POLITICS
Elections depress voters
The emotional well-being of Taiwanese tends to suffer during major election years, according to a poll released on Tuesday by the Mental Health Foundation. The poll showed that the emotional health index in Taiwan was at a high of 83 last year, 82.2 in 2009 and 82.6 in 2006 — non-election years. However, in 2008 and 2004, when presidential elections were held, the index was 80.1 and 80.6 respectively, according to the survey, which has been carried out annually since 2002. Psychiatrist Tom Yang (楊聰財) of the Mental Health Foundation said factors such as pre-election anxiety and distress over election results could create negative emotions, which in turn could damage mental health. Yang urged the political parties to take responsibility for helping voters overcome disappointment. He also advised voters to get adequate rest and to exercise regularly, which helps to release mood-enhancing endorphins and reduce “stress hormones” like cortisol.
POLITICS
KMT delegates visit Japan
A delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials that departed for Japan yesterday said it would push for the signing of a Taiwan-Japan aviation pact. Deputy Legislative Speaker Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), head of the delegation, said at the airport prior to departure that they would try to accelerate the inking of an aviation pact on their five-day visit. The group will also push to improve exchanges between the two countries’ parliaments and political parties, as well as meet with members of Japan’s houses of councilors and representatives. The delegation will also meet Taiwanese expatriates in Japan to drum up support for President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) re-election bid. King Pu-tsung (金溥聰), executive director of Ma’s campaign office and one of the delegates, is scheduled to give a speech at Waseda University in Tokyo. Former health minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) praised Japan’s social welfare system and said he planned to use the trip to gain a better understanding of it.
DIPLOMACY
Thai office thanks Taiwan
Thailand’s representative office in Taipei yesterday thanked Taiwanese for their willingness to help the flood-ravaged country. The Thailand Trade and Economic Office said in a statement it had received many inquiries from people on how they could donate money for post-disaster relief. The office said it had opened a bank account to accept donations for flood victims. Information is posted on the office’s Web site. It said that based on recent estimates, Thailand would need about US$33 billion to restore the affected areas. The flooding in the world’s top rice exporter has claimed more than 300 lives since July and has destroyed large swathes of farmland.
FOOD
Chef joins Paris contest
Cheng Chi-hsien (鄭吉賢), 30, is among 19 chefs who will put their skills and creativity on the line at this year’s World Chocolate Masters in Paris that began yesterday. Cheng, who has spent years developing his own chocolate formulas and recipes, has already distinguished himself at major competitions. He qualified for the Paris event by being crowned the Taiwan Chocolate Master in December last year. The biennial World Chocolate Masters — the largest of its kind in the world — will require each contestant to make a chocolate cake, two pralines, a dessert and one artistic creation based on the theme “Cocoa, the gift of Quetzalcoatl.”
ARTS
Mexico hosts U-Theatre
U-Theatre, a renowned Taiwanese performing arts group, took the stage on Monday at a major Latin American festival in Mexico before an audience of more than 1,000, according to Taiwan’s representative office in Mexico. The group presented Sound of the Ocean, a blend of movement and percussion, at the 39th edition of Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato City. The 75--minute piece traces the cyclical journey of water, from a drop to a stream and from a river to the ocean. The previous day, the group’s musical director Huang Chih-chun (黃誌群) told Mexican reporters at a press conference about the establishment of U-Theatre and its goals. The troupe is scheduled to give four performances in Guanajuato, Atizapan Zaragoza and Mazatlan, and return to Taiwan tomorrow. Founded by its artistic director Liu Ruo-yu in 1988 in Taipei, U-Theatre is known for its disciplined training in various forms, including acting, martial arts, drumming, Tai-Chi, dance and meditation.
CRIME
Facebook forger sentenced
The Banciao District Court yesterday found a woman surnamed Yang (楊) guilty of forgery for using her former boyfriend’s name and personal information to open an account on Facebook and make his information public. The information includes the man’s full name, date of birth, academic degrees and work experience. The district court said Yang did so because she had a dispute with Yeh after they broke up. The district court sentenced Yang to three months in prison, a sentence which can be commuted to a fine. The district court also gave Yang two years’ probation, but said that since Yang had apologized and provided compensation, it imposed a more lenient sentence.
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