Sat, Jan 24, 2026
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday offered to talk with Ukraine about a crackdown on sanctions-busting arms after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy named Taiwan as a source of illicit missile components.Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Taiwan has continued updating export controls to s
TAIWAN-EU BOND: The resolutions condemned China’s attempt to change the ‘status quo’ and called on EU members to deepen relationships with Taiwan Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday welcomed the European Parliament’s passage of two resolutions that express concern over China’s threat to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and support deepening multifaceted Taiwan-EU cooperation and exchanges. The European Parli
The Kremlin early yesterday said the “territorial issue” remained unresolved after Russian President Vladimir Putin held late-night talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on the latest peace plan for ending Russia’s war on Ukraine.There is “no hope of achieving a long-term settlement”
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday dissolved the lower house of parliament, paving the way for an early election on Feb. 8.The move is an attempt to capitalize on her popularity to help the governing party regain ground after major losses over the past few years, but it would delay par
THIRTY-EIGHT PROGRAMS: The Cabinet said the opposition was seeking funding for programs it prioritized, while the TPP accused the DPP of a policy about-face Civil servants would face problems administering the 38 projects fast-tracked in a motion by opposition parties, who have now stalled the general budget for 147 days, Cabinet officials said yesterday.Meanwhile, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) urged opposition parties to review and deliberate
‘COMMITTED TO DETERRENCE’: Washington would stand by its allies, but it can only help as much as countries help themselves, Raymond Greene said The US is committed to deterrence in the first island chain, but it should not bear the burden alone, as “freedom is not free,” American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said in a speech at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s “Strengthening Resilience: Defense as th
STALEMATE: KMT and TPP lawmakers again demanded that the president appear before the legislature and answer inquiries, despite it being ruled unconstitutional The Legislative Yuan yesterday blocked the review of a Cabinet-proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.6 billion) special defense budget.An agenda proposed by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus containing a special provision on the legal parameters of the budget was voted down by lawmaker
WHOLE-OF-SOCIETY RESILIENCE: Reservists are vital to dealing with China’s ‘gray zone’ threats and natural disaster risks, the defense minister said Taiwan’s annual Han Kuang military exercises are set to begin in the spring, with sources saying that the duration of the drills might be extended again.In July last year, the military’s 41st annual exercises involved 10 days and nine nights of live-troop drills, compared with previous drills that l
The US Congress, across party lines, continues to support Taiwan’s sovereignty and independence, and opposes any form of public or covert coercion aimed at hindering other countries from engaging with Taiwan in a responsible manner, visiting US Senator Ruben Gallego said in Taipei yesterday.Speaking
This year could see the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) undertaking “more aggressive, ambitious operations around Taiwan,” in preparation for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) stated goal that the PLA would have the capability to invade Taiwan by next year, Global Taiwan Institute (GTI) di
GAME CHANGER Replacing a tunnel under the Beigang River from the colonial era, the aqueduct bridge will link two irrigation networks, reducing the risk of water shortages The nation’s first cable-stayed aqueduct bridge has been constructed over the Beigang River (北港溪). It is expected to provide 70 million tonnes of water for irrigation each year by integrating the separate irrigation networks in Yunlin and Chiayi counties and Tainan.The bridge is the Ministry of Agri
UNDER INVESTIGATION Police said the driver was breath tested at the scene and was not under the influence, but the cause of the crash is still being looked into A news van of Sanlih E-Television (SET-TV) News crashed into a Changhua Bank branch on the corner of Yijiang Street and Nanjing E Road in Taipei yesterday afternoon, injuring 10 people, including three who were being treated for severe injuries at press time last night.Preliminary investigations con
Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) yesterday issued an advisory urging passengers not to use power banks in the metro system, a week after a battery caught fire, causing a panic on the Blue Line.A passenger put out the fire by using a fire extinguisher, while 450 other people switched trains, the TRTC
American climber Alex Honnold is to attempt a free climb of Taipei 101 today at 9am, with traffic closures around the skyscraper.To accommodate the climb attempt and filming, the Taipei Department of Transportation said traffic controls would be enforced around the Taipei 101 area. If weather condit
