WEATHER
More rain on the way
The weather is likely to remain rainy until Friday as a moisture-laden cold front moves in from China, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Showers, ranging from moderate to heavy, are likely in the north and east of the country, as well as in mountainous areas in the center and south. The rain is likely to be heaviest today, and temperatures are expected to rise steadily until tomorrow, with daytime highs climbing above 20?C nationwide, forecasters said. For the next two days, temperatures will range between 13?C and 21?C in the north, 14?C to 24?C in the center and 16?C to 25?C in the south, the bureau said. Another cold front will move in Thursday, sending the mercury down again, forecasters said.
SOCIETY
‘Kano’ sets, props on show
An exhibition of props and recreated sets from box-office smash Kano opened yesterday in Taipei. The film tells the story of a high-school baseball team that competed in Japan in the 1930s. The exhibition at Taroko Sports in Neihu District (內湖) contains the players’ classroom, lockers, bullpen and other sets, along with photographs, baseballs and jerseys. Director Umin Boya said he was sorry that a set depicting a 1930s Chiayi street could not be preserved and had to be torn down. he said he hoped that in the future the government would support the preservation of such sets. The movie has so far made NT$120 million (US$3.96 million) in Taiwan and opened the Osaka Asian Film Festival in Japan on Friday last week.
ENVIRONMENT
Lily seedlings to be planted
The New Taipei City Government yesteray said that it will expand its efforts to restore the Formosa lily, an endemic plant, to the mountains of northern Taiwan. Agriculture Department Director Liao Jung-ching (廖榮清) said 10,000 Formosa lily seedlings will be planted in public parks, along major hiking trails in Jinshan District (金山) and in unused plots of land in the city. The goal is to enable the public to see the northern coastal mountains draped with the trumpet-shape native lilies, a scene that has not existed for 300 years, Liao said. The lilies originated along the northern coast, but rampant plucking of wild flowers has almost wiped out the species in the area, Liao said.
TOURISM
Travel to Malaysia popular
The number of tourists visiting Malaysia could hit 300,000 this year, amid growing local interest in the country, Malaysian tourism officials yesterday said in Taipei. A delegation made up of more than 30 people from 20 organizations, including tourism groups, government agencies, hotels and tour operators, is on a four-day visit to Taipei. It is the largest delegation of its kind ever sent by Malaysia to Taiwan. Tourism Malaysia Deputy Director-General Chong Yoke Har said she hopes that with the travel information the delegation can provide to travel agents in Taipei, Greater Taichung, Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung, the momentum in the local market can continue growing. “Taiwan is one of the most important tourism markets for Malaysia,” Chong said. A record 280,000 tourists from Taiwan visited Malaysia last year, an 18 percent year-on-year increase, Chong said. Taiwan is Malaysia’ seventh-largest tourist source, she added. The government is hoping to lure more independent travelers and elderly tourists by offering more customized travel options, she 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