MILITARY
Unmanned aircraft missing
The army is searching for an unmanned aerial vehicle that went missing off the east coast at 7:30am yesterday during a routine training mission, the Ministry of National Defense said. The aircraft was developed and manufactured by the Taoyuan-based Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, said Major General David Lo (羅紹和), spokesman for the ministry’s main research and development institute. The institute is assisting the army in trying to identify the reason why the aircraft went missing, Lo added.
FORUM
Wu’s trip approved
Vice president-elect Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) application to travel to China to take part in the Boao Forum for Asia has been approved by a joint panel composed of representatives from the Ministry of the Interior, the National Security Bureau, the Ministry of Justice and the Mainland Affairs Council, an official press release said yesterday. “After a careful evaluation and taking into consideration the Executive Yuan’s opinion that Wu’s visit ‘involves taking part in an economic and trade forum and has no national security concerns,’” the panel decided to approved the application submitted on Feb. 17, the Ministry of the Interior said in the press release.
CHARITY
Book sale set for TAS
The Taipei American School’s (TAS) Orphanage Club will hold its annual book sale on Saturday from 10am to 5pm in the school’s lobby and courtyard. The club has collected thousands of books, as well as magazines, comic books, games and other items. The books include best sellers, classics, biographies, children and young adult titles, and English-teaching books, as well as cookbooks, travel guides, history and language books. Chinese fiction and non--fiction books are also available. Money raised from the book sale will provide funding for orphans and other needy children in Taiwan and the outlying islands. The Orphanage Club is one of the oldest and largest student organizations at the school, with members ranging in age from junior-high to high-school students. The school is located at No. 800, Zhongshan N Road Sec 6 in Taipei’s Tianmu (天母) area.
FILM
Discovery to feature Japan
Seven documentaries on how Japan is coping with post-disaster reconstruction after the magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami on March 11 last year will be aired over three consecutive Sundays beginning this week, one year after the twin disasters took at least 15,000 lives, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific said yesterday. Six of the films include interviews with not only local winemakers and seaweed farmers whose businesses were hit hard by the tragedy, but also volunteers whose lives were profoundly affected by the incident, said Tommy Lin (林東民), an official at Discovery Networks. In one of the films, Japanese actor Ken Watanabe will lead viewers in revisiting the disaster-stricken areas, Lin said, adding that the films aim to portray the Japanese’s strength and determination as they rebuild their lives. Dreaming of Utopia, Photos from the Sea and the documentary featuring Watanabe will be shown on Sunday. Super Trains and Return of the K-Cars will be aired next Sunday, while Brewing Hope and The Seaweed Makers will be shown on March 25.
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