SPORTS
Bodybuilder Li retains title
Taiwanese athlete Li Yi-ming (李佾明) has successfully defended her title in the women’s 49kg event at the 48th Asian Bodybuilding and Fitness Championship, which was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from Thursday to Sunday last week. Li returned to Taiwan on Monday with the trophy, the second she has won at the annual bodybuilding and fitness championship. Also from Taiwan, Lin Tien-chin (林添進) and Lee Yao-ting (李耀廷) both finished fourth in the men’s 75kg and 55kg bodybuilding events respectively. The athletes, led by coach Liu Chia-tsung (劉嘉聰), were warmly greeted upon their arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport earlier in the day. Liu said it was the best performance Taiwan has achieved at the event in recent years. Li said she was happy to be able to bring honor to her country with the medal.
TOURISM
Tourist EasyCards planned
EasyCard Corp on Monday said that it would cooperate with the Lion Group to launch an EasyCard tailored to foreign tourists by the end of the year. EasyCard Corp chairman Chang Chia-sheng (張家生) and Lion Group chairman Wang Wen-chieh (王文傑) signed a strategic alliance agreement earlier on Monday, with Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) present. Chang said the EasyCard designed for foreign tourists would have different motifs, such as the Formosan black bear, Taipei 101 and Pingsi sky lanterns. However, the company has yet to determine what special functions or benefits the card would offer beyond those found in regular EasyCards. After the launch of the card for foreign visitors, it is to be promoted or sold at 79 Lion Group outlets in the initial stage, Chang 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