On Wednesday last week, US President Donald Trump swung the tariff sword and left the whole world crying out in pain. On Friday the Executive Yuan announced that it would allocate NT$88 billion (US$2.7 billion) to assist industrial and agricultural sectors impacted by the tariffs. However, the Chine
You wish every Taiwanese spoke English like I do.I was not born an anglophone, yet I am paid to write and speak in English. It is my working language and my primary idiom in private. I am more than bilingual: I think in English; it is my language now.Can you guess how many native English speakers I
Data show that dentistry programs at universities have better enrolment than programs for physicians. This issue has less to do with specific departments or medical specializations than it has to do with social attitudes toward medical professionals.In the past, doctors were accorded high social sta
A land of opportunityHaving read Brianne Winfried’s article (“Recognizing Taiwan’s true identity,” April 6, page 8), I strongly agree with her comment that Taiwan “is a thriving, innovative and independent force,” and that it should be recognized all around the world. Taiwan is also a land of opport
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The phrase “brain fog” has exploded in our collective lexicon in recent years, along with complaints and concerns about “senior moments,” forgotten names, lost items, an inability to focus and clouded thinking. To add to our common distress, a recent Bloomberg News explainer highlighted several stud
“Today we’re in one era, and tomorrow we’ll be in a different era,” US President Donald Trump loudly proclaimed from the White House Rose Garden, as he hiked US tariffs to their highest level since 1909. “No one’s done anything quite like this.”Not true.On Oct. 1, 1949, then-Chinese Communist Party
Taiwan on Monday celebrated Freedom of Speech Day. The commemoration is not an international day, and was first established in Tainan by President William Lai (賴清德) in 2012, when he was mayor of that city. The day was elevated to a national holiday in 2016 by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). Lai c
Belgium is one of the most reliable allies when it comes to defending and safeguarding Taiwan’s territorial integrity amidst authoritarian threats. The Belgian coalition government’s agreement, signed in February, included language supportive of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait a
This year marks the 14th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. On May 17, the No. 2 reactor unit at Pingtung County’s Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant is to be decommissioned as required by law, which would signal the formal farewell to nuclear power in
Monday was Taiwan’s Freedom of Speech Day, a day to commemorate the martyrdom of Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕) — the democracy advocate who self-immolated on the same date in 1989 — and honor him for insisting that Taiwanese have the right to advocate for Taiwan’s independence and the establishment of a const
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When fears of crisis loom, some people reach for the Kindleberger spiral. The original was a wonky, awkwardly scaled spiderweb showing the collapse of global trade from 1929 to 1933, accelerating after the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was passed by the US Congress in June 1930 — in tandem with the Great
The imposition of aggressive US tariffs has been greeted with a surplus of strong reactions, almost none of them good. Bewilderment and dismay are among the more sanitized responses from trading partners of the US.To their great disappointment, Washington’s friends have not been spared, even those w
The export landscape for Taiwan is expected to change drastically after US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs take effect tomorrow. That is because Trump is to impose higher-than-expected levies on Taiwan and China, and hefty tariffs on countries under local firms’ “China Plus One” invest
In the late 19th century, as China, Japan and Korea faced growing pressure from Western powers, they grappled with a question: Should “unequal treaties” be accepted as a temporary cost of survival, or resisted at all costs to defend national sovereignty? Behind that laid a deeper question — can a na
In 2016, then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) introduced the New Southbound Policy (NSP) to reduce Taiwan’s economic dependence on China by strengthening ties with Southeast Asia, South Asia and Australia. Initially focused on trade, investment and people-to-people ties, the policy was upgraded to “NSP
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) in a recent party central standing committee meeting said that the KMT is pro-US, but seeks peace with China. What Chu means is that the party “does not oppose the Chinese Communist Party [CCP].” The party’s youth corps has likewise said that t
EDITORIAL CARTOON
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