Robust days ahead, Hon Hai predicts

BEATING EXPECTATIONS: With electric vehicles and the metaverse on the horizon, the company predicts a solid first quarter as customers stockpile inventories Key iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) could achieve an “unprecedented” performance in the first quarter, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said. “Our performance in the first quarter might surpass how we fared in the past few years, and it is likely that some staff at key sites might only get two days off during the Lunar New Year holiday,” Liu said in prepared remarks for the company’s annual workers’ party yesterday. Manufacturers around the world are racing to build up inventory out of fear that outbreaks of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 and other uncertainties could further disrupt their supply chain. Earlier this month, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told analysts that he expects companies to maintain higher levels of inventory to ensure supply security. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), runs most of its manufacturing operations in China, which is to shut most offices and businesses for seven days starting on Jan. 31 for the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to being a key manufacturing partner to Apple Inc, the Taiwanese company also makes gadgets for global brands including Dell Technologies Inc, Sony Group Corp and Nintendo Co. Hon Hai has for the second year held an online annual event for the company’s employees due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s employees in more than 20 countries — including Taiwan, China, Vietnam and the US — joined the event online, the company said. Liu said the group earned record revenue of NT$5.94 trillion (US$214.42 billion) last year, up nearly 11 percent from 2020, while net profit in the first three quarters of the year rose 70 percent to NT$94.92 billion from the previous year, also a record high. Liu said that the next large projects Hon Hai plans to be involved in are electric vehicles and

Economic gains keep unemployment rate on decline

INDUSTRIAL-SECTOR GAINS: Employment rose with 3,000 new jobs while services and industry grew, as the economy recovers from last year’s local COVID-19 outbreak The nation’s unemployment rate last month fell for the sixth consecutive month, shedding 0.02 percentage points to 3.64 percent, as business activity continued to improve, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said on Saturday. After seasonal adjustments, the unemployment rate stood at 3.72 percent, up 0.01 percentage points from November, DGBAS data showed. Last month, the number of people who lost their jobs fell by 3,000, or 0.66 percent, from a month earlier to 433,000, while the number of employed people rose by 3,000, or 0.03 percent, to 11.48 million, with the labor participation rate at 59.16 percent, up 0.05 percentage points month-on-month, the DGBAS said. As the spread of COVID-19 eased, the number of people who lost their jobs due to business downsizing or closures fell by 2,000 from a month earlier, it said. Taiwan’s unemployment rate averaged 3.95 percent last year, up 0.10 percentage points year-on-year as a domestic COVID-19 outbreak in May last year affected the labor market, the DGBAS said. The number of unemployed people averaged 471,000 monthly, down 11,000, or 2.39 percent, from a year earlier, it said. The labor participation rate averaged 59.02 percent last year, down 0.12 percentage points year-on-year, the DGBAS said. Last month, the number of people employed in the industrial and service sectors rose 0.08 percent and 0.03 percent respectively from a month earlier, while the number of people employed in the agricultural sector fell 0.41 percent, the data showed. The service sector last year accounted for 59.81 percent of employed people in Taiwan, the DGBAS said. Over the past decade, the ratio of people employed in the service sector to the total number of employed rose 1.21 percentage points, but the ratio of those employed in industrial and agricultural sectors fell 0.89 percentage points and 0.33 percentage points respectively. The unemployment rate among those with

Wind energy project to cost NT$3bn

Ming Rong Yuan New Energy Co (Ming Rong Yuan NE, 銘榮元新能源) has pledged NT$3 billion (US$108.3 million) to build a research, production and storage base for underwater jacket foundations and renewable energy facilities at the Port of Kaohsiung after the InvesTaiwan Service Center approved its application to participate in the government’s incentive programs, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Saturday. The company, a subsidiary of pressure equipment maker Ming Rong Yuan Business Co Ltd (銘榮元實業), was established in June last year to focus on the production of jacket foundations for offshore wind farms. Ming Rong Yuan NE in October last year completed the construction of a factory in Pingtung County’s Sinyuan Township (新園) to produce tubular steel for jacket foundations and expects to begin full operation in the second quarter of this year, its Web site says. The company has formed a technological partnership with Smulders Projects Belgium NV, and seeks to develop its manufacturing capacity and technical base as it looks at offshore wind business opportunities in Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia, the ministry said in a statement. The investment comes as President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration promotes offshore wind farms as part of its plans to expand renewable energy generation while phasing out nuclear power in Taiwan by 2025. The government plans to have 20 percent of the nation’s electricity generated from renewable energy sources by 2025, including 5.7 gigawatts (GW) from offshore wind power. It also plans to source an additional 15GW from offshore wind farms from 2026 to 2035, the Bureau of Energy has said. “At this critical moment of the nation’s energy transition, Ming Rong Yuan NE aims to meet the needs of domestic green energy markets, as well as prepare for overseas markets in the medium and long term,” the ministry said. Six other companies were also approved by

