MILITARY
Blast toll reaches six
Another victim of an arsenal blast in Yilan County late last month has died, bringing the death toll to six, the Tri-Service General Hospital said yesterday. Tsao Chang-fa (曹長發), 56, suffered second to third-degree burns over 90 percent of his body in the explosion and died on Sunday, the hospital said. Chang Chun-teh (張俊德), 42, who suffered burns over 11 percent of his body, underwent skin graft surgery and returned home for recuperation on Saturday, the hospital said. Another victim, Huang Yin-yu (黃銀裕), a 48-year-old who suffered burns over 55 percent of his body, remained in stable condition after skin graft surgery, the hospital said. The explosion occurred on Oct. 28 when a military arsenal in Yuanshan Township (員山), Yilan County, was destroying flash grenades.
SOCIETY
Foreign workers set record
The number of foreign nationals working in Taiwan as factory workers or caregivers exceeded 420,000 as of last month, the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) reported on Sunday. About 40 percent of the migrant workers are from Indonesia, making that country the largest source of foreign workers in Taiwan, the latest CLA tallies showed. Indonesia was followed by Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand. Of the total, about 224,000 worked in factories or on construction sites, while the remaining 196,000 worked as caregivers, both record highs since Taiwan began allowing foreign workers 20 years ago, the council said. Taipei has the greatest number of migrant caregivers at 38,696, followed by New Taipei City (31,634) and Taichung (21,882). Taoyuan County has the largest number of factory workers at 56,174. Taoyuan was followed by Taichung, with 35,179 foreign factory workers, and New Taipei City, with 27,954.
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