CRIME
Money laundering rises
Money laundering was the third-largest category of economic crime this year, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. In the first 11 months of the year, there were 501 money laundering cases involving 1,337 suspects and about NT$2.1 billion (US$68.33 million), the ministry said. That compares with 51 money laundering cases involving 274 suspects and NT$1.33 billion in the same period last year, it said. The increase was due to an amendment to the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法) that took effect on June 28 last year, which expanded the scope of money laundering investigations and laid down stricter rules for high-ranking officials, it said. There were a total of 6,597 economic criminal cases in the 11-month period, of which 60 percent involved infringement of intellectual property rights, ministry data showed. Another 709 cases, or 10.7 percent, involved contravention of financial regulations, including loan sharking, illegal debt collection and illegal financial transactions.
PUBLIC HEALTH
Taipei trails smoke-free
From tomorrow, all hiking trails in Taipei are to become smoke-free, with people who smoke on the trails liable to fines of up to NT$10,000, the Taipei Public Works Department said. A total of 135 hiking trails are to be designated as non-smoking areas, including any observation platforms and pavilions on the routes, the agency said, adding that fines would range from NT$2,000 to NT$10,000. Department official Chen Yen-cheng (陳彥成) said warning signs have been placed along the trails and on route maps and signage.
ABORIGINES
Land rules amended
An amendment passed in the Legislative Yuan on Friday allows Aborigines to take ownership of land left by ancestors without having to wait a minimum of five years, the Council of Indigenous Peoples said in a statement. The amendment to article 37 of the Act for the Utilization and Transfer of Reserved Mountainous Land (山坡地保育利用條例), which governs the conservation and utilization of slopeland, is to allow Aborigines to claim back ancestral land without having to cultivate it or have structures on it for a minimum of five years, the statement said. The five-year threshold restricted the free use of land by Aborigines, it said. Council Minister Icyang Parod said he expected that at least 30,000 Aborigines would benefit from the amendment.
SOCIAL SERVICES
Accessible condo opened
The Pingtung County Government on Tuesday opened an experimental condominium unit in Pingtung City designed for people with disabilities. The barrier-free residential space is a joint project of the Peace Social Welfare and Charity Foundation and the Pingtung Social Affairs Department, the county’s Welfare Center for People with Disabilities director Chen Fen-chin (陳芬芩) said. The 26 ping (85.95m2) condo has three bedrooms, two bathrooms with a shower and toilet, and one shared kitchen and living room, she said, adding that to increase accessibility, the furniture is wheelchair height, the drying rack is connected to an assisted lift and wheelchair rails were installed from the building entrance to the elevator. People with physical disabilities and low-to-medium incomes can apply to live in the unit for free, while other residents would pay a low monthly rent, Director of Social Affairs Liu Mei-shu (劉美淑) said. Residents can live with a personal assistant or a close friend, and perspective tenants can stay in the unit for a five-day trial, she 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