EDITORIAL: R&D cuts leave nation lagging

Numbers might not lie, but they do not necessarily tell the whole truth. Such is the case with the Ministry of Science and Technology’s National Science and Technology Survey for 2020, released on Dec. 30. It touted that overall technological research and development (R&D) spending was NT$718.8 billion (US$25.95 billion), up 8.8 percent over 2019 and exceeding NT$700 billion for the first time, while the ratio of R&D spending to GDP rose to a record 3.63 percent. R&D is vital to maintaining a country’s industrial competitiveness, which is why R&D spending in Taiwan has increased annually, rising substantially from NT$307 billion in 2006. Most of it came from the corporate sector, which increased its proportion of total R&D spending from 67.2 percent in 2006 to 82.5 percent in 2020, when it spent NT$593.36 billion. Government R&D spending fell from 31.4 percent in 2006 to 16.8 percent in 2020, the survey showed. Of the 2020 R&D spending, NT$512.2 billion, or 71.3 percent, was devoted to technical development, up 10.2 percent from a year earlier, followed by NT$156.1 billion (21.7 percent) to applied research, up 4.7 percent year-on-year, and NT$50.5 billion (7 percent) to basic research, up 8.1 percent, the survey showed. The ministry attributed the rising contribution of corporate R&D spending to the nation’s success in curbing the spread of COVID-19, which allowed economic activities to remain at normal levels, while rising demand for products related to 5G, artificial intelligence of things, and remote working and learning boosted corporate R&D in computers, semiconductors, electronics and optical components manufacturing. The ministry did not say that the ratio of basic research to overall spending again fell below 10 percent for the eighth consecutive year, and the 7 percent in 2020 was a record low. In the past, the ministry acknowledged that the ratio of basic research to

The Liberty Times Editorial: End food ban to repair Japan ties

During the 45th session of the Taiwan-Japan Economic and Trade Conference on Jan. 11, Japan expressed concern over Taiwan’s ban on imports of Japanese food products from five prefectures following the March 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster. Japan said it hoped Taiwan would follow international standards in reviewing scientific data to lift the ban, just as Europe and the US have done. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) responded the next day, saying that the government, with safeguarding public health a priority, would address the food import restrictions and bilateral negotiations based on international standards and scientific evidence. The Taiwanese and Japanese governments are pursuing solutions to the issue through serious and frank communication, while seeking public support to reduce the potential for political interference and manipulation of the issue by opposition parties. As Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Representative Hiroyasu Izumi said, Japan is awaiting the determination of Taiwan. On March 11, 2011, the Tohoku earthquake triggered a tsunami that led to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster that damaged several reactors and caused radiation leaks. Fourteen days later, the administration of then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) imposed a ban on agricultural and food imports from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures, and required nine categories of food imported from Japan to undergo residual radiation checks. Faced with the possibility of radioactive food due to a nuclear accident, the restrictions were initially necessary, but as time went by and the situation became clearer, most countries fully or partially lifted such bans. The Ma administration did not follow the trend, but imposed even stricter measures, demanding from 2015 that all food imported from Japan include a certificate of origin, and certain food from specific regions have a radioactivity test certificate. Ma’s pro-China, anti-Japan stance led to a “cross-strait synchronization” of the ban on Japanese food imports. His obsession

