AGRICULTURE
Changhua voting opens
Voting has begun for the titles of Changhua Grape princess and knight. The Changhua County Government has held the princess contest for the past five years as part of its efforts to promote locally grown grapes, attracting more than 1,500 candidates. This year it is expanding the contest to include a male category. The semi-finals were held on Saturday last week and 20 young women were selected to compete for the Changhua Grape Princess crown — including university students, street artists and dance teachers — and five men are vying to be named Changhua Grape Knight. Voting is being conducted online via the county government’s official Web site and is open through June 17. The two winners will become ambassadors for the county government in its marketing of Changhua grapes. Changhua County produces 50 percent of the nation’s grapes. One variety, called Chufeng, is famed for its special honey-like flavor.
SOCIETY
Chu wants seniors outside
New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) wants to see more day trips and other activities for senior citizens. He said the city has made significant progress in promoting participation in indoor events for senior citizens, but now wants to encourage more of them to try outdoor activities. He has suggested a “happy day per week” program that would combine indoor and outdoor activities, including tours of historic districts and specialty snack producers or other activities that allow seniors to have some fun in the sun. He suggested introducing residents to attractions such as the historic Lin Family Mansion and Garden, the Fuzhong 15 Documentary Cinema, Yingge Township (鶯歌), which is known for its pottery and ceramics industry, and the old gold mines of Jinguashi (金瓜石).
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