SOCIETY
Jeremy Lin shoe auctioned
A basketball shoe belonging to Houston Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin (林書豪) is being auctioned on one of the nation’s main online auction platforms, with the proceeds to go to the Down Syndrome Foundation. The bidding for the size 12 red Nike Hyperdunk on Yahoo Taiwan’s auction Web site will end on Friday evening. Lin, the first Taiwanese-American to play in the NBA, wore the shoe during an NBA pre-season game in Taipei last week. After the game, Lin autographed the shoe and gave it to a local celebrity, who in turn donated it to the foundation. As of last night, there have been 15 bids, with the top bid reaching NT$301,500. The auction is part of the 12th anniversary celebration of Yahoo Taiwan’s auction Web site.
TRANSPORTATION
No change on Sijhih MRT
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) promised on Saturday that there has been no change in the government’s plan to build a metro line linking Taipei and New Taipei City’s (新北市) Sijhih District (汐止). Ma stirred up worries among residents in Sijhih and Keelung earlier in the week, when comments he made praising a project to expand the commuter train line were seen as signaling that the government may be dropping its backing for the new metro line. A feasibility study for the Minsheng-Sijhih line was completed in 2004, when Ma was mayor of Taipei, and he announced a plan to extend the metro line to Keelung during his 2008 presidential campaign. However, the project is still awaiting the approval of the Cabinet. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications said earlier in the week in a statement that a final report on the line is expected to be completed at the end of the year before being sent to the Cabinet for approval.
NATIONAL DEFENSE
Marine patrol craft to arrive
The military said yesterday it will hold a ceremony marking the delivery of the first P-3C marine patrol aircraft from the US at the end of this month, with President Ma presiding. No date for the ceremony has been announced. The first of 12 P-3C aircraft arrived on Sept. 25, and another three are set to arrive by the year’s end. The 12 planes and related equipment and services, worth more than US$1.96 billion, are part of an arms deal with the US announced in 2007. The P-3C planes perform air, surface and subsurface patrols, as well as reconnaissance tasks. Described as long-endurance aircraft, the P-3C planes are capable of remaining airborne for 12 hours, with a range of 2,800 nautical miles (5,185km). All 12 aircraft are scheduled to arrive by 2015 and will be housed at the air force’s Pingtung air base.
CULTURE
Taiwanese choirs win gold
Two choirs from Taiwan won gold medals at the Busan Choral Festival and Competition in Busan, South Korea, which ended on Saturday night. The Cheng Gong High School choir from Taipei won the top prize in the Children and Youth category, and the Taipei Youth Choir, which consisted mainly of alumni from Cheng Gong High School, was awarded the gold medal in the classical mixed category. Nieh Yen-hsiang (聶焱庠), the conductor of both choirs, received the best conductor award. The festival was held from Monday to Saturday, bringing together more than 500 people in different choirs from 12 countries to compete in six categories, including classical mixed, classical equal, senior, ethnic, acapella ensemble, and children and youth.
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