Taiwanese need to set goals to exit pandemic

Taiwan last month rose nine spots to No. 26 out of 53 major economies in Bloomberg News’ COVID Resilience Ranking, as most countries tightened their borders against a new wave of infections caused by the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. Omicron has dealt another blow to people’s confidence that the pandemic is ending, and the idea of giving up the fight and letting everyone get infected to achieve herd immunity is being discussed. Some conspiracy theorists on certain Chinese-language news commentary shows have even promoted this view, which poses a challenge to Taiwan’s resilience in disease prevention. In Japanese writer Haruki Murakami’s novel South of the Border, West of the Sun, there is a fable called “Hysteria Siberia” about a farmer living in Siberia who plows his fields every day. Looking in all directions, he sees nothing but the horizon, and he can only watch the sun rise in the east and set in the west day after day. One day, the farmer drops his hoe and walks toward the sunset without eating or drinking for days, while his mind goes blank — until he falls down and dies. This fable depicts a man giving up the fight against a colorless future that repeats itself with no end. It is a useful metaphor for people fighting the pandemic. No one knows exactly when the pandemic might end. All ordinary people can do is wash their hands, wear a mask and keep using the real-name registration system. Faced with a pandemic that could worsen at any time, a sense of psychological helplessness is to be expected. The longer the fight, the easier people start to lose faith and patience. On one extreme, some are no longer willing to wear a mask or use the registration system. They stand so close to the next person in line that their breathing

Philippine hopefuls get each other’s measure

PRESIDENTIAL RACE: Boxer Manny Pacquiao, Vice President Leni Robredo, Senator Panfilo Lacson and Manila Mayor Francisco Domagoso touted their recovery plans Four of the Philippines’ presidential candidates on Saturday laid down plans to tackle the country’s biggest issues in an interview with the nation’s leading broadcaster, but notable was the absence of early frontrunner Philippine Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Marcos, a clear favorite for the May 9 presidential election, declined to participate, saying that the host was biased against him, a charge GMA Network Inc denied. The prerecorded interviews, which ran for three hours, set social media ablaze. There was some harsh criticism of Marcos, with thousands on Twitter using the hashtag marcosduwag (or “marcoscoward”), while praising other candidates and the host. Marcos said that he would communicate his message through other shows, platforms and forums. Analysts credit Marcos’ robust social media presence for his popularity in the polls, but some have suggested that it might not be enough. “Should the Marcos camp continue to shun these kinds of nationwide events, it is possible, if not highly probable, that ... the second-preferred candidates can pick up some numbers,” said Richard Heydarian, an author, columnist and academic who specializes in politics. Philippine Senator Manny Pacquiao, a retired boxing champion; opposition candidate and Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo; Manila Mayor Francisco Domagoso; and Philippine Senator Panfilo Lacson, a former police chief, presented their plans for a post-pandemic economic recovery through job creation, better healthcare and fighting corruption. “What we need is a clean government, without corruption, and with plans to give jobs and housing,” Pacquiao said. The Philippines, a country of more than 110 million people, is to select a successor to President Rodrigo Duterte, who is not eligible for re-election, in May. All of the candidates tried to differentiate their policies from those of Duterte, from handling the narcotics problem to tackling a maritime dispute with Beijing. All four said that they would not support the reimposition of the death penalty or the

COVID-19: Beijing tests 2 million for virus as Olympics loom

Beijing city officials yesterday said that all 2 million residents of a neighborhood where they identified a small cluster of COVID-19 infections would be tested, less than two weeks ahead of the start of the Winter Olympic Games. The announcement came days after China’s postal service ordered workers to disinfect international deliveries, following claims by authorities that mail could be the source of coronavirus cases. About 30 infections have been detected in the past week in Beijing, one of the world’s most populous cities. The WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control have said that the risk of being infected from contaminated surfaces is low. China’s cases constitute a tiny fraction of the massive surge in countries around the globe, with the highly contagious Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 driving a fresh spike in infections. Still, multiple small outbreaks around China — including in Beijing — have tested the country’s strict “zero COVID” policy, which authorities have pursued even as the rest of the world has gradually reopened. Local authorities have identified Fengtai District in southern Beijing as the epicenter of a cluster of six newly confirmed infections, taking the number of cases in the capital to 34. With the Beijing Games starting on Feb. 4, international delegates, media personnel and some athletes have begun arriving. In an effort to thwart the coronavirus, China is sealing the Olympics inside a tightly controlled “competition bubble,” cocooning thousands of people and stretching nearly 200km.

COVID-19: NZ adds new COVID-19 restrictions as Omicron spreads

New Zealanders are set to face new COVID-19 restrictions after nine cases of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 were detected in a single family that flew to Auckland for a wedding earlier this month, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday. The so-called “red setting” of the country’s pandemic response includes heightened measures, such as required mask wearing and limits on gatherings, and the restrictions take effect today. Ardern told reporters in Wellington that “red is not lockdown,” adding that businesses can stay open, and people can visit each other and move freely around the country. “Our plan for managing Omicron cases in the early stage remains the same as [for the] Delta [variant of SARS-CoV-2], where we will rapidly test, contact trace and isolate cases and contacts in order to slow the spread,” Ardern said. The country has managed to contain the spread of the Delta variant, with an average of about 20 new cases per day, but it has seen an increasing number of people arriving into the country and going into mandatory quarantine who are infected with Omicron. That has put strain on the quarantine system and prompted the government to limit access for returning citizens, while it decides what to do about reopening its borders, angering many people who want to return to New Zealand. About 93 percent of New Zealanders aged 12 or older are fully vaccinated, while 52 percent have had a booster shot. The country has just begun vaccinating children aged 5 to 11. Ardern said that the family from the Nelson-Marlborough region attended a wedding and other events while in Auckland, with estimates saying that they came into contact with “well over 100 people at these events.” “That means that Omicron is now circulating in Auckland and possibly the Nelson-Marlborough region, if not elsewhere,” she said. The move to the

Climate: the once and future crisis

In the 17th century, something like a third of the world’s population died. Geoffrey Parker, in his monumental book on that terrible century, Global Crisis: War, Climate Change & Catastrophe in the 17th Century, itemizes the climate disasters that overwhelmed Europe, Asia, India and the Americas. Japan suffered in 1616 its coldest spring ever, it snowed in Fujian in 1618, and successive waves of drought and flood in India and Europe in the 1620-30s savaged harvests in many countries. One of the “years without a summer,” 1628, followed 1627, the wettest summer in Europe in 500 years. The 1640s were a time of terrible floods, droughts, and cold around the world, as reflected in global tree ring data. In Scandinavia, 1641 was the coldest year ever recorded. The second half of the century continued the cruelties of the first. All over the northern hemisphere, 1675 was remembered as another “year without a summer.” In 1683-84, the Thames froze over for weeks, and bull baiting exhibitions were held on the ice. Between 1650 and 1680, the Russian population plunged as harvests repeatedly failed in the face of the coldest autumn-to-spring stretches of the last 500 years and unremitting plagues and warfare. From China to Catalonia, famine and plague ruled. Populations of towns and cities plunged, tax rolls evaporated, wars, revolutions and revolts broke out, the land and sea were the haunt of bandits and pirates, and cannibalism, infanticide and suicide stalked the poor. Town registers across Europe tell the same story of young males lost to war and populations decimated by plague and plundering. At least our science, the lineal descendent of Enlightenment inquiry, which, Parker argues, was called into being in part by the succession of crises, does not blame witches (900 accused were slaughtered in south Germany alone after one

Trail of African bling reveals ancient social network

Scientists have uncovered the world’s oldest social network, a web of connections that flourished 50,000 years ago and stretched for thousands of miles across Africa. But unlike its modern electronic equivalent, this ancient web of social bonds used a far more prosaic medium. It relied on the sharing and trading of beads made of ostrich eggshells — one of humanity’s oldest forms of personal adornment. The research by scientists in Germany involved the study of more than 1,500 of these beads, which were dug up at more than 30 sites across southern and east Africa. Careful analysis suggests that people who made the beads — which are still manufactured and worn by hunter-gatherers in Africa today — were exchanging them over vast distances, helping to share symbolic messages and to strengthen alliances. “It’s like following a trail of breadcrumbs,” said the study’s lead author, Jennifer Miller, of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in the city of Jena. “The beads are clues, scattered across time and space, just waiting to be noticed.” The study, published in Nature last week, compared beads found at 31 sites in southern and eastern Africa, spanning more than 1,800 miles. By comparing the outside diameter of a shell, the diameter of the holes inside them, and the thickness of the walls of the eggshell, the scientists learned that about 50,000 years ago people in eastern and southern Africa started to make nearly identical beads out of ostrich eggs. Yet these groups and communities were separated by vast distances, which suggests the existence of a long-distance social network that stretched over thousands of miles, connecting people in far-flung regions. “The result is surprising, but the pattern is clear,” said the study’s other author, Yiming Wang, who is also based at the Max Planck. Ostrich eggshell beads are some

