ENVIRONMENT
Goshawks fly over Taiwan
More than 6,300 Chinese goshawks, a migratory bird that travels through Taiwan every year, flew over Kenting (墾丁) earlier this month as the annual bird-watching season entered its peak period. The ferocious raptors arrived on time this year, with hundreds being recorded in the first eight days of the month, the Kenting National Park Headquarters said. Tsai Yi-jung (蔡乙榮), a technical specialist at the park, said the migratory bird’s numbers usually surge around Sept. 10. Every autumn, the birds migrate south from eastern China and the Korean Peninsula, flying over Kyushu, the Ryukyu Islands, Kenting and the Bashi Channel before arriving in the Philippines or other spots in Southeast Asia for the winter. Next month, large flocks of gray-faced buzzard eagles, also known as “National Day birds” in Taiwan, are expected in the country around National Day on Oct. 10, the park said.
SOCIETY
Cameras to catch litterers
The Taipei City Government’s Department of Environmental Protection said 24 infrared cameras will be installed this month around the city to curb littering. The department said that during a trial run, three cameras placed in Wanhua District (萬華) in March recorded 160 cases of littering as of Sept. 4. On average, each camera recorded nine cases per month, which could replace one inspector, who catches an average of 8.3 cases a month, the department said. The cameras also have the added advantage of recording license plates better than inspectors so offenders on scooters or in cars can be apprehended, it said. There has already been progress in reducing littering, with the average monthly number of cases reported increasing to 1,258 between January and last month, compared with 480 in the same period last year, it said.
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