Team Taiwan on Wednesday won the Team Champion award at the Federation Cynologique Internationale (FCI) World Grooming Competition held in the Philippines. It is their second team grooming title in recent months. The team was organized by the Kennel Club of Taiwan (KCT), an organization long dedicat
ROSY OUTLOOK: The manufacturing production index this year is expected to keep benefiting from demand for tech, including chip packaging, an official said Industrial production expanded 16.7 percent year-on-year last year, driven by growth in semiconductor, electronics and computers production, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.The manufacturing production index — which accounts for 94.63 percent of the overall industrial production inde
Intel Corp shares plunged as much as 14 percent in late trading after chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) gave a lackluster forecast and warned that the chipmaker was struggling with manufacturing problems.First-quarter projections for revenue and earnings fell well short of Wall Street estimat
E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) yesterday won shareholder approval to acquire Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽), clearing a major hurdle in the largest transaction in the bank-led group’s history and advancing its long-standing ambition to become a fully diversified financial conglomerate.The p
A survey released on Wednesday by the Taiwan Inspiration Association (TIA) offered a stark look into public feeling on national security. Its results indicate concern over the nation’s defensive capability as well as skepticism about the government’s ability to safeguard it.Slightly more than 70 per
An elderly mother and her daughter were found dead in Kaohsiung after having not been seen for several days, discovered only when a foul odor began to spread and drew neighbors’ attention. There have been many similar cases, but it is particularly troubling that some of the victims were excluded fro
Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Randhir Jaiswal told a news conference on Jan. 9, in response to China’s latest round of live-fire exercises in the Taiwan Strait: “India has an abiding interest in peace and stability in the region, in view of our trade, economic, people-to-people and m
Taiwanese FORTUNES: Wu Fang-hsien and Hsieh Su-wei both advanced to the last 16 of the women’s doubles, but Ray Ho was ousted in the men’s doubles Carlos Alcaraz yesterday stepped up his quest to win a maiden Australian Open as he overwhelmed showman Corentin Moutet to reach the last 16, while Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien and Hsieh Su-wei both advanced to the last 16 of the women’s doubles.Three-time finalist Daniil Medvedev battled through on day s
Aston Villa on Thursday secured their place in the last 16 of the UEFA Europa League with a 1-0 win at Fenerbahce, while Nottingham Forest slid to a costly defeat away to SC Braga.Celtic blew a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with Bologna and leave their qualification hopes hinging on next week’s final ro
Powerhouse Australian sprinter Sam Welsford yesterday stormed home from well back for his seventh stage win in the Tour Down Under as Jay Vine remained the overall race leader.Welsford looked out of contention back in the peloton as the dash to the finish line developed in Nairne at the end of the 1
The Philadelphia 76ers, fueled by 36 points from Tyrese Maxey and a triple-double from Joel Embiid, on Thursday beat the Houston Rockets 128-122 in an NBA overtime thriller.Cameroonian big man Embiid scored 32 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and handed out 10 assists, posting the ninth triple-double of
‘JUST IN CASE’: The US has moved more military assets toward the Mideast, including the aircraft carrier USS ‘Abraham Lincoln’ and its associated warships, as tensions rise The toll in Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests has killed at least 5,002 people, activists said yesterday, warning that many more were feared dead as the most comprehensive Internet blackout in the country’s history crossed the two-week mark.The challenge in getting information out of Ir
Japanese punk rock lawyer Akihiro Shima belted out songs at a packed bar in Tokyo, sporting a mohawk and bright-red jacket, nine days after filing a landmark climate lawsuit.The 63-year-old rallied over 450 plaintiffs across Japan last month in a landmark lawsuit seeking damages from the central gov
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad.The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion wo
As Taiwan’s second most populous city, Taichung looms large in the electoral map. Taiwanese political commentators describe it — along with neighboring Changhua County — as Taiwan’s “swing states” (搖擺州), which is a curious direct borrowing from American election terminology. In the early post-Martia
Towering high above Taiwan’s capital city at 508 meters, Taipei 101 dominates the skyline.The earthquake-proof skyscraper of steel and glass has captured the imagination of professional rock climber Alex Honnold for more than a decade. Tomorrow morning, he will climb it in his signature free solo st
A team of scientists announced Tuesday they have developed new deep-sea landers specifically to test their contentious discovery that metallic rocks at the bottom of the ocean are producing “dark oxygen.”If a previously unknown source of oxygen has always been lurking in Earth’s depths, it would rep
