WEATHER
Taipei to see more hot days
Temperatures in the Taipei area are forecast to rise to 35°C or higher at least 38 days this year, Weather Risk said on Thursday. The plum rain season has ended early and a medium-strength El Nino that has formed is likely to last until the start of winter, the company said. As a result, strong subtropical high-pressure conditions are forecast to prevail this summer, causing extreme heat, it said. The Taipei area can expect between 38 and 48 days of temperatures of 35°C or higher, more than the average of 24 days per year, the company said. Last year, there were 61 days when temperatures in Taipei reached those levels, it said. The plum rain season, which usually lasts from mid-May to mid-June, has been shortening, Weather Risk said.
CRIME
Ex-officer gets life for spying
The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a life sentence for former air force captain Chiang Fu-chung (蔣福仲) for passing military secrets to China in violation of the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍刑法). The court also ruled that Chiang’s ill-gotten gains of NT$360,000 will be seized. Chiang was charged with passing on a large number of secret documents to his uncle, who was doing business in China at the time, in exchange for money. After the Code of Court Martial Procedure (軍事審判法) was revised in August 2013 to require civilian courts to handle cases involving military service members during peacetime, his case was turned over to the High Court, which maintained the life sentence. The Supreme Court returned the case for retrial, but the Taiwan High Court again upheld the life sentence, citing his lack of remorse. The Supreme Court rejected Chiang’s appeal yesterday. The ruling is final.
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