DIPLOMACY
German official honored
A former deputy director of the German Trade Office Taipei was awarded permanent resident status yesterday in honor of his long-term contributions to promoting use of renewable energy in Taiwan. Andreas Gursch received the Plum Blossom Alien Permanent Residence Certificate from Minister of the Interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) in Taipei. Gursch was given the honor for promoting information exchanges and investment in the areas of renewable energy and “green” buildings during his more than 10 years in Taiwan, according to the National Immigration Agency. Applicants for the Plum Blossom Card must have made special contributions to the nation, be foreign nationals with high-level professional and technical skills needed in the nation, or be immigrants who have invested more than NT$15 million (US$498,440) locally, the immigration agency said.
ENTERTAINMENT
Mayday to open music fest
Rock band Mayday (五月天) are to open one of the nation’s biggest indie music festivals today, while pop music band Sodagreen (蘇打綠), who rose to fame as a frequent performer at the festival, are to perform in its grand finale this year. The annual Ho-Hai-Yan Gongliao Rock Festival, which is held on Fulong Beach in New Taipei City (新北市), will feature an international lineup of artists from Russia, the US, Australia and Japan, as well as local indie bands. Ten local indie finalists will battle it out on Saturday for the Ho-Hai-Yan Indie Music Awards. The festival, organized by the New Taipei City Government, has been held on the beach every July since 2000.
SOCIETY
Female population rising
Women will soon outnumber men in Taiwan for the first time ever, according to the latest Ministry of the Interior statistics. The male population stood at 11.68 million last month, while the female population was 11.67 million, information from the ministry showed. The ratio of females to males was 100 to 100.12 last month, down from 100 to 100.41 in the same month last year, the statistics showed. Department of Household Registration Director Hsieh Ai-ling (謝愛齡) said the Council for Economic Planning and Development has forecast that the ratio will soon be reversed, with females outnumbering males by 3,000 by the end of the year. The female population is expected to pull even with the male population in November, Hsieh said, and the trend is expected to continue for decades, with the female-male ratio hitting 100-93.1 in 2060. Hsieh attributed the change to the nation’s commitment to fighting gender discrimination and the longer life expectancy of women in Taiwan.
EDUCATION
SEF sends China delegation
Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Lin Join-sane (林中森) yesterday led an education delegation to visit vocational schools in China’s Jiangxi and Anhui provinces in a bid to attract Chinese students to pursue higher vocational studies in Taiwan. The foundation said it is to visit colleges listed under China’s “211 Project,” a project launched in 1995 aimed at transforming selective colleges and universities into top-ranked global schools. Taiwanese schools currently admits degrees from 191 vocational schools in China. This year, the nation also began accepting applications from vocational students from China’s Fujian and Guangdong provinces to pursue higher vocational studies. The foundation said the delegation will also visit Taiwanese businesses in China as part of their trip.
WILDLIFE
New bats found on Matsu
A research team has found a bat species never before sighted in the country on Matsu, according to the Endemic Species Research Institute. During a field project last month, the team found four bat species on the island, including a species previously unknown in Taiwan and its outlying islands that was later identified as the Chinese Pipistrelle. “This is extremely rare and precious, proving that Taiwan has abundant and valuable bat resources,” the institute said in a statement. Taiwan provides a broad spectrum of habitats for wildlife and has one of the highest bat diversities in the world in terms of species density, the Bat Conservation Society of Taipei said. So far, at least 35 species of bats have been recorded, the group said.
SOCIETY
Workers piling on weight
Many deskbound workers try to reduce their stress by snacking in the afternoon and late at night, sometimes eating five meals a day, which can cause weight gain, according to the results of a recent survey. Lin Wen-yuan (林文元), general-secretary of the Taiwan Medical Association for the Study of Obesity, said nearly half of all office workers counter stress by consuming carbohydrates, fried chicken, sugary drinks, or comfort food. Many do not exercise regularly, with 48 percent having an excessive body mass index (BMI) and 20 percent of them being obese, Lin said. Many try to lose weight by cutting down on rice, Lin said, but eating less filling meals may increase their chances of eating high-calorie snacks later in the day. Lin suggested that people with sedentary jobs should exercise for 30 to 50 minutes a day, and at least 150 minutes a week. The survey was conducted in May among 1,068 office workers, aged 25-40, by 104survey.com.
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