People use far more than just spoken language to communicate. Apart from using our voices to pronounce words, we also use body language, which includes countless facial expressions. Most people know that smiles and frowns indicate pleasure and displeasure, or that wide eyes with raised eyebrows typi
A: There are always adventurers who want to conquer Taipei 101 as a world-class landmark. Didn’t someone once parachute from the top of it?B: Yeah, that’s right. Austrian extreme sportsman Felix Baumgartner once parachuted from the rooftop observation deck in 2007 without permission. He died earli
A: Wow, US climber Alex Honnold has announced that he’s going to free-climb Taipei 101 on Jan. 24. And the challenge, titled “Skyscraper Live,” will be broadcast worldwide live on Netflix at 9am.B: Oh my goodness, Taipei 101 is the world’s tallest green building. Is he crazy?A: Honnold is actuall
Two moves show Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) is gunning for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) party chair and the 2028 presidential election. Technically, these are not yet “officially” official, but by the rules of Taiwan politics, she is now on the dance floor. Earlier this month Lu confirmed in an interview in Japan’s Nikkei that she was considering running for KMT chair. This is not new news, but according to reports from her camp she previously was still considering the case for and against running. By choosing a respected, international news outlet, she declared it to the world. While the outside world likely paid little attention, domestically the message was unmistakable: She is moving on to a larger stage. Part of the dance is to leave options open before formally committing, and with the chair race due in late September, she has time. If something goes wrong in the meantime, or if power brokers in the party offer her a deal that provides more benefits than taking on the role of chair, she can pivot accordingly. Earlier this year, I suggested that strategically, she would be better off concentrating on her job as Taichung mayor until she is term-limited out of office in December next year. Taichung mayor is obviously a full-time job, and concurrently running the Taipei-headquartered party runs the risk of doing one or both jobs poorly and making mistakes that could imperil her shot at the presidency in 2028. The situation has changed. Current KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), knowing he is likely to face challengers of a higher caliber than the three relative nobodies already declared, has gone all in on appealing to the base. The base is more likely to turn out to vote in the chair election, so this makes some strategic sense in the short term.
Among Thailand’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) villages, a certain rivalry exists between Arunothai, the largest of these villages, and Mae Salong, which is currently the most prosperous. Historically, the rivalry stems from a split in KMT military factions in the early 1960s, which divided command and opium territories after Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) cut off open support in 1961 due to international pressure (see part two, “The KMT opium lords of the Golden Triangle,” on May 20). But today this rivalry manifests as a different kind of split, with Arunothai leading a pro-China faction and Mae Salong staunchly aligned to Taiwan. Last spring at Arunothai’s Jiaolian School, principal Wang Mingming (王明明) had forewarned me of the division between villages, saying, “We are not like the people in Mae Salong. They are rich. Because of the Taiwanese.” Arunothai has in recent years become split in its loyalties between Taiwan and China (see part one, “A tale of two schools,” on May 15), but in Mae Salong, links to Taiwan remain strong. Taiwan-funded monuments pay homage to the Lost Army, villagers wear T-shirts emblazoned with the Republic of China (ROC) flag and tea plantations grown Taiwan’s most famous tea varieties, including Dong Ding (“frozen peak”) Oolong, Oriental Beauty and Jin Xuan (Golden Daylily or Milk Oolong). Even the numerical classifications of the teas — Oolong No. 12 or No. 17, for example — are the same, and the shops resemble those found on Alishan. At the tomb of General Tuan Hsi-wen (段希文) — perched on a Mae Salong hilltop with a view of his ancestral homeland in China’s Yunnan province — a third generation villager wearing a vintage KMT army uniform, Yan Si-Chung (岩思中), greets visitors with sharp military salutes. “Both my father and my grandfather were soldiers in the KMT army,” the 44-year-old
| New Taipei City | 27-28 | 20% |  |
| Hsinchu County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Hsinchu City | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Taipei City | 27-28 | 20% |  |
| Miaoli County | 24-26 | 10% | |
| Taoyuan City | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Keelung City | 27-28 | 20% | |
| Yunlin County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Taichung City | 26-28 | 10% | |
| Nantou County | 25-26 | 10% | |
| Changhua County | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Chiayi County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Chiayi City | 25-27 | 10% | |
| Tainan City | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Kaohsiung City | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Pingtung County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Yilan County | 25-26 | 30% |  |
| Hualien County | 25-26 | 30% | |
| Taitung County | 25-27 | 30% | |
| Kinmen County | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Penghu County | 27-27 | 20% | |
| Lienchiang County | 27-28 | 20% | |
RSS