HEALTH
CDC raises China travel alert
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday raised the travel alert for Guizhou, China, to level-2 after a new human infection of H7N9 avian influenza was reported in the province. Authorities there confirmed that a 44-year-old man in Guiyang, the capital of the province, had been infected with avian flu, the first human infection to be reported in the city this year. Level-2 alerts are also in place for Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang in eastern China; Fujian, Guangdong, Yunnan in the south and southwest; Jiangxi in northern China; and Xinjiang in the far west. All other Chinese provinces and cities are under level-1 advisories, the CDC said. There have been 133 reports of human infections of H7N9 in China since October last year, and the situation continues to worsen, it said. Travelers to China should refrain from coming into contact with fowl, either living or dead, and pay attention to personal hygiene, seeking medical attention immediately if they develop symptoms such as a fever or cough, CDC officials said.
IMMIGRATION
E-Gate users hit 2m mark
The National Immigration Agency on Tuesday celebrated the registration of 2 millionth user of the automated immigration clearance system, known as e-Gate, which was introduced at the nation’s airports and harbors on Jan. 1, 2012. There are a total of 53 e-Gates at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), Kaohsiung International Airport, Taichung Chingchuankang Airport and Kinmen Shueitou Port, agency Director-General Mo Tien-hu (莫天虎) said. The number of travelers using the system has grown to more than 20,000 a day since it was launched four years ago, he 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