SOCIETY
Condom usage encouraged
About 72 percent of Taiwanese men practice safe sex through the use of condoms, the third-highest percentage in a recent international survey. China topped the list at 79 percent, followed by Hong Kong at 76 percent, said the condom manufacturer that commissioned the survey. Chileans reported the lowest rate at 39 percent, the survey, released on Tuesday, found. Almost 56 percent of the Taiwanese men polled reported to have used condoms when they had sex for the first time. Brazilians had the highest percentage of using condoms at first sex — 66 percent, followed by Greeks (65.5 percent) and South Koreans (62.8 percent). Indonesians reported the lowest percentage at 27.6 percent. Former Department of Health minister Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) and Taiwan AIDS Foundation chairman Shih Po-nan (施伯南) urged the public to use certified condoms to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and avoid unwanted pregnancy.
NATIONAL DEFENSE
Mine removal demonstrated
The military demonstrated standard procedures used for the removal of unexploded ordnance found by members of the public, during a media tour of a Yilan County naval base yesterday. Reporters were also shown a variety of bomb-removal clothing and equipment. During a simulated emergency, personnel performed procedures to remove an explosive found on a farm. After observing the situation, the team took steps to remove the explosive to a safe environment and place it in a secure container. Most cases involving unexploded weapons occur at construction sites, where workers discover the shells buried underground, military staff said. These unexploded shells could have been used in previous military training or during World War II, the staff 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