EDUCATION
AIESEC coming to Taiwan
Next year’s AIESEC conference will be held in Taiwan, the local chapter announced on Sunday, adding that it hopes the event will allow more of the world’s young people to learn about the country. Tsai Meng-hsiu, chairman of the organizing committee for the meeting, said Taiwan spared no effort to win the hosting job. The successful bid, which follows two failed attempts, shows Taiwan’s spirit of persistence, Tsai said, adding that he hopes the participants will appreciate the passion and hospitality of the Taiwanese. AIESEC is the French acronym for the International Association of Students in Economic and Commercial Sciences, which was founded in 1948. It is the world’s largest student organization, and its members need no longer come just from economics and commerce departments. As of last year, the AIESEC network includes more than 86,000 members in 124 countries and territories, from more than 2,400 universities.
CULTURE
Lung Ying-tai visiting the US
Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) left for the US on Sunday to inspect two of the Taiwan Academy centers set up by the government. She is to visit Los Angeles, California, and Houston, Texas, to inspect progress and evaluate new locations for the centers, which are now housed in Taiwan’s representative offices in the those cities. The two centers, along with one in New York, were set up two years ago to promote the study of Taiwan’s languages and culture. Lung also plans to visit the California Museum of Photography and observe Los Angeles’ film and television industries, which will help her formulate policy related to Taiwan’s photography museum work and entertainment industries, the ministry 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