TOURISM
Inspections to be tightened
The Tourism Bureau is tightening quality inspections for travel agencies hosting Chinese tourists as it prepares for the peak season between today and next Saturday, when China celebrates its week-long National Day holiday. Chang said the bureau would investigate more than 360 agencies that signed an “industry discipline” pledge last month. According to the pledge, travel agencies promised to charge no less than US$60 per day per person to prevent a price war, as well as accept no more than 30 percent commission from gift shops. The bureau’s move has become necessary as two cases of ill treatment of Chinese tourists surfaced last month. Early last month, a travel agency was found to have illegally transferred its Chinese group tour business to other agencies. On Wednesday, 30 Chinese tourists were left stranded on a highway because the tour bus driver was not satisfied with the commission he received from a partner travel agency.
SOCIETY
Taiwan claims six golds
Taiwan finished second on the medals table at the International Abilympics, a skills competition for persons with disabilities, which closed yesterday in Seoul. Taiwan bagged six gold, seven silver and five bronze medals, along with four special prizes to finish behind the hosts, who defended their top ranking at the 2007 Abilympics in Shizuoka, Japan, with 23 gold, 22 silver and 15 bronze medals. China came third with six gold, three silver and two bronze medals at the event in which persons with disabilities compete in various vocational skills, ranging from basket making to living skills, such as knitting. Taiwan’s two special prize winners were Chang Hui-jung (張蕙容) in the personal database management system category and Lin Kao-sheng (林高生) in wood carving.
POLITICS
DPP files suit against Lee
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday filed a lawsuit with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office against the former director of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Tainan branch, Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教), accusing Lee of forgery and violations of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法). DPP spokesman Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had failed to keep his promise made during the 2008 presidential election to phase out two of four freeway toll stations in Sinshih (新市) and Baihe (白河), Greater Tainan. Ma recently said in a media interview that the phasing out of the Sinshih and Baihe freeway toll stations was Lee’s policy, not his own. The DPP said campaign posters promoting the phasing out of the two toll stations had Ma’s signature on them and Lin said if Ma did not sign the poster or endorse the policy, the DPP suspects that Lee forged Ma’s signature. Lin said the party would also ask prosecutors to summon Ma as a witness.
CRIME
Fraud ring suspects return
Thirty-five Taiwanese fraud suspects arrested in a police crackdown in Cambodia were sent back to Taiwan on Thursday. The 35 suspects — 33 male and two female — were flown back after they arrived in Kinmen on boat from China’s southeastern coastal city of Xiamen. The suspects were flown to Xiamen from Cambodia. They were among the 827 fraud ring suspects arrested in 166 locations across Taiwan, China and seven Southeast Asian countries during a joint operation by more than 2,500 police in those countries from Monday to Wednesday.
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