SOCIETY
Four hurt in Miaoli blast
Four people were injured in a blast at a restaurant in Miaoli City yesterday morning, local firefighters said, although they were not immediately sure what caused the incident. The explosion took place at a beef noodle shop. Miaoli County Fire Bureau received a report of the incident at 10:18am. Three bystanders had severe burns, and the blast was so powerful that it sent shards of glass flying, cutting the leg of a vendor selling sweet potatoes across the street, firefighters said. The injured were sent to hospital, and firefighters were searching for clues as to what might have caused the explosion. Nearby residents said they heard a loud boom and thought it was thunder.
DIPLOMACY
Taipei donates to Guam
Taiwan on Friday donated US$200,000 to help the US island territory of Guam in the western Pacific with recovery efforts in the aftermath of Typhoon Mawar, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Guam said in a statement. The donation was presented at a ceremony on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by TECO Guam Office Director-General Paul Chen (陳盈連) to American Red Cross Guam Chapter CEO Chita Blaise. It is hoped the donation will help the people of Guam overcome the difficulties they face in the aftermath of the typhoon, Chen said. The US$200,000 donation by the government is the highest sum the Guam Chapter has received so far for Typhoon Mawar disaster relief, said Blaise and Denise Everhart, disaster executive at the American Red Cross Pacific Division.
TECHNOLOGY
Stanford opens Taiwan hub
The Taiwan Science & Technology Hub at Stanford University opened on Friday under the initiative of the National Science and Technology Council. Cooperation in semiconductor manufacturing and design between Taiwan and the US is expected to enhance economic security worldwide, in particular in the generative artificial intelligence era, Council Minister Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠) said in a speech at the opening ceremony. Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne said he expected the hub to serve as a bridge between Taiwan and the San Francisco Bay Area in technology resource integration. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) received a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford in 1964, while Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and Yahoo founder Jerry Yang (楊致遠), both of whom were born in Taiwan, also graduated from Stanford, Stanford School of Engineering dean Jennifer Widom said, adding that the Taiwan Science & Technology Hub would enable the list of such talent to grow.
SOCIETY
Ukraine orchestra in Taiwan
The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine is to perform in Taiwan for the first time from Sept. 11 to 13, highlighting musicians and composers from the country, the concert organizer said on Wednesday. The orchestra’s performances in Taichung, Kaohsiung and Taipei would be conducted by Volodymyr Sirenko, KHAM Inc said. All three concerts feature Ukrainian pianist Antonii Baryshevskyi, the first prize winner of the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 2014, KHAM said. When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year, the orchestra, founded in 1918, took a forced break, but resumed rehearsing and performing in April that year, KHAM said.
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