AVIATION
A380 jetways being tested
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday announced plans to install two double-deck jet bridges this month for use by A380 aircraft, a double-deck jetliner manufactured by Airbus. The jetways are currently undergoing testing and are to be installed at the C2 and D6 gates of Terminal 2 later this month, the airport said. The installation of the jetways follows the completion of an improvement project on the airport’s southern runway to meet the takeoff and landing standards of A380 aircraft. A number of carriers, including China Southern Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Emirates, have said that they plan to fly A380 aircraft to Taiwan, according to the airport.
SOCIETY
Brothers found dead in river
A man who had been searching for the body of his elder brother drowned in Taipei yesterday, authorities said. The bodies of both brothers were later found, the police said. The younger man, surnamed Lin (林), was last seen wading into the Sindian River (新店溪) near Zhongzheng Bridge, wearing snorkeling gear, according to the police. The 40-year-old man was looking for the body of his brother, who had reportedly jumped from the bridge on Saturday. Ignoring his family’s objections, Lin decided to conduct his own search for his brother’s body, assuming that it was under the bridge, the police said. Police officers and firefighters were searching downstream for the body of the suicide victim when Lin entered the water and later disappeared from sight at about 7am, the police said. The elder brother’s body was found under the bridge and an hour later, the younger Lin’s body was retrieved some distance away.
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