AVIATION
Russian flights deal signed
After two decades of negotiations, Taiwan and Russia signed an aviation agreement yesterday that could pave the way to stronger air links between the two countries. The pact was inked by Taiwan’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Simon Ko (柯森耀) and Russia’s Oleg Ivanovich Lobov, the chairman of the Moscow-Taipei Coordinating Commission on Economic and Cultural Cooperation, according to aviation officials in Taiwan. The Civil Aeronautics Administration said that the agreement will help define the number of flights and their routes between the two countries. Taiwan’s largest carrier, China Airlines, responded to the news by saying it will consider launching a non-stop service to Russia. The airline currently partners with Russia’s Transaero Airlines to operate a code-sharing Taipei-Moscow route via Bangkok. About 20,000 people traveled between the two countries last year, a 30 percent rise from the year before, according to Taiwan’s foreign ministry.
SOCIETY
Panda cub keeps nickname
After more than three months of going by the nickname Yuan Zai (圓仔), Taipei Zoo’s panda cub has finally been given a real name by voters in an online poll. The poll to choose a permanent name closed on Tuesday night with the majority — 60 percent — of the 75,000 voters deciding to stick with Yuan Zai, which literally means “child of Yuan Yuan (圓圓).” A lucky draw will continue to run on the voting Web site: panda.taipeitravel.net until Oct. 26, when the zoo will hold a celebration to mark its centennial. Zookeepers will then present Yuan Zai with an “ID card” featuring her official name. The 102-day-old Yuan Zai is growing into a healthy young panda at 6.39kg and has begun slowly mastering the art of walking.
CRIME
‘Humiliation’ brings charges
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Monday indicted a 29-year-old man on charges of deliberate humiliation after he allegedly poured a cup of coffee on a man sitting behind him in a Breeze Center movie theater for kicking his seat back. The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported that the defendant, surnamed Sun (孫), poured the coffee over the plaintiff, surnamed Lai (賴), after trying to reason with the man kicking his seat. Theater staff said Lai left the theater with his shirt soaking wet and coffee dripping from his hair. Since Sun was seen holding an empty coffee cup when leaving the theater, prosecutors decided he was responsible. If convicted, he could face up to a year in prison.
NATIONAL DEFENSE
Retired officer sentenced
The Taiwan High Court sentenced retired major Chen Shu-lung (陳蜀龍) to eight years in prison on Tuesday for setting up an acquaintance to be interrogated by Chinese agents. Chen, who retired from the Ministry of National Defense’s Military Intelligence Bureau, tricked an acquaintance, a former diplomat stationed in Japan, into meeting him in Shanghai in 2007. The acquaintance was taken away by Chinese intelligence personnel for three days and questioned about whether Taiwan’s diplomatic missions in Japan had attempted to recruit Chinese spies and other subjects, the court ruling said. Chen began working for the Chinese intelligence authorities after retired lieutenant general Chen Chu-fan (陳筑藩), a former Military Police deputy commander, arranged a meeting between him and Chinese agents in 2006, the ruling said. Chen Shu-lung was indicted in February, accused of providing China with intelligence on the army, local elections and Falun Gong activities.
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