DIPLOMACY
US official’s trip canceled
A US Department of State official has canceled a visit to Taiwan due to personal reasons, the Presidential Office said yesterday. David Balton, deputy assistant secretary for oceans and fisheries in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, was invited to visit by the Council of Agriculture.
EARTHQUAKE
Hualien hit by 4.7 quake
A magnitude 4.7 earthquake jolted Hualien County early yesterday, but there were no reports of casualties, according to the Central Weather Bureau. The quake hit at 6:56am, with the epicenter located in Shoufeng Township (壽豐), about 15.2km southwest of the Hualien County Government building at a depth of 22.2km, the bureau said. The strongest tremor was felt in the county’s Tungmen area (銅門), according to the bureau. Seismologists said more time was needed to determine whether the temblor has anything to do with the 6.3 earthquake that rocked the county’s Rueisuei Township (瑞穗) on Thursday last week.
CULTURE
European film fest opens
The ninth annual Taiwan European Film Festival will open on Friday, offering free viewing of 16 European films over a one-month period. The festival will be hosted by the European Economic and Trade Office (EETO) from Friday through Dec. 8, with the aim of introducing the EU’s cultures, arts and languages, the EETO said on the Web site for the event. The 16 films were recommended by 16 members of the EU, the organizers said, the highest number of films since the festival was launched in Taiwan in 2005. The films will be shown in 477 sessions at 36 venues in 14 counties and cities around the nation, according to the organizers.
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