■ Defense
Arms exchanges approved
The US House of Representatives on Friday authorized President George W. Bush to sell an Anchorage-class dock landing craft to Taiwan and step up exchanges between the US military and Taiwan's armed forces. In its National Defense Authorization Act for the fiscal year 2005, the House of Representatives also requires the secretary of defense to undertake an exchange program of senior military officers and civilian officials of the Department of Defense with Taiwan designed to improve the nation's defenses against China. These exchanges will focus on threat analysis, military doctrine, force planning, logistical support, intelligence collection and analysis, operational tactics, techniques, and procedures which relate to defending Taiwan against submarine and missile attacks.
■ Diplomacy
Yu seeking trade pacts
Premier Yu Shyi-kun said on Friday that the government is seeking to sign free trade agreements with the US, Japan and other countries. At a meeting with leaders of the country's six major business groups, Yu said that the free trade agreement signed between Taiwan and Panama last year has produced fruitful results. It is more important to sign similar accords with larger countries in terms of their economic scale, such as the US and Japan, he added. In addition to Beijing's obstruction, Yu said, various issues must be resolved before Taiwan can sign a free trade agreement with the US, including the protection of intellectual property rights, opening of telecommunications market, rice imports and pharmaceutical products. Yu assured the business leaders that his Cabinet would do its utmost to sign free trade accords with more countries and develop Taiwan into an international operations, logistics and capital-raising center.
■ Diplomacy
Fishery ties promised
The Marshall Islands' President Kessai Note said yesterday that he will continue to work to strengthen fishery cooperation between his country and Taiwan. Note and his wife, who paid a visit to Ching Fu Shipbuilding in Kaohsiung City's Cijin district, said they were very impressed with the deep-sea fishing ship Fongsian 668, which was recently built by Ching Fu Shipbuilding, the largest private shipbuilding company in Taiwan. The Marshall Islands have abundant fishery resources, and Taiwanese tuna boats have frequently anchored at its capital, Majuro, for supplies and maintenance since the signing of a fishery cooperation agreement in 1998. Note reiterated that he values the fishery cooperation between his country and Taiwan.
■ Diplomacy
Tuvalu PM visits Kaohsiung
Tuvalu Prime Minister Saufatu Sopoanga visited Kaohsiung Friday. Sopoanga, who attended President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) inauguration ceremony on Thursday, was warmly greeted by Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and leaders of the shipbuilding industry and the fishery sector. In addition to attending a luncheon party hosted by Hsieh and Wang Shun-lung (王順隆), president of the Taiwan Deep-Sea Tuna Boatowners and Exporters Association, Sopoanga toured shipbuilding and fish-processing companies. Tuvalu is one of the most important bases for Taiwan's fishing vessels in the South Pacific, with 33 fishing boats that are registered with the Taiwan Deep-Sea Tuna Boatowners and Exporters Association operating in its waters.
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