LABOR AFFAIRS
Ministry supports extension
The Ministry of Labor supports a proposal by legislators to allow blue-collar workers to work in the nation for a longer period of time, Minister of Labor Chen I-min (陳益民) said. Legislators proposed that the maximum length of employment for migrant workers be extended to 15 years from 12. However, the ministry is inclined to support an alternative proposal to allow foreign workers who have worked in Taiwan for 12 years and meet certain requirements to stay longer, without setting a maximum length for their employment, Chen said. Extending the time migrants can work would help employers retain people who meet their needs, he said. The proposal also includes a mechanism for retaining outstanding workers, including those with language and technical skills, but substantive details of the plan have yet to be finalized.
ENTERTAINMENT
U-Theatre to star at Taroko
This year’s Taroko Music Festival in Hualien County is to be held on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18, featuring performances by U-Theatre, the organizer said. U-Theatre, known for its unique combination of drumming, Zen meditation and martial arts, is to perform Da Shen Gu, Breaker, Rainstorm and Heart of Sword among other pieces at the festival, the Taroko National Park Headquarters said. The annual festival takes place at the Taroko Terrace in Taroko National Park, which is known for its deep marble canyons. U-Theatre last performed at the festival in 2004. Park officials said the music festival creates a unique opportunity for the public to enjoy music surrounded by nature and that they hope the beauty of the music would draw even more visitors to the park.
HEALTH
CDC warns on enterovirus
The public should pay attention to personal hygiene, as increasing interaction among students at the start of the new school year is likely to increase enterovirus transmissions, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warned. Enterovirus is highly contagious, especially in crowded areas such as households and childcare facilities, where cluster infections often occur, the centers said, adding that children under the age of five are at greatest risk of developing severe complications. The centers said the nation remains in the grip of an enterovirus outbreak, with 9,747 cases, 9,811 cases and 9,536 cases respectively reported in the past three weeks, which is close to the epidemic threshold of 9,696 cases per week. Medical attention should be sought immediately in cases where a child develops symptoms such as a persistent fever, drowsiness, lethargy or frequent vomiting, the centers said.
CRIME
Fewer cases, more solved
The number of criminal cases dropped 44.82 percent in the 10-year period to last year, while the rate of solved crimes rose 23.58 percent, indicating that social order improved significantly, Criminal Investigation Bureau deputy head Huang Chia-lu (黃嘉祿) said. The nation’s population increased by 660,000 during the 10-year period, but the number of criminal cases dropped from 555,109 in 2005 to 306,300 last year, Huang said, adding that the rate of solved criminal cases increased from 62.45 percent in 2005 to 86.03 percent last year. In the first seven months of this year, 175,796 crimes were reported, a drop of 10,000 from the same period last year, he said. Huang said police would continue to crack down on crime, especially drug-related offenses and violence on school campuses.
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