CRIME
Fake banknotes reported
Police yesterday said they had received information about counterfeit NT$100 (US$3.29) banknotes in Yunlin County and were working to trace the source of the bills. Police said they had received word that businesses in a traditional market in Beigang Township (北港) had been given fake NT$100 bills all bearing the serial number CQ281880VJ. A task force would investigate the incident, police said. A vendor who received two of the notes at once said they had an “unusual texture” and identical serial numbers, police said. A resident wrote on social media that they also received fake banknotes while buying seafood at the market, police said. The reports follow an announcement on Wednesday that bogus NT$1,000 banknotes had been seized in the county.
HEALTH
Chinese positivity drops
The COVID-19 positivity rate among arrivals from China dropped to 11.8 percent on Wednesday, likely due to an easing of the pandemic across the Strait, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, adding that the data indicated there would be three waves of infections among them. On Wednesday, 201 of the 1,685 arrivals from China tested positive, down from one-quarter on Jan. 1, the CECC said. The first wave was among people from cities in China, while a second would likely arise after the Lunar New Year as city residents infect people in rural areas of China, it said, adding that there would be a reflected wave from rural to urban.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
President offers condolences
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday visited the Holy See’s apostolic nunciature in Taipei, where she offered condolences over the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Tsai, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and Stefano Mazzotti, the Vatican’s charge d’affaires at its Taiwan mission, made the visit together, the Presidential Office said in a statement. Tsai wrote: “May the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, whose humanity has a constant place in all our hearts, rest in eternal peace; and may the longstanding friendship between Taiwan and the Vatican remain firm and enduring,” the office said. Benedict passed away on Dec. 31.
SOCIETY
McDonald’s ordered to pay
A McDonald’s restaurant in Kaohsiung has been ordered to pay NT$4.72 million to the family of a 23-year-old employee who died several months after collapsing in a walk-in freezer. The Kaohsiung District Court said in its ruling on Wednesday last week that the part-time employee, surnamed Lee (李), had fainted while moving an estimated 1.1 tonnes of food for 40 minutes between the kitchen and the fifth-floor freezer of the Yixin branch of McDonald’s on May 29, 2021. Lee was taken to hospital in a taxi with help from the store manager and other employees, but died nearly four months later on Oct. 5 after a brain hemorrhage and entering septic shock. The Bureau of Labor Insurance initially said the incident was not work-related, determining that Lee had died due to “spontaneous intracranial hemorrhage combined with communicating hydrocephalus.” However, Lee’s parents sought NT$10.05 million from the McDonald’s branch to cover medical, funeral and other costs, accusing the employer of negligence and failure to comply with safety standards. The court ruled that there was a causal relationship between the work Lee had done on the day of his collapse and his death. The ruling can be appealed.
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