DIPLOMACY
AIT shuffle unconfirmed
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday declined to confirm media reports that US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Sandra Oudkirk this year is likely to assume the post of Washington’s top envoy in Taiwan. Reports said that Oudkirk would take over as director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), replacing Brent Christensen. Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said that it has no comment on US personnel appointments in Taiwan. AIT spokeswoman Amanda Mansour said that her office does not have any personnel announcements at this time.
SEISMICITY
Quake strikes in south
A magnitude 4 earthquake struck off southeastern Taiwan at 1:50pm yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau reported. No damage or injuries were immediately reported. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 29.2km southwest of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 24.1km, the Seismology Center said. The earthquake’s highest intensity, which gauges its actual effect, was the highest in Taitung, where it measured 3 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the bureau said.
WEATHER
Heat alert issued
The Central Weather Bureau yesterday issued a heat alert for Tainan and Kaohsiung, with daytime temperatures reaching a maximum of 36°C. Summer-like highs for some inland areas and valleys in the two cities triggered a yellow alert for a one-day temperature high of 36°C based on the bureau’s three-level heat advisory system, it said. The warm weather is forecast to continue until tomorrow, when a moderate seasonal northeasterly wind system is expected to arrive in northern Taiwan, sending daytime temperatures down to 24°C, the bureau said. The temperature in northern areas could fall as low as 20°C on Monday, it said.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Weather stations completed
Two of 16 weather stations planned along Provincial Highway No. 61 have been completed, the Directorate-General of Highways said on Wednesday. The two new stations are in Yunlin and Chiayi counties on the 301.86km highway, the agency said. The establishment of the stations follows a deadly 20-vehicle pileup in Chiayi County on Feb. 21 that led to a Ministry of Transportation and Communications decision on March 4 to spend NT$3.5 billion (US$122.66 million) to improve road safety on the highway. The ministry also plans to install monitoring equipment such as CCTV and vehicle detectors along the coastal highway linking New Taipei City and Tainan, it said.
SOCIETY
Kaohsiung fireworks planned
Double Ten National Day fireworks are to return to Kaohsiung on Oct. 10 for the first time in 20 years, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said on Monday. The previous time the event was held in the city was in 2000, when the display was organized for the first time outside of Taipei, Chen wrote on Facebook. At the time, the city revamped an abandoned warehouse for the occasion. The site on the periphery of Kaohsiung Port is now the Pier-2 Art Center, which provides an open space for artists, workshops and exhibitions. The National Day fireworks will be the pride of Kaohsiung residents and for Taiwan as a whole, Chen said, adding that the event would help shine a light on the city’s urban development.
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