SOCIETY
Terror victims remembered
Crowds gathered early yesterday afternoon at the Huashan Grassland in Taipei to enjoy a nine-hour musical event to commemorate slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who died in 2002 at the hands of terrorists in Pakistan, and the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US. “This message that we bring today, the message of hope, tolerance, love and understanding is one that also needs to be remembered, especially on this date, September 11th,” said Ryan Roberts, head of the American Cultural Center, part of the American Institute in Taiwan, a co-organizer of the event. This year, Todd Mack, a close friend of Pearl and founder of the worldwide memorial music festival, performed at the event. During the concert, which included 18 groups comprised of local and foreign musicians, a moment of silence was held to commemorate Pearl and the 3,000 people who died in the Sept. 11 attacks.
POLITICS
Tsai criticizes King’s trip
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said a decision by King Pu-tsung (金溥聰), executive director of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) re-election campaign, to visit the US just before her US trip was an extension of a domestic campaign into a foreign country, which could cause conflict there. “In a democratic country, a presidential campaign team could visit the US any time, but [King] purposely chose to go now, bringing a domestic campaign to a foreign country, and causing conflict there,” the DPP presidential candidate said during a campaign event in Taoyuan County. Taiwanese can tell “what is going on here,” she said. Tsai will embark on a visit to six US cities tomorrow.
CRIME
Thai workers deported
Sixty-eight Thai working illegally in this country are to be deported to Thailand later this month as part of a program that pays for their fines and plane tickets, Taiwan’s representative office in Bangkok said yesterday. The deportation is part of a program to celebrate the 84th birthday of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, which falls on Dec. 5, Representative to Thailand Henry Chen (陳銘政) said. The 68 workers were arrested for either residing in Taiwan without legal status or overstaying their visas. They have not been involved in any criminal activities. The group is scheduled to take a charter flight back to Thailand on Sept. 22. Fines incurred by the illegal workers for overstaying their visas, and their airfare, will be paid for by several Taiwanese businesspeople in Thailand and some Thai agencies.
ENTERTAINMENT
Food show to hit Taichung
Those who did not eat enough Taiwanese delicacies during the four-day Taiwan Culinary Exhibition in Taipei can attend an additional show, held for the first time, in Greater Taichung late next month, organizers said yesterday. From Aug. 18 until Aug. 21 more than 172,000 people visited the Taipei World Trade Center to sample foods and obtain discount coupons for restaurants and hotels. In light of the huge turnout, the organizers have decided to duplicate the fair in central Taiwan. Although the scale of the Taichung event, slated for Oct. 21 until Oct. 24, will not be as large as the one in Taipei, it will also feature culinary contests, cooking lessons and various Taiwanese traditional snacks, -general--secretary of the Chinese Gourmet Association Lee Peir-fen 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