This month is to see a total of 40 new government policy measures take effect, according to a list of measures released by the Executive Yuan on Thursday.
Beginning today, drivers who fail to turn on the correct indicators before changing lanes or turning may be fined NT$600 to NT$1,800, while those who fail to open their car doors properly when entering or leaving their vehicles can be fined NT$1,200 to NT$3,600. Drivers aged 75 and older are from today required to renew their driver’s license every three years.
Foreign visitors will soon be able to get a tax refund in downtown Taipei using UnionPay credit cards. The measure, which aims to make it easier to apply for refunds, is to take effect on July 11.
In the food sector, beginning today, products labeled as butter must contain at least 80 percent of milk fat, while products with at least 10 percent but less than 80 percent of milk fat should be labeled “fresh cream,” “edible cream” or “butter fat.”
Measures that make it easier for people to declare estate and gift taxes are to come into force today, while rules simplifying birth registration and national ID card applications are to take effect on Monday.
Also on Monday, cities and counties that currently offer same-sex partnership registration are to start accepting applications from other areas. Partnership registration allows same-sex couples to apply for family care leave and sign surgical or medical treatment consent forms for each other.
Looking ahead, Chunghwa Post Co is to raise postage fees for domestic mail from Aug. 1. Minimum fees are to be raised from NT$5 to NT$8 for ordinary, and from NT$25 to NT$30 for registered mail.
One month later, from Sept. 1, all tour buses are to be equipped with GPS devices for security purposes.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
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,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift