BY OTHER MEANS: China could see CPTPP membership as a means of circumventing trade restrictions imposed by the US, amid an ongoing trade dispute between them
The US could invoke a clause in its trade agreement with Canada and Mexico to block China’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a government official said yesterday. Under Article 32.10 of the Exceptions and General Provisions of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), if either Canada or Mexico enter a free-trade agreement with a nonmarket economy — such as China — the US could withdraw from the agreement. “If that clause applies to multilateral free-trade agreements such as the CPTPP — which Mexico and Canada are members of — that might be cause for the two countries to oppose China’s membership,” a senior Executive Yuan official said on condition of anonymity. Echoing an assertion made in an analysis by The Diplomat editor-in-chief Shannon Tiezzi on Friday, the source said that China might see CPTPP membership as a means of circumventing trade restrictions imposed by the US in an ongoing US-China trade dispute. “However, China is an authoritarian regime that lacks transparency, and its laws and market systems are far removed from those of existing CPTPP members,” the source said. “We will have to wait to see exactly what its intentions are.” The USMCA was introduced in January last year to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, which had been in place since 1994. Although the USMCA was signed by former US president Donald Trump, who took a tough stance on China-related issues, US President Joe Biden has not deviated from that position, the source said, adding that the world was waiting to see how the Biden administration would react to China’s CPTPP application. “China engages in market interference through its state-owned enterprises — that is contrary to how a free-market economy should work,” the source said. “Many CPTPP members have expressed reservations about whether China can meet the agreement’s standards.” Separately
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in New York on Thursday hosted a seminar on providing sustainable assistance to Syrian refugees. The COVID-19 pandemic and Syria’s economic crisis has worsened the situation for Syrian refugees, which makes global assistance all the more important, office director James Lee (李光章) said in opening the seminar. Taiwan has worked with like-minded countries and partners in offering humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees and implemented more than 60 projects over the past eight years, including basic education, vocational training for women and psychological counseling for adolescents, he said. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Permanent Representative to the UN Inga Rhonda King said that Taiwan and its partners have worked to alleviate the pain and suffering of refugees. Climate change and the pandemic have affected refugees the most, she said, adding that this highlights the necessity to increase humanitarian aid. Taiwan-Reyhanli Centre for World Citizens founder Chiu Chen-yu (裘振宇) talked about his experiences in assisting refugees in Reyhanli, Turkey, near the Syrian border. High walls, which separate the countries, could have been put to better use in providing humanitarian aid, Chiu said. When he helped build the center five years ago, he said he was astonished to find that it was the first facility for refugees in the area, despite a civil war having already ravaged Syria for six years at the time. “We still have much to do,” he said, urging people from all over the world — regardless of religion, sex or age — to come together and help alleviate the crisis. “The reason that 8 million refugees have led to a crisis for others is because no one feels they are responsible. If, on the other hand, everyone felt they had to be responsible, such things would not happen,” Chiu said. Citing a fundraiser he held last year as an example, Chiu
The Pingtung District Court on Friday sentenced Pingtung Mayor Lin Hsieh-sung (林協松) and Pingtung City Council Speaker Hsiao Kuo-liang (蕭國亮) to several years in prison for corruption. The court found Lin and Hsiao, both members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), guilty of forging official documents and other contraventions of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). It sentenced Lin to seven years in jail and Hsiao to four years and two months. They were also deprived of their civil rights for three years. As Lin was convicted of corruption, he is to be removed as mayor under the Local Government Act (地方制度法), but Pingtung County Government officials said that the formal removal of Lin would not start until they receive the official ruling from the court. The county would then appoint an interim mayor, they said. Two other defendants, a Pingtung County Council administrator surnamed Yeh (葉) and a contractor surnamed Chou (周), were also convicted on corruption charges, with Yeh receiving a seven-year plus six-month sentence and Chou a three-year jail term. They would also be deprived of their civil rights for three years. As it was the first ruling in the case, the defendants can file an appeal. Prosecutors said that an investigation found accounting discrepancies, falsified receipts and purchasing figures that exceed council budgets. They said that Lin and Hsiao colluded with a contractor to siphon money from procurement programs, reportedly taking NT$2.37 million (US$85,448 at the current exchange rate) over three years. The judges said in the ruling that there was sufficient evidence of illegally moving public funds to private accounts. They convicted Lin on 180 counts and Hsiao on five counts of corruption and other charges. The previous mayor, Lin Ya-chun (林亞?), who is also a KMT member, was in April 2017 sentenced to 16 years in prison for siphoning off nearly NT$10 million in government funds. Her sentence
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has declared an income of NT$1.25 billion (US$45.1 million) for fiscal 2020, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) declared income of NT$855.7 million for the fiscal year, a Ministry of the Interior report showed on Wednesday. The KMT declared an income of NT$1,250,077,726 and spending of NT$613,124,088, the report said. The remaining NT$636,953,638 is frozen under an administrative order by the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee, it said. A breakdown of the KMT’s income showed that NT$123 million came from donations, NT$400 million from subsidies and NT$83.95 million from membership fees, the report said. The KMT spent NT$1.04 billion during fiscal 2020, including NT$416 million on party affairs, and NT$628 million on rent, handling fees for real-estate sales and fines paid to the Executive Yuan, the report said. The KMT reported that it had borrowed NT$75 million for running the party, after it paid off NT$273,478,000 in debt, it said. Meanwhile, the DPP declared income of NT$855,668,585 and expenditure of NT$778,561,313, the report said. The DPP’s income included NT$456 million in membership fees and NT$397 million in donations, while its expenses were mainly wages and party affairs expenses. Political party’s asset declarations are published on the ministry’s Web site.
CLIMATE FLUCTUATIONS: With temperatures falling then rising between now and 2029, coupled with unpredictable rainfall, farmers are headed for several tough seasons
Pomelo production is to fluctuate wildly over the next decade, growing steadily until plummeting by 40 percent as climate change affects temperatures and rainfall, Greenpeace Taiwan said on Thursday. Taiwan produces an average of 74,000 tonnes of pomeloes per year with a steadily rising yield, averaging 13,000kg per hectare over the past five years, the environmental group said. However, Greenpeace climate change models using data from the Central Weather Bureau and the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Taiwan Climate Change Projection Information and Adaptation Knowledge Platform show dramatic fluctuations in production over the next decade, it said. If carbon emissions continue at their current pace, the two most important pomelo growing regions in the country — Tainan’s Madou District (麻豆) and Rueisui Township (瑞穗) in Hualien County — are to experience the worst production shocks in a century, it said. Unstable weather could reduce yield from a peak of about 17,900kg per hectare in 2024 to about 12,600kg per hectare by 2029, a decline of 40 percent over a five year period, Greenpeace said. The primary reason for this dramatic fluctuation is shown to be unstable low temperatures in June, with about 790kg per hectare lost for every 1°C of warming, it said. June is peak growing season for pomeloes, during which time fluctuations in daily temperatures have a significant effect on fruit development and output, Greenpeace East Asia campaigner Liu Yi-chun (劉羿君) said. From now until 2024, June temperatures are expected to fall, causing yields to climb, the group said. However, in the five years that follow, temperatures are expected to rise, resulting in a drop in production from 2024 to 2029, it added. This variation would directly affect growers’ income, with an oversupply in the next few years potentially tanking prices, followed by a collapse that would pose a challenge to supply and demand, it said. Aside from
Fact-based sexual health education is crucial to dispel misinformation, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday. “Taiwan’s youth can access all sorts of information on the Internet. It is important to provide them the correct information on sexuality and health, especially as the Internet abounds with misinformation,” Chen said in a keynote address at the 30th annual meeting of the Taiwan Association for Sexuality Education in Taipei. When Taiwan was a conservative, closed society, “sex education was a taboo,” he said, adding that this affected the chapters on health and sexuality in textbooks. However, he said that “society has opened up. Education on sexual health is now very important, and it should be included in public education for everyone.” Chen said that past attitutes also make some Taiwanese unable to speak about love. However, he said that public education can help people “express their love in open ways, which would be good for society as a whole.” Chen urged the association and sexual health experts to draft teaching materials, including videos, that could be published online. Such materials should address sexual abuse and empower victims to report incidents that could lead to prosecution, he said. National Taiwan Normal University vice president Sung Yao-ting (宋曜廷) said that teen pregnancy is a global social issue. “Taiwan also has to deal with it, so it is vital to have correct information,” Sung said. “We have to make consultation by sexual health experts available, which would improve people’s quality of life,” he added. Fu Jen Catholic University president Vincent Chiang (江漢聲), a physician, said that many patients at his clinic report having erectile dysfunction. “Although the functioning of the human sex organs gradually declines with age, maintaining an active love life is often more effective than taking pills or hormone supplements,” he said. Additional reporting by Jason Pan
The Miaoli County Government fined a COVID-19 quarantine hotel for poor sanitation and inadequate service, it said on Friday, after the Consumers’ Foundation publicized complaints about the venue. Guests who stayed at the hotel as part of their mandatory 14-day quarantines have lodged multiple complaints about the establishment, the foundation said. Neither the foundation nor the county government named the hotel. Guests complained of mold, cobwebs, roaches, ants, broken air-conditioning, a lack of room service at night and the hotel’s refusal to allow food delivery outside of certain hours, the foundation said. Some guests compared the meals at the hotel to prison food, while others complained of misleading advertisements that exaggerated the hotel’s quality of service, it said. The venue would bring shame to Taiwan if it was allowed to house foreign travelers during their quarantine period, foundation chairman Terry Huang (黃怡騰) said. Chen Shui-chu (陳水竹), a professor of tourism management at Chinese Culture University, said that the hotel should have offered premium services, as it charged guests NT$2,000 per night, which is equal to that of some four-star hotels. “The hotel might have caused the problems after downsizing too many staff members during the pandemic,” he said. The Ministry of Health and Welfare should provide clear guidelines for quarantine hotels to ensure that the money the government and guests pay is not spent on subpar service, he added. The Miaoli County Culture and Tourism Bureau said that inspectors were dispatched to evaluate the hotel in response to the complaints. The hotel did not meet sanitation standards on the first visit and the conditions did not improve to the inspectors’ satisfaction upon their second visit, the bureau said. The establishment was fined and its license to operate as a quarantine hotel is to be suspended from Thursday next week, it said. The bureau said that the hotel can reapply for a license
The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, also known as Weiwuying, is to present free and paid ticketed events for three days over the Double Ten National Day long weekend, Oct. 9 to 11, to celebrate its third anniversary, it said on Friday. “Since the opening of Weiwuying, it has overcome various challenges to connect people to the world through the arts,” Weiwuying general and artistic director Chien Wen-pin (簡文彬) said in a statement. “Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we continue to support public and performance arts groups — because culture and the arts are keys to the world — and introduce more Taiwanese artists to global audiences,” he said. The “Weiwuying Anniversary 3.0” continues the center’s tradition of opening its four venues and other spaces to the public, but will follow the government’s COVID-19 disease prevention guidelines by requiring all attendees to wear a mask, the statement said. The three-day event will begin with free “open house” events at its playhouse, including demonstrations of how a theater is operated and how a show is run. The arts center also plans an outdoor market between 4pm and 9pm over the three days. On the afternoon of Oct. 10, the center’s other venues — an opera house, concert hall and recital hall — will hold free performances, including two by the Diabolo Dance Theatre, two chamber music concerts and two “Let’s Opera” concerts, the center said. At 6pm, rapper Gil G and two Golden Melody Award winners — Waa Wei (魏如萱) and Julia Peng (彭佳慧) — are scheduled to sing at a free concert at Weiwuying’s outdoor theater, the arts center said. A free electronic music party featuring DJ Junior and DJ Cookie is to be held at the Banyan Plaza at 8:30pm on National Day, Oct. 10, it said. Free tickets to the indoor events will be available starting
An exhibition covering the Holocaust, organized by the Ministry of Education and Israel’s official Holocaust memorial, the Yad Vashem, opened in Tainan on Monday. The exhibition, “Shoah: How is It Humanly Possible?”, was organized with the help of the Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei and is showing at the National Tainan Girls’ Senior High School. It ends on Sept. 27. Speaking at an online seminar on the topic on Friday, Israeli Representative to Taiwan Omer Caspi said that he is a descendant of Russian Jews who escaped the Holocaust. He introduced Israel’s Holocaust education program to more than 80 educators in attendance. “As a Jew and an Israeli, helping the Taiwanese learn about this enormous tragedy is both an honor and duty, and I am glad to have partners to share this burden with me,” he said. School principal Cheng Wen-yi (鄭文儀) said the Holocaust is a subject of great importance and thanked Israel’s representative office for providing historical documents and images for the exhibit. Students are to take part in classes and discussions after viewing the exhibition, he said. The organizers said that another seminar to educate high-school students about the Holocaust through Web-based resources was scheduled for Sunday next week. It is to feature speakers such as David Deutch, who heads the international seminars in English program at the Yad Vashem, and Su Feng-nan (蘇峰楠), a research fellow at the National Museum of Taiwan History.
SEVERE ILLNESS: Salty and fatty foods popular at holidays are too rich for cats and dogs, leaving them with often fatal symptoms, experts warn
Do not feed table scraps from your Mid-Autumn Festival feast to your pets, the New Taipei City Animal Protection and Quarantine Office warned yesterday. This year’s holiday, to be celebrated on Tuesday, customarily involves barbecuing, drinking beer and watching the full moon with family members and friends. Though cats and dogs might beg to take part in the feast, barbecued food is usually too rich for their blood, office director Yang Shu-fang (楊淑方) said. Foods such as marinated or smoked meats and barbecue sauces are too salty and fatty for the canine and feline kidney, which could lead to kidney problems, she said. Pomeloes, a seasonal fruit and frequently enjoyed during the festival, could cause severe digestive reactions in cats and dogs, such as vomiting and diarrhea, she said. Cats are especially sensitive to the olfactory chemicals in pomeloes and could become sickend by it through touch, while accidental ingestion might cause acute and potentially fatal liver damage, she said. Although photographs of pomelo peels on the heads of cats or dogs are popular on the Internet, Yang said that people should not do this. Grapes are another autumn fruit that could result in adverse digestive reactions in pets, she said, adding that owners should keep them away from cats and dogs. Scallions, leeks and garlic are sulfide-containing herbs that are frequently utilized in food preparation, but can destroy the red blood cells of cats and dogs, she said. Ingestion of the substance could lead to bloody urine, vomiting, diarrhea and fever, any of which could last for days and could result in death, she said. Huang Ting-hsuan (黃亭瑄), a veterinarian at a municipal animal shelter in Banciao District (板橋), said that although appropriate amounts of fruits and vegetables are good for pet health, too much could result in digestive blockage.
Guitarist Liu Hsiu-chi (劉修齊) of the indie band Bisui Group (美秀集團) was last week questioned by Taipei prosecutors after police allegedly found an e-cigarette device suspected to contain cannabis extract during a roadside check. Prosecutors released Liu after he was questioned on Sept. 10. However, the matter remains pending, as investigators review the result of a urine test, which would check for the presence of various drugs. Police quote Liu as saying that he did not know there was an e-cigarette device in his vehicle, adding that it was given to him by fans and he was unaware of its contents. Liu could be charged with contravening the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), depending on the results of the urine analysis. Under the act, cannabis is a Category 2 narcotic, a classification that also includes opium and amphetamines. Formed in 2016, Bisui Group is a Chiayi County-based quintet, known for their retro-Taiwanese rock sound infused with electro-pop elements, with songs performed in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese). The group has earned positive reviews and gained a large following. The title track of their 2018 album King of Light (電火王) won Best Rock Song at the 2019 Golden Indie Music Awards. The incident, along with several other cases of people being cited with possession of cannabis, has sparked discussion among young people and advocates who seek to decriminalize cannabis in Taiwan.
Police drug detection dogs sit by their handlers in Kaohsiung yesterday. The sniffer dog team’s work is overseen by the Kaohsiung City Government’s Department of Substance Abuse, Control and Prevention.
Olympic gold medalist weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun, front row center, wearing a black mask, whose Amis name is Tana, is presented with a commemorative wooden plaque while visiting her home neighborhood of Malan (Farangaw) in Taitung City yesterday.
People haul a float designed in the image of the fire god at the launch of the annual month-long Guanziling Hot Spring Food Festival in Tainan’s Baihe District yesterday.
MUTUAL GOODWILL: Taiwan is to donate 10,000 pulse oximeters and 1,008 oxygen concentrators to Japan, which has pledged to send Taiwan 500,000 additional vaccines
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported two local and six imported cases of COVID-19, but no deaths. The two local cases reside in Taipei, a woman in her 70s and another one in her 20s, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is also the CECC spokesman, told a news briefing in Taipei. The woman in her 70s was in a hospital on Wednesday for surgery and tested positive yesterday. A person who had contact with her has been asked to quarantine at home, Chuang said. The woman in her 20s was tested for COVID-19 because she needed to accompany her mother to hospital. Although her boyfriend and two relatives contracted the disease in May, the woman was not tested for COVID-19 at the time, even though she reported having cold symptoms, Chuang said. She tested negative for the virus on Friday last week, but another test on Wednesday was positive, with a cycle threshold (CT) value of 33, he said. The source of her infection is still under investigation, and eight people who had contact with her are required to quarantine at home, he said. The six imported cases are four Taiwanese returning from the US, Indonesia and Malaysia; a Lithuanian arriving from Lithuania; and an Indonesian arriving from Indonesia, CECC data showed. Four of them had received Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines, Chuang said. Chuang also shared the genome sequencing results of 11 cases that are part of the 41 imported cases reported between Friday last week and Thursday. All had the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, with eight showing no symptoms, CECC data showed. Taiwan has recorded a total of 149 infections by the Delta variant, including 43 local cases, Chuang said. As of Thursday, 11,536,036 people — or about 49 percent of the nation’s population — have received a first shot
People who barbecue in Taipei’s riverside parks during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday would be fined up to NT$6,000, the Taipei Public Works Department said on Thursday. Barbecuing during this year’s holiday, which is from Saturday to Tuesday, would for the first time be banned, due to COVID-19 concerns, the department said. Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) on Wednesday said that barbecuing in public spaces is in general forbidden, with the exception of riverside parks during the annual holiday. However, that would also be forbidden this year, as the city seeks to limit large gatherings to curb the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2. The department on Thursday said that those who are found barbecuing in riverside parks would be fined NT$1,200 to NT$6,000 on the spot, based on the Taipei City Park Management Ordinance. However, there is doubt over whether fines would be widely enforced. Earlier this week, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said that it would be impossible for police to patrol all the city’s riverside parks all night. Huang also said that barbecuing in privately owned, but publicly used spaces, including many of the city’s roofed sidewalks, is not banned. She urged people who are planning to barbecue in such a space to observe social distancing, or instead consider having a meal indoors. Local governments, except for those in the outlying islands of Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu, have also banned barbecuing in public spaces during the holiday. The New Taipei City and Keelung City governments have urged people to also refrain from barbecuing on privately owned sidewalks where the ban does not apply.
‘APOLITICAL’: Chen Ting-fei said her engagement is not comparable to that of Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen, who was fined for playing a role in a TV drama
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) yesterday said she has obtained broadcast regulators’ approval to play the sea goddess Matsu (媽祖) in a TV drama. Chen wrote on Facebook that she and the production team of Formosa TV’s Taiwan New Mysteries had been granted approval from the National Communications Commission (NCC). Local media reported that filming for the show earlier this week began at the Tainan Grand Matsu Temple (台南大天后宮). Elected officials are subject to greater scrutiny when they appear in TV shows, which is as it should be, Chen said. Before accepting the role, she consulted laws and regulations pertinent to the matter, Chen said. Citing the commission’s approval, Chen said that politicians are allowed to appear in a drama as long as their role is not designed to boost their political career. The commission highlighted that elected officials are barred from writing or editing a drama, she added. Responding to criticism that she allegedly received preferential treatment from the commission, Chen said that her case is not comparable to that of Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who was on Aug. 30 fined NT$200,000 for a cameo in a separate TV show. Lu played herself in the TVBS show Girl’s Power, while Chen has been cast to play a character different from her role as lawmaker, she said. “There is no double standard,” Chen added. The Taipei District Court has upheld Lu’s fine, saying that her appearance in the show in 2019 was intended to boost her as Taichung mayor and promote the Taichung Flora Expo. Her role had been added to the script at a late stage of the writing process, it added. In the finished script, the show’s protagonists incidentally meet Lu at their wedding and praise her for her good taste in men, which indicates that Lu’s appearance
Conservationists in Chiayi County have successfully bred more than 600 endangered tri-spine horseshoe crabs, setting a nationwide record. Chiayi County Commissioner Weng Chang-liang (翁章梁) and local officials on Tuesday visited the rearing facility in Budai Township (布袋) to commend the effort led by the Chiayi County Ecological Conservation Association. After many years absent from the township’s Haomeiliao Wetland (好美寮溼地), the county government in 2019 conducted a survey of the juvenile horseshoe crab population, finding a total of just 14 in two months, Weng said. The living fossil scientifically known as Tachypleus tridentatus has been in decline worldwide, and in 2019 was upgraded to endangered status by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The horseshoe crabs’ survival is at risk due to overfishing, marine pollution, habitat destruction and warming oceans, as they cannot regulate their body temperature. In Taiwan, where they were once abundant, juvenile horseshoe crabs can now only be spotted regularly in Kinmen and Penghu counties. Horseshoe crabs — which are thought to be more closely related to spiders and scorpions than to crabs — lay their eggs in nurseries on sandy beaches. After hatching, the larvae swim in the ocean for about six days before settling in shallow intertidal waters, where they feed at low tide. They mature after about two years, at which point they move a few kilometers offshore until it is time to reproduce. It was once difficult to find adults for breeding, and when they do mate, not many survive into adulthood, association secretary-general Su Yin-tien (蘇銀添) said. To increase the population, the county government this year notified fishers about the situation, urging them to send any adults of the species they catch to the association, Su said. Access to more breeding adults, as well as years of conservation experience, allowed the association to facilitate the mating, which produced more than 600 viable juveniles,
The online-only Jimuling T-Shirt Art Festival, to be held next month, is accepting T-shirt design proposals, the Northeast Coast and Yilan National Scenic Area Administration Office said on Thursday. Office director Ma Hui-ta (馬惠達) said that the terraced fields in New Taipei City’s Jimuling (雞母嶺) area have existed for more than a century and are part of its scenic allure. With the fields slowly being restored over the past few years to resemble their original state, the office is hosting the festival hoping that more tourists would visit the area and learn about its history. Sitting astride the northern route of the Danlan Historical Trail (淡蘭古道) and the Yang Tingli Historical Trail (楊廷理古道), Jimuling is home to a mountain hamlet best known for its 193 hectares of rice fields. Hsiao Hsue-yuan (蕭學苑) — an official at the Taiwan Art and Creativity Culture Foundation, which organizes the event — said that the festival would choose 100 designs to be printed on T-shirts that would be exhibited throughout the area. “The rice terraces will be our museum,” Hsiao said, adding that the event’s goal is to let T-shirt designs “tell the story” of the individual who submitted them. Applications would close on Sept. 30, and selected designs would be exhibited from Oct. 16 through Oct. 22, Hsiao said. Applicants whose designs are in the exhibition can register online to visit the area, which would be closed to the general public, Hsiao said. Instead, the exhibition would be held online, he added. Additional reporting by Tsai Ching-hua
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