ARMED FORCES
Woman promoted to general
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has approved the promotion of 26 senior military officers, including a woman who would become one of only three serving female generals, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. Eight officers are to be promoted to two-star general, while 18 would be moved up to one-star general, the ministry said in a statement. The head of the Matsu Defense Command’s political warfare section, Ku Li-tu (辜麗都), is to be promoted to one-star general, becoming the nation’s third serving female general and the first woman to gain that rank since Tsai assumed office in May 2016. The other two women are Major General Chen Yu-lin (陳育琳) of the Sixth Army Corps and Major General Chang Te-lan (張德蘭) of the National Security Bureau.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Wu unaware of transfer
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday said he had not been informed that he would be transferred back to his former post as head of the National Security Council, as was reported by the Chinese-language China Times earlier in the day. The Presidential Office also released a similar statement, saying that it had no information about a transfer. However, Wu confirmed that his top aide, Vincent Chao (趙怡翔), would soon be posted to Washington, although not as deputy representative to the US, as the China Times had reported, but as secretary. Before Wu was appointed foreign minister on Feb. 26, he had since President Tsai Ing-wen’s election as chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party in 2014 been her adviser on national security matters.
SOCIETY
Floral expo free for locals
From Tuesday next week, entry to the Taichung World Flora Exposition is to be free for Taichung residents and children aged 12 or under, whether from Taiwan or overseas. Allowing residents to visit the nearly six-month-long floral extravaganza for free was part of the political platform of Taichung mayor-elect Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) during her campaign. After her election victory on Nov. 24, Lu expanded the offer to include all children aged 12 or under. The expo, organized by the Taichung City Government, opened on Nov. 3 and is to close on April 24. It has exhibitions in Houli (后里), Fongyuan (豐原) and Waipu (外埔) districts. Visits to the Fengyuan park are free, but entry to the Houli and Waipu parks ranges from NT$150 to NT$350. Lu is to be sworn in as Taichung mayor today.
LABOR
Aid Indonesian workers: MOL
The Ministry of Labor (MOL) yesterday urged employers to take the initiative in helping migrant workers who are from areas in Indonesia that were hit by a tsunami on Saturday. Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) made the appeal in a statement in which she urged employers to assist Indonesian employees who needed to fly home to check on their families in the aftermath of the disaster. Apart from Hsu’s statement, the ministry also expressed Taiwan’s deep condolences for the victims of the natural disaster and pledged its full support in helping workers whose families back home were affected by the tsunami. Through the ministry’s 1955 hotline, workers can get information on the casualties and damage caused by the tsunami, and on how to apply for leave from work so that they can return home to be with their families, the statement said.
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