Tsai meets Abe in Taipei
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) met former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe for one hour in Taipei yesterday, and told him she would visit Japan from Oct. 3 to Oct. 5 after her nine-day trip to the US that begins on Monday. Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), deputy executive director of the DPP’s New Frontier Foundation think tank, said the DPP presidential candidate exchanged views with Abe on the political and military situation in the Asia-Pacific region. Tsai and Abe will both attend an international symposium on regional security today. Hsiao said Tsai would meet key Japanese politicians, including Abe, during her three-day trip to the Tokyo area.
ENVIRONMENT
Water data now on Web
To make it easier for the public to obtain information on water pollution in their area, the Environmental Protection Administration has added a Water Environment Patrol Map on its Web site, which provides the latest water quality results and river conditions. The map has information from 296 water quality monitoring stations nationwide, river patrol routes and river conditions from 368 volunteer river patrol teams, inspection and penalty rates from local environmental protection agencies and basic information from 11,645 water agencies. “We hope everyone can easily understand where the pollutants are, which sections of the rivers have patrols watching over them and the water quality, so that everyone can participate in rivers and water protection,” Department of Water Quality Protection section chief Chen Lung-chu (陳龍珠) 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