■FINANCE
Amendment set for screening
The legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee will begin screening an amendment to a provision of the Civil Act this week to reduce the ceiling for the interest rate on revolving credit card debt from 20 percent to between 12 percent and 15 percent, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said yesterday. Hsieh, who introduced the amendment, said many banks in Taiwan charge customers between 18 percent and 20 percent on their revolving credit and cash cards. The interest rates on revolving credit-card debt are too high and should be lowered, he said. Citing statistics compiled by Taiwan’s Central Bank, he said it had reduced the benchmark interest rate a number of times in the past year and that the rate for savings deposits had been slashed to 1.84 percent per annum last March, while the lending rate also dropped to 3.5 percent. “With the banks’ current lending rate lowered further to less than 1 percent, bank executives will be acting against their consciences if they do not reduce the interest rate for revolving credit-card debt accordingly,” he said.
■ ARTS
Taipei to host oil paintings
Artist Liu Hsu-yuan (劉旭原) — winner of more than 30 international awards — will hold a solo oil painting exhibition starting on Wednesday at the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall in Taipei. Most of the works to be shown were completed while he was pursuing graduate studies at Fonbonne University in St Louis, Missouri, said Liu, now an art instructor at the continuing education centers of National Taiwan Normal University, Chinese Culture University and Shih Chien University. The exhibition, Take a Trip with Me, is intended to share his experience of the US through his paintings. The exhibition will be open daily from 9am through 6:30pm until March 29. Admission is free.
■ TOURISM
Big tour group on its way
The biggest group of Chinese tourists to visit the nation since the opening of direct transport links from the China last year are due to arrive in Keelung today. The 1,600-strong group left Shanghai by boat yesterday, the Central News Agency said. The visitors are all Chinese workers for the US direct selling giant Amway, which says it plans to send eight more groups from China. During the seven-day tour, they will visit tourist attractions including Taipei’s National Palace Museum, Sun Moon Lake and Taroko Gorge. The KMT government signed agreements with Beijing last June to launch regular direct flights and treble the number of Chinese allowed to visit Taiwan to 3,000 daily. Since then, daily arrivals have averaged only a few hundred, triggering opposition warnings that the KMT government should not rely too heavily on China for Taiwan’s economic stability.
■ SOCIETY
Aging index going up
The number of people aged 65 and over in Taiwan totaled 2,402,220 at the end of last year, accounting for 10.4 percent of the population, a report released on Saturday by the Ministry of the Interior said. The aging index — the number of people aged 65 and over per 100 people aged under 15 — stood at 61.5 at the end of last year, up from the 52.1 recorded in 2005 and 40.9 recorded in 2000, ministry statistics showed. The report said the graying of the country’s population has increased the demand for long-term care and nursing institutions for the elderly.
EVA Air is prohibiting the use of portable chargers on board all flights starting from Saturday, while China Airlines is advising passengers not to use them, following the lead of South Korean airlines. Current regulations prohibit portable chargers and lithium batteries from check-in luggage and require them to be properly packed in carry-on baggage, EVA Air said. To improve onboard safety, portable chargers and spare lithium batteries would be prohibited from use on all fights starting on Saturday, it said. Passengers are advised to fully charge electronic devices before boarding and use the AC and USB charging outlets at their seat, it said. South
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
RSS