CRIME
Drug smuggler gets life
A Belgian man convicted of smuggling drugs into the nation was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Taipei District Court yesterday. Gunther Van Eester was found guilty of entering Taiwan in July with 1.3kg of heroin hidden in a compartment in his suitcase. The Belgian, who was jobless and homeless in Thailand, had been flagged by Taiwanese investigators after he visited Taiwan twice in June as a tourist, the district court said in its ruling. After his two short visits, Van Eester returned to Bangkok and met with drug dealers, who offered him US$700 and a free return ticket to carry a suitcase to Taiwan, the court said. On arrival in Taiwan, he was detained by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, who found NT$10 million (US$327,000) worth of heroin in his suitcase, according to the court. Van Eester claimed that he was helping to deliver a suitcase of clothing, the court said in its ruling, which imposed a sentence of life imprisonment on the man. Van Eester has the right to appeal the sentence in Taiwan’s High Court.
HEALTH
US watching oil probe
The US is closely watching the ongoing investigation into problematic oils used in food products in Taiwan, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said yesterday — the same day that Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) announced the latest on the government’s investigation. “We are watching the ongoing investigation with interest and encourage Taiwan authorities to act appropriately,” AIT spokesman Mark Zimmer said when asked about the issue. “Taiwan authorities have alerted the US to potentially contaminated exports and the US food safety offices will act according to our regulations,” he said. Meanwhile, he said that the US would like to work with Taiwan “in strengthening Taiwan’s food safety regime to ensure it provides information that is transparent and accurate, allowing Taiwan consumers to make informed choices about which foods they want to put into their bodies.” However, Zimmer did not elaborate on how the two nations could cooperate on the issue. He also said that the current food safety challenges in Taiwan do not stem from food products imported from the US.
CULTURE
Berlin Wall remembered
The German Institute Taipei yesterday held a series of events to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago and highlight the values of democracy. Institute Director-General Martin Eberts also gave a personal account of the lead-up to the pulling down of the Berlin Wall that in turn, led to the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. Eberts said he was on diplomatic duty in Budapest, Hungary, in the summer of 1989 and witnessed the stream of East German refugees who flooded the embassy there each day. “To experience the first opening of the ‘Iron Curtain’ was an unforgettable and deeply moving experience for me,” he said. In a prelude to a discussion on democracy, the institute also screened a film titled Liberty Train-Next Stop Freedom, a documentary about the mass escape of East German citizens into the West German Embassy in Prague. About 100 people attended the screening, including representatives from the Czech Economic and Cultural Office and the Hungarian Trade Office, who said it was a great occasion for different cultures to share their histories.
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