SOCIETY
Ex-defense minister dies
Former minister of national defense and army commander Chiang Chung-ling (蔣仲苓) died of heart failure at the age of 93 on Wednesday, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. Chiang died at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, having spent almost seven weeks in a ward for the terminally ill, the ministry said on Facebook. Chiang, who retired as a three-star general, had been admitted to the hospital on Jan. 30 with heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and infections, the ministry said. A ministry spokesman paid tribute to Chiang’s contributions to the nationalization of the armed forces and overhauling military affairs. Chiang, who was born in Zhejiang Province, China, served as defense minister from December 1994 to January 1999, as the nation was undergoing democratization under then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).
CHARITY
Book sale set for TAS
The Taipei American School’s (TAS) Orphanage Club is to hold its annual book sale tomorrow from 10am to 5pm in the school’s forecourt and lobby. The club has collected thousands of books, as well as magazines, comic books and games. The books include best-sellers, classics, biographies, children’s and young adult titles, English-teaching books and cookbooks. Most of the money raised from the event is to provide funding for orphans and other children in Taiwan, but 20 percent of the proceeds will be given to Hope through Health, a US-based charity that provides financial and technical healthcare assistance to poor communities in Togo and other countries. Admission to the book fair is free. The school is at 800 Zhongshan N Rd Sec 6, Tianmu (天母).
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