CRIME
Coast guard escorts boat
The Yu Fu Chuen No. 1 fishing boat returned to Kaohsiung Port under coast guard escort yesterday after the captain called for help, saying he was being threatened by one of his crewmembers. The fisherman’s association in Donggang (東港), Pingtung County, where the boat is registered, said it received a call on Wednesday last week from the captain, surnamed Tsai (蔡), who reported that one of his Philippine crewmembers had threatened to kill him. Tsai said the threat was made after he intervened in a quarrel between two of the seven crewmembers, all Philippine nationals. The vessel was located at about 17o N, 127o E in Philippine waters at the time, Tsai said. The Coast Guard Administration said it dispatched a vessel that reached the fishing boat on Thursday night and found that Tsai had locked himself in the cabin after the incident. The coast guard escorted the boat back to Taiwan after apprehending the crewman.
SOCIETY
More dragon babies born
The number of babies born in the first quarter of this year, the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, increased by 17 percent compared with the same period last year, the Ministry of the Interior said. During the first three months, 52,079 babies were born, with the birthrate reaching nine births per 1,000 people, about the same level as in 2005, ministry statistics showed. Over the past decade, the nation’s birthrate has plummeted to the lowest in the world. In 2003, the birthrate was 1.23 births per woman, with the figure dropping to 0.89 in 2010, the lowest in the world. Ministry statistics showed that during the first quarter, 50,184 babies, or 96.36 percent of the total number of newborns, were born to married couples and 1,891 babies, or 3.63 percent, were born to unmarried parents.
SOCIETY
Pageant to fine bad girls
Amid a recent surge in reports over celebrities having extramarital affairs, the host organization of this year’s Miss Globalcity Taiwan Pageant took measures to prevent any of its contestants from becoming a “home wrecker.” Globalcity Pageant Association, which is currently taking in applications from young women nationwide, is demanding aspirants to sign an affidavit declaring that they would refuse to take part in an extramarital affair. Meanwhile, the association has also applied for “relationship harassment insurance” for all of its contestants. If a contestant is found to have engaged in an extramarital affair, the insurance company will have to pay compensation to the association.
DIPLOMACY
Japan to honor Taiwanese
Four Taiwanese will be decorated with honors by the Japanese government on May 8 at the Tokyo Imperial Palace, Japan’s representative office in Taiwan said yesterday. Evergreen Group chairman Chang Yung-fa (張榮發) and Chinatrust Financial Holding Co chairman Jeffrey Koo (辜濂松) will be decorated with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star for their contribution to Japan-Taiwan relations. Tsai Hsueh-ni (蔡雪泥), president of the Sino-Ryukyuan Cultural and Economic Association, will be decorated with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette and Pu Wu-hsiung (蒲武雄), a former employee of the Japanese representative office in Taiwan, will receive the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays medal.
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