HEALTH
Former H7N9 patient dies
The Chinese tourist who was confirmed to have H7N9 while traveling to Taiwan at the end of last month died on Monday, the Central Epidemic Command Center said yesterday. The case was the country’s second imported bird-flu infection, the first being a Taiwanese national who has since recovered. The center said the 86-year-old man was released from quarantine on Tuesday last week after a series of H7N9 tests turned up negative. However, the man continued to suffer from pneumonia after the quarantine release and remained in hospital, and died on Monday, the disease control authority said. The center said that following the confirmation of the infection, health authorities have been closely following people who had contact with him. All were tested for the virus if they displayed symptoms, and tested negative.
CRIME
Hung court case closed
The Taoyuan District Court yesterday announced it has closed the trial over the death of army corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘) and said that it would deliver a ruling on March 7. Hung died on July 4 last year due to heat exhaustion allegedly caused by being forced to perform intensive physical exercise. He died only three days before he was due to complete his mandatory military service. Colonel Ho Chiang-chung (何江忠), former company commander Major Hsu Shin-cheng (徐信正), Staff Sergeant Fan Tso-hsien (范佐憲) and others have been indicted by military prosecutors in connection with Hung’s death. Following an amendment to the Code of Court Martial Procedure (軍事審判法) in August last year, Hung’s case was transferred to the Taoyuan District Court. The push to overhaul the military justice system was prompted by Hung’s case.
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