WEATHER
Temperatures to plunge
Temperatures are expected to drop significantly nationwide from Tuesday due to the strongest seasonal winds since the beginning of autumn, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Daily lows may hover between 16°C and 19°C across Taiwan until Friday, while maximum temperatures in northern Taiwan are expected to stay below 23°C, the bureau said. The seasonal winds are also likely to bring showers to most areas of the nation, especially on Tuesday and Wednesday, the bureau said.
TRAVEL
AIT to hold Q&A session
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said it will answer questions about the new US Visa-Waiver Program on its Facebook page today between 6:30pm and 7pm. This will be the first time AIT has organized such an activity via Facebook, with questions fielded in either Chinese or English. The AIT also said that due to time constraints, people can also e-mail their questions to visaniv-ait@state.gov. With Taiwan’s admission to the program on Thursday, Taiwanese will be freed from the cumbersome process of obtaining a US visa at a cost of NT$4,800 (US$164) per application. The AIT has been carrying out an information campaign on the new system that has received broad recognition, with staff visiting places such as night markets and department stores to inform the public of the new requirements and the online application process.
IMMIGRATION
Ma promises to relax rules
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday touted the contributions of foreign spouses to Taiwan and promised to shorten the time required for Chinese spouses to obtain Republic of China (ROC) citizenship to four years. While attending an award ceremony for new immigrant families, Ma said the government has relaxed regulations on work permits and ROC citizenship for immigrants (in Taiwan) and that shortening the time for Chinese spouses to obtain ROC citizenship will grant them more rights. “Taking good care of new immigrants is a major policy of my administration because they have blended in with the society and made great contributions to the country,” he said. An amendment passed in 2009 relaxed restrictions on Chinese spouses’ right to work and shortened the time needed to get an identity card from eight to six years, but that is still two years longer than the waiting period for other foreign spouses.
MILITARY
New ships commissioned
Two refitted coastal minehunters purchased from the US were commissioned into the navy at the Zuoying (左營) naval base in Greater Kaohsiung on Friday. The two vessels are to improve the navy’s mine hunting and mine sweeping capabilities to locate and destroy naval mines used in sea blockades, in the event of conflict, the military said. The two refurbished Osprey-class mine hunting ships — formerly the USS Oriole and the USS Falcon — were both decommissioned from US naval service in 2006. In early 2010, the US government approved the sale of the two ships to Taiwan. The package included refurbishment, upgrading and other related support and services, at an estimated cost of US$105 million. The vessels were shipped to Kaohsiung in August after nearly three years of preparations, that included reactivating the ships and training personnel to crew them.
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