SOCIETY
Toxins agency opened
An agency established by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and headed by EPA Chief Secretary Hsieh Yen-ju (謝燕儒) to manage toxic and chemical substances officially opened yesterday. The Toxins and Chemicals Bureau was introduced as part of the government’s effort to improve food safety in the wake of a slew of food-safety scandals over the past few years, EPA Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) said. The new agency would take measures to tighten the management of toxic chemicals, including improving the auditing and registration of chemical substances to prevent toxic chemicals from entering the nation’s food supply system, Lee said. In the first phase, the bureau is to expand the list of registered toxic chemical substances from 300 to 3,000, and has set a long-term goal of registering a total of 27,000 chemical substances, Lee said.
TOURISM
Hualien, Taitung favored
Hualien and Taitung counties are the top two choices for people seeking to catch the first sunrise of next year, ezTravel agency said yesterday. It said that based on its sales of New Year travel packages, other popular destinations are Longpan (龍磐) in Kenting National Park, Alishan in Chiayi County, Erliao (二寮) in Tainan, and Wuling (武嶺) in Nantou County. However, coastal areas in Hualien and Taitung have topped the sales of sunrise packages so far, the travel agency said. Travelers seeking to greet the first sunrise on New Year’s Day are also buying travel packages for Fushoushan Farm (福壽山農場) in Taichung, Sandiaojiao (三貂角) in New Taipei City and Waiao (外澳) in Yilan County, according to ezTravel.
WEATHER
Air mass lowers mercury
A strong continental air mass has brought with it lower temperatures, with Tamsui (淡水) recording lows of 10.9°C on Tuesday night and yesterday morning, the Central Weather Bureau said. The strongest cold front so far this season sent temperatures yesterday morning down to about 11°C in the northeast and 16°C in the south and east, the bureau said. In related news, Typhoon Nock Ten was downgraded to a tropical storm after it slammed into the Philippines on Christmas Day and it is set to further weaken into a tropical depression, the bureau said, adding that the storm is unlikely to affect Taiwan.
TRANSPORTATION
Light-rail train arrives
The first domestically built tram for a light-rail system in Tamsui District has been delivered and is ready to undergo static and dynamic vehicle tests, the New Taipei City Department of Rapid Transit Systems said on Tuesday. Designed and built in Taiwan through a partnership between Hsinchu-based Taiwan Rolling Stock Co and Germany’s Voith Engineering Services, the tram was set onto tracks for the first time near Danhai New Township (淡海新市鎮) on Tuesday morning. It is the first of 15 to be completed for the under-construction Danhai light-rail system in Tamsui. According to department chief Simon Chao (趙紹廉), the first phase of the planned system is almost 50 percent complete, and it is scheduled to be fully completed by the end of 2018. The tram system’s first phase is to encompass 14 stops on two lines — the Lushan Line, which has 11 stops, and the Lanhai Line, which has three stops.
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