DIPLOMACY
Hwang taking CDs to Haiti
Ambassador to Haiti Peter Hwang (黃再求) will formally assume his duties early next month. Hwang, who served as head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of Policy Planning before his new assignment, said he will bring a few CDs of Taiwanese singers and bands as gifts to Haitian President Michel Martelly, who was a musician before being elected president in 2011. Among the albums he has chosen are ones by rock band Mayday (五月天) and pop diva Chang Hui-mei (張惠妹), also known as A-mei (阿妹). He said he hoped the music would help promote bilateral cultural exchanges since Martelly is a music lover. Hwang will replace Liu Bang-zyh (劉邦治) who will take up his new post as representative to Switzerland early next month.
CROSS-STRAIT TIES
DPP criticizes Beijing
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday expressed its regret toward Beijing’s sentencing of activist Xu Zhiyong (許志永) Department of China Affairs director Honigmann Hong. Hsu was sentenced to four years in prison on Sunday. He has campaigned for the rights of children from rural areas to be educated in the cities where their parents work and for government officials to disclose their financial assets. “If China found Xu, one of the most moderate right activists in China, intolerable, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) anticorruption campaign and the ‘Chinese Dream’ initiative would only be castles in the air and fake slogans,” Hong (洪財隆) said.
TOURISM
Bureau wins award
The Tourism Bureau has won an innovative destination award from an independent international travel and tourism community for its “smart” services to tourists. In Dublin, Ireland, Taiwan won the Innovative Destination Award with a presentation of its integrated wireless Internet services, including the iTaiwan network, Tour Taiwan and Taiwan Tourism Events, the bureau said yesterday. Other competitors for the award included South Korea, Germany, Thailand, Ireland and Denmark, according to the award voting Web site. The prize was given to the most innovative destination marketing organization at the local, regional or national level that has successfully integrated technology, according to the awarding body, the International Federation for Information Technology and Travel and Tourism. Taiwan’s integrated Internet services provide visitors with “seamless tourism information before, during and after their trips in Taiwan,” the bureau said.
SOCIETY
UK holiday spots available
Young adults looking to gain work experience while traveling in the UK can apply for 500 spots between Feb. 11 and Feb 19. The British Trade and Cultural Office in Taipei yesterday said that it will open a total of 1,000 working holiday spots for Taiwanese this year in two batches, allowing successful applicants aged between 18 and 30 to live, work and attend short-term courses in the UK for up to two years. Those who hope to participate in the program must first apply for a certificate from Taiwan’s Youth Development Administration, the office said. After next month’s applications close, another 500 spots will be made available in May. The number of applicants to the UK regularly exceeds the quota. The Youth Development Administration has to draw lots to determine which lucky young people get to work, live and study in the UK.
DIPLOMACY
MOFA rejects islets claim
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) protested Japan’s launch of a Web site that reiterates its sovereignty claims over the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). “The Republic of China [ROC] government expresses its solemn protest and reiterates that the Diaoyutai Islands are inherent territory of the ROC,” the ministry said in a statement. It also urged Japan to handle the issue carefully to avoid affecting regional peace and Taiwan-Japan relations. The Web site was launched by Japan’s Cabinet Secretariat. It includes Japan’s view on territorial disputes surrounding the Diaoyutai Islands, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan, as well as the Northern Territories and the Takeshima chain, called the Dokdo by South Korea.
FOOD
Pork prices stable: farmers
Tens of thousands of piglets in Yunlin County have died of diarrhea over the past few weeks, but pork prices will not be affected, farmers said on Sunday. More than 13,000 piglets have died of diarrhea since December last year, the Yunlin County Government said. Although prices have remained unaffected, pork supplies could be impacted in the second half of the year, according to the swine association in Yunlin. The county’s Animal and Plant Disease Control Center said it has urged pig farmers to strengthen sterilization measures and raise temperatures in their piggeries to combat the disease. Diarrhea is a common disease that affects piglets that are less than a few weeks old. Up to 40 percent of Yunlin’s piglets have died since the outbreak began, the center said. The disease, which is caused by a virus, does not infect humans, the county’s Agriculture Department 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