WEATHER
Cold front expected today
Taiwan could see much colder weather this week under the influence of a cold air mass between today and Friday, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Tuesday and Wednesday are likely to be the coldest days, with lows possibly sliding to 12°C in Taipei and 11°C in coastal areas, forecasters said. The cold air mass is also expected to bring rain across Taiwan early in the week, with mountains higher than 3,000m expected to see snow tomorrow and on Tuesday, the bureau said. From Wednesday, when the cold air is expected to peak, the weather pattern is expected to shift to dry and sunny, the bureau said. On Tuesday and Wednesday the cold air could cause the lowest temperatures in the north and center since winter began, said Daniel Wu (吳德榮), formerly the bureau’s forecast center director and currently a meteorologist and adjunct associate professor of atmospheric sciences at National Central University. Cold and wet weather is expected today, with temperatures dropping to 14°C in the north, the bureau said.
DIPLOMACY
Chabot cochairs caucus
US Representative Steve Chabot, a long-time supporter of Taiwan, was on Friday elected as the new cochair of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus in the US House of Representatives, the Washington-based Formosan Association for Public Affairs said. The other cochairs are US representatives Gerry Connolly, Mario Diaz-Balart and Albio Sires, the association said on Facebook on Friday. The caucus was founded in 2002 by Chabot and three other representatives: Sherrod Brown, Dana Rohrabacher and Robert Wexler. A staunch friend of Taiwan and a former chairman of the Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee of the House Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, Chabot introduced the Taiwan Travel Act in the House of Representatives in 2017.
SOCIETY
Lost phone washes ashore
A Kaohsiung resident has gotten back an iPhone 7 that was lost in southern Taiwan two months ago, but was found in coastal wetlands in Taoyuan in the north. Dayuan Police Station Chief Lin Yi-min (林藝閔) on Friday said that the station received an iPhone 7 from a person, who said that he picked it up in a wetland in the city on Jan. 12. After removing it from a waterproof bag, police officers charged the phone, hoping to find traces of its owner, Lin said. As no password was set for the device, Taoyuan police were able to locate its owner through information on its SIM card with the help of a telecom company. The owner, a man surnamed Sun (孫) from Kaohsiung, said that the iPhone fell into the sea when he was in the water in Pingtung County’s Kenting (墾丁) in November last year. “I did not expect to recover my iPhone, as I had no idea where it went,” he said.
ARTS AND CULTURE
Illustrators exhibit in Italy
Nine graphic illustrators are to represent Taiwan at the Bologna Illustrators Exhibition in Italy from April 1 to April 4, the Taipei Book Fair Foundation said. The illustrators were selected by the Italian book fair organizers after submissions were received from 2,901 individuals in 62 countries and would display their works at the exhibition with 67 other illustrators from 26 countries, the foundation said. The exhibition is a showcase for the latest trends in illustration and held as part of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. The exhibition, launched in 1967, offers young emerging illustrators professional opportunities, organizers 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