Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) yesterday said that the nation should discuss the benefits and drawbacks of developing nuclear energy rationally if Taiwanese want to avoid paying high prices for electricity and conserve energy.
Yeh made the comments when the ministry announced that April 23 has been designated Bookcrossing Day. The date is also when the World Book and Copyright Day set by UNESCO is celebrated.
The ministry aims to establish 108 stops at which people can share the books they have read with others. These stops would be placed at railway stations, airports, post offices, national scenic areas and agencies under the ministry’s purview.
Yeh donated two books, The Soft Power of Taiwan (台灣軟實力) and The Big Disaster (大災變), for the book-sharing station that has already been erected inside the ministry building.
“Both authors are good friends of mine and their books have inspired me. I feel it is my duty to share the knowledge I have gained from these books with others,” Yeh said. “Taiwanese should face the challenges ahead with kindness and courage.”
Yeh said that what he learned from The Soft Power of Taiwan is that the nation has many strengths that enable it to compete with other countries. The book’s subject matter is particularly relevant since the nation is currently divided on issues regarding the cross-strait service trade agreement, he added.
Regarding the debate over whether the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City, should be finished, Yeh said that The Big Disaster could help readers better understand the environment.
“Without nuclear energy and a stable supply of renewable energy, the electricity rate would be much higher than it is now, as was the case in Germany,” Yeh said.
“If Taiwanese are willing to pay more for electricity, then they should push to abandon nuclear energy altogether. However, if people neither want to pay more for electricity nor want to limit the nation’s energy consumption, then we should discuss the pros and cons of atomic power if we are to continue developing nuclear energy in a rational manner,” he said.
The ministry should reconsider its position on the promotion of the electric vehicles if the nation decides to stop building the fourth nuclear power plant, the minister added.
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