EDUCATION
AIT to teach about cheese
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) on Monday said that it would launch a cheese certification program next year to teach up-and-coming food industry professionals about cheese. The program would be a partnership between the US Dairy Export Council and National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism, the AIT said in a statement. The USA Cheese Specialist Certification Program consists of three courses — associate, intermediate and master — and graduates who complete all three would receive the designation of USA Cheese Specialist, it said. AIT Agricultural Trade Office Director Chris Frederick said he hoped the effort would help forge closer ties between the US dairy industry and Taiwan’s food industry. Graduates would also receive lifetime membership to the USA Cheese Guild, which provides members access to valuable resources to keep them engaged and connected to the US cheese industry throughout their careers, the AIT said.
ENTERTAINMENT
Fireworks show to proceed
The New Year’s Eve fireworks show at Taipei 101 is to go ahead as planned, Minister of Finance Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮) said last week. A sufficient number of sponsors have been found for the show, which costs more than NT$60 million (US$1.94 million), Su said in response to media queries about New Year celebrations. Asked about the size of the show, he said it would be “about the same as last year.” Taipei Financial Center Corp, which operates Taipei 101 and is 60 percent controlled by government-run institutions, last month said that the show would again showcase LED lights. Last year, the fireworks and light display lasted a record six minutes, involving 16,000 fireworks and 14,000 LED lights.
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