TRAVEL
Tainan starts flights to Japan
EVA Airways yesterday launched charter flight services from Tainan to Komatsu, Japan, the first time direct flight services have been offered from Tainan to Japan. Located on the coast of the Sea of Japan, Komatsu is in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. The first flight to Komatsu carried 152 passengers, including a delegation organized by the Greater Tainan Government and the Greater Tainan Council. The delegation, led by Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) and Greater Tainan Council Speaker Lai Mei-hui (賴美惠), will stay for five days to forge closer ties with Japan. During the trip, the Greater Tainan Council is expected to establish a sister council relationship with its counterpart in Ishikawa, while the officials will meet business representatives to tout investment in Tainan.
TRADE
Delegation to visit US
A delegation will depart for the US tomorrow to purchase agricultural products, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The delegation would meet with trade and agricultural officials and congressmen, the ministry said. It would also visit central and western states that are major agricultural producers during a visit that will last from tomorrow until Oct. 3. The ministry said the delegation would sign a letter of intent to buy 13.7 million tonnes of cereal over the next two years for US$5 billion in a ceremony on Capitol Hill.
SECURITY
Navy censured over deaths
The Control Yuan censured the Navy Command Headquarters on Friday for flaws in its emergency response mechanism when two sailors drowned after falling overboard from the same patrol warship on separate occasions. This is the second censure against the navy since March last year. According to a written statement issued by the government watchdog agency, a corporal surnamed Lin drowned after falling overboard from the Hsin Chiang patrol boat from the Naval Fleet Command’s 131 flotilla on March 22 last year. Another incident occurred on the same ship on April 7 this year, resulting in the death of Chen Ping-chan (陳炳昌), another corporal. The Control Yuan censured the Navy after each incident. Citing 131 flotilla commander Hsiao Wei-min (蕭維民), the statement said the officer claimed during a probe by Control Yuan inspectors that measures had been taken to improve accident control and prevention systems in the wake of last year’s drowning. The latest event showed that not enough had been done, he said.
HEALTH
HeySong rebuts claims
Soft drink maker HeySong on Friday said its soda products were free of phosphoric acid, which doctors say accelerates aging if consumed excessively. Heysong made the remarks after local media reports, citing a study by Wan Fang Hospital, said excessive consumption of phosphoric acid-rich food items, including carbonated drinks, cheese and instant noodles, results in premature degeneration of cells and organs, calcification of blood vessels and even death for people with kidney problems. Since carbonated drinks encompass a wide range of beverages, it is not correct to generalize and say that all soft drinks are carbonated, a HeySong spokesperson said. HeySong added that phosphoric acid is not a required ingredient for soda, so media claims that sodas are high in phosphoric acid are erroneous, he 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