POLITICS
Tsai makes Swiss list
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has been listed as one of five “women we will talk about in 2023” by Swiss media. The article published on Tuesday by 24 Heures and La Tribune de Geneve described Tsai as a “president who dares to confront Beijing.” Tsai did not hesitate to link Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to Taiwan’s situation and reiterate that there is no room for compromise when defending democracy, the article said, adding that her words would be of great importance as next year’s presidential election approaches. It also noted her achievements as Taiwan’s first female president and in overseeing the legalization of marriage equality in 2019. The other women named were Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, US Vice President Kamala Harris and British Queen Consort Camilla Parker Bowles.
CRIME
Man nabbed over fake bills
A courier in Changhua County was on Wednesday arrested after 207 counterfeit banknotes of varying amounts were allegedly seized from his vehicle and home a day earlier, local police said yesterday. Two NT$1,000, five NT$500 and 200 NT$100 fake bills were discovered at the residence of the man, surnamed Lai (賴), in Dacun Township (大村) by police, who acted on a tip-off received on Tuesday. Lai told police that he spent NT$4,698 to buy 660 counterfeit banknotes online in November and that he had been giving customers the notes as change over the past three months. Police estimated that as of Wednesday, Lai might have racked up about NT$40,000 in illegal gains. At least four people had been known to have received fake bills, they said.
HEALTH
COVID-19 cases down 20%
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 18,414 COVID-19 infections, including 390 imported cases, and 48 deaths. The number of cases dropped 20.4 percent from the same day a week earlier, it said. The deceased ranged in age from their 40s to their 90s. All but six had underlying health issues, while 27 of them were not vaccinated against COVID-19, the CECC said. New Taipei City reported the highest number of new cases with 3,775, followed by Kaohsiung with 2,164 and Taichung with 2,145. Taoyuan reported 1,989 new cases, Taipei 1,917, Tainan 1,518, Changhua County 731, Hsinchu County 576, Hsinchu City 486, Miaoli County 426, Yunlin County 358, Keelung 354, Pingtung County 342 and Yilan County 245. Chiayi County had 231 cases, Hualien County 208, Nantou County 205, Chiayi City 139, Taitung County 96, Kinmen County 72, Penghu County 33 and Lienchiang County 14, the CECC said.
FOOD
Instant noodles seized
A shipment of instant noodles from South Korea was seized at the border, after being found to contain residue of a banned disinfectant, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Tuesday. A total of 1,128kg of Nongshim Shin Ramyun noodles with tofu and kimchi imported by Shing Her International was confiscated after sample testing on Dec. 9 detected 0.075mg/kg of ethylene oxide in the product’s seasoning sachets, the FDA said. Ethylene oxide, a widely used industrial product, is banned in foods in Taiwan, as it is classified as a first-class carcinogen. Long-term exposure can increase the risk of cancer and cause central nervous or peripheral neuropathy, it said. The Nongshim Shin Ramyun noodles would either be returned to the country of origin or destroyed, it added.
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