DEFENSE
Navy holds maneuvers
The navy dispatched two of its four Kidd-class destroyers and anti-submarine warfare helicopters yesterday to take part in a maneuver off the coast of Yilan, ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays. Four Kuang Hua VI-class missile boats opened the drill with an anti-ship exercise off the coast of Suao Township (蘇澳), followed by a demonstration of S-70C ASW search-and-rescue helicopters. A close-quarters showing by the two destroyers — the Keelung and the Suao — was the highlight of the exercise. The navy said the close distance between the two ships increased the difficulty of the operation and required instant and sensitive responses from the officers and crew. They used colored hats and flags to communicate, using 82 separate types of signals. Taiwan purchased the four destroyers from the US in 2001.
SOCIETY
Fruit a good gift: poll
Fruit gift baskets are a good choice when visiting friends or relatives during the Lunar New Year holidays, according to the results of a survey released yesterday. The survey, conducted by Common Health Magazine, found the majority of Taiwanese people polled said they prefer to receive fruit, followed by local specialties and alcohol. The magazine also encouraged people to buy things they would like to receive or to send “appropriate” gifts to different recipients. Health products might be a good choice for the elderly, while alcohol and other beverages might be best for superiors, according to the survey. As people are becoming more health-conscious, the magazine said, pastries and snacks that are normally high in starch and oil, but low in nutritional value, might not be a good choice. The survey was conducted nationwide between Dec. 19 and Jan. 5 among 2,903 respondents.
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