ENTERTAINMENT
Mraz arrives in Taiwan
Singer-songwriter Jason Mraz of the US arrived in Taiwan on Thursday ahead of a performance at the 25th Golden Melody Awards ceremony in Taipei today. Mraz, who is visiting Taiwan for the fourth time, is scheduled to perform at the Golden Melody Awards along with Los Angeles-based eclectic folk-rock band Raining Jane and Singaporean singer-songwriter J.J. Lin (林俊傑). Lin, who has been nominated for Best Mandarin Male Singer this year, said he is both excited and nervous about a duet he will perform with Mraz, and hopes to give a good performance at the nation’s largest music event. The ceremony at the Taipei Arena will also feature performances by Taiwanese pop diva Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), singer-songwriter and host of the ceremony Harlem Yu (庾澄慶), along with singers Hebe Tian (田馥甄) and Jam Hsiao (蕭敬騰).
SPORTS
Jeremy Lin to hold camp
Houston Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin (林書豪), the first NBA player of Taiwanese descent, plans to coach Taiwanese youngsters next month at an annual summer camp that is to also feature his former New York Knicks teammate Steve Novak, event organizers said. Lin is scheduled to host a camp for junior and senior-high school students in Taipei on July 19 and July 20. Novak, who now plays for the Toronto Raptors, is to lend a hand in coaching the youngsters. Lin plans to arrive in Taiwan on July 16 and stay for a week. This year, organizers said they would also allow non-players to attend the camp at National Taiwan University Sports Center, offering fans of Lin and Novak a chance to watch them close-up. Registration for players opens on Tuesday at 2pm, while that for spectators begins on July 7 at 2pm and ends on July 11 at 2pm.
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