TRANSPORTATION
Taxis to set pet rates
Taiwan Taxi, the nation’s largest taxi service provider, said it plans to introduce surcharges for passengers carrying large pets. The company said the campaign, a joint effort with Taiwan Sheltered Animal Conservationist Association, is aimed at promoting pet-friendliness. Many pet owners have expressed frustration when traveling with their pets. Taxi drivers often refuse passengers carrying pets or overcharge them, the company said, adding that the pet program would establish a standardized pricing system. The company said it plans to charge an extra NT$100 per ride for pets that are too big to be put in cages. About 500 Taiwan Taxi drivers have signed up for the program. The company will ask Taipei’s Department of Transportation for approval next week, adding that if the program is not approved, the company and the animal group would try to come up with alternative pricing plans.
DIPLOMACY
Nation boosting ICAO bid
The nation is increasing its efforts to participate in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) assembly in September as an observer, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of International Organizations director-general Kelly Hsieh (謝武樵) said. Hsieh declined to elaborate on how the nation would achieve the goal. Asked whether the nation would ask its diplomatic allies to submit proposals supporting the country’s bid to become an ICAO observer, he said that this would be one option, adding that there are other possible approaches. Further details will be announced “at the opportune time,” he added. The Montreal-based ICAO is an organization under the UN that promotes the safe and orderly development of international civil aviation around the world.
CHARITY
Rummage sale at TAS
The Taipei American School (TAS) Orphanage Club will be hosting its annual end-of-school-year rummage sale today from 10am to 5pm. Club members have collected a huge variety of new and used clothing, shoes, household items, toys, games, furniture, electronics and other miscellaneous items. All of the proceeds will go to the club’s funds for needy children and orphans in Taiwan, as well as AIDS orphans in Zimbabwe, Kenya and Tanzania. The school’s address is 800 Zhongshan N Rd Sec 6 in Tianmu (天母).
TOURISM
Green bean cakes top poll
Green bean cakes have been selected as the second-best representative souvenir of Taipei, after pineapple cakes, the city’s Department of Information and Tourism said on Thursday. The city held an online contest to find its next top souvenir. Green bean cakes won 2,882 votes of about 6,000 cast, beating other traditional Taiwanese snacks such as banana pound cakes, dried longan (龍眼) cakes and nougats. Department Commissioner Chao Hsin-ping (趙心屏) said pineapple cakes have been the city’s iconic souvenir since the city government held its first pineapple cake festival to boost bakeries’ sales of the cakes from NT$1 billion (US$33.3 million) a year to NT$25 billion. The department’s annual Taipei Pineapple Cake Festival is set to open on Friday and run to June 23 at the Taipei Flora Expo Park. There are plans for 30 booths from 102 bakeries offering discounts on pineapple cakes and other products.
SOCIETY
Mom resumes search for son
Fryderyk (Fred) Mieszko Frontier, a naturalized US citizen, came to Taiwan a decade ago to teach English, but vanished after a hiking trip to Taroko Gorge. Frontier’s mother, Barbara Klita, traveled to the nation for the fourth time late last month in search of her son. She said last month’s rescue of three women in Cleveland, Ohio, after 10 years of captivity renewed her hopes of finding her son. Frontier moved to Taiwan in May 2003 after accepting a job at Hess Educational Organization to teach English in Kaohsiung. Before starting his job, he went on a hiking trip to Tienhsiang (天祥) in Hualien County. His family and employer have not heard from him since. During Klita’s latest visit on May 29, she again retraced Frontier’s footsteps, visiting Taroko Gorge and a Catholic hostel where he was last seen.
CRIME
Excessive donors fined
More than 350 cases, including individuals and enterprises, have attracted a combined NT$24.69 million in fines for making excessive political donations since 2009, the Control Yuan said. Hsu Hai-chuan (許海泉), deputy secretary-general of the government supervisory body, said that as of Wednesday last week, 374 cases had been found to have violated the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法) since January 2009, 351 of which involved individuals. The fines for individual violators stood at NT$20.67 million, accounting for 83.7 percent, he said. Hsu said that with next year’s seven-in-one local elections approaching, the Control Yuan is seeking to strengthen the public’s awareness of the regulations. Donations to a single political candidate from an individual or an enterprise cannot exceed NT$100,000 and NT$1 million per year respectively. For different candidates, an individual can donate up to NT$200,000 in political contributions, while an enterprise can donate up to NT$2 million in a single year, according to the act.
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