A league with a dark past

Taiwan’s history is full of three-digit numbers indicating the month and day of major events: there’s 228 denoting the pivotal White Terror incident in 1947 and 921 for the devastating Jiji earthquake of 1999. Not quite as well remembered are 823, which represents the start of the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1958 or, 524, the date of an attack on the US Embassy in Taiwan by rioters the year before. One date that is now forgotten by all except the staunchest Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) nostalgists is the snappiest of the lot: 123. On Jan. 23, 1954, over 14,000 Chinese prisoners of war arrived at Keelung aboard US ships following an 88-hour voyage from Incheon, South Korea. Incarcerated for up to three years, these men had decided — often under severe duress from fellow inmates — on resettlement in Taiwan. A further 7,000-plus chose repatriation to China. It was a huge PR coup for former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石). To maximize the propaganda, his government devised World Freedom Day (WFD). The event began under the auspices of the Asian Pacific Anti-Communist League, cofounded by Chiang, South Korean dictator Syngman Rhee and Philippines President Elpidio Quirino that same year. As rightist regimes worldwide got on board, the organization was renamed the World Anti-Communist League in 1966 (though the Asian Pacific league continued as a separate wing). In 1990, it rebranded as the World League for Freedom and Democracy (WLFD, 世界自由民主聯盟總會). Since the first celebrations, the POWS have been feted annually. Early WFD events were held at the Grand Hotel and Zhongshan Hall in Ximending, until “budgetary constraints” forced a relocation to nearby Taipei Hero House (台北國軍英雄館), a hotel owned by the Friends of Armed Forces Association (軍人之友社). With their numbers dwindling, only eight former POWS attended last year’s event.

SPEAK UP ! 雙語會話

Have you made any New Year’s resolutions? (1/5) 你有什麼新年目標嗎？（一） A: The Lunar New Year is almost upon us. B: Have you made any New Year’s resolutions? A: New Year’s resolutions? So you make resolutions at the start of every year? B: Yep. I feel this makes life full of promise, and it also instills a sense of responsibility. A: 農曆新年就快要到了。 B: 你有什麼新年目標嗎？ A: 新年目標？原來你每年還會設定目標喔？ B: 對啊，這樣會感覺人生充滿了希望，也可以培養責任感！ （Translated by Edward Jones, Taipei Times／台北時報張聖恩） Audio recordings for Speak Up! dialogues will be suspended until further notice due to the pandemic.

A feast fit for ‘furry friends:’ sticky rice and lucky bags 八寶飯加可食用福袋 毛孩年菜連人都想吃

With more and more people keeping pets in Taiwan, a pet school has catered to the market by introducing Lunar New Year dishes for “furry friends,” such as eight-flavored sticky rice, “Buddha jumps over the wall” soup, “happy tiger buns” — to celebrate the Year of the Tiger — and edible “lucky bags,” which all look like food to die for. The owner of the school said that dishes designed for furry companions cannot include seasoning such as salt, sugar or soy sauce. Instead, it is better to retain the original taste of the food and avoid using ingredients not suitable for pets, like onions, raw eggs, nuts, grapes and chocolate. A version of “Buddha jumps over the wall” soup for pets was also meticulously prepared by the school. The ingredients include old hen, pork tendons, fish skin, scallops, pork, white beech mushrooms, white clamshell mushrooms, bok choy, carrots, wood ear fungus, Chinese wolfberries and lotus seeds. To celebrate the Year of the Tiger, one of the New Year dishes is “happy tiger buns.” The bun dough is first made with plain flour, virgin olive oil and yeast, then a natural food coloring is added to imitate a tiger’s fur coat, and finally the buns are stuffed with locally-reared chicken breast. (Translated by Rita Wang, Taipei Times) 台灣養貓狗的人愈來愈多，寵物安親班業者瞄準商機，配合農曆春節推出毛小孩年菜，連人看了都想吃。除了八寶飯、佛跳牆、還有因應虎年的「幸虎肉包」及可食用的福袋。 業者說，毛孩料理最重要的是不要用鹽、糖、醬油等調味料，維持天然原味，並避免洋蔥、生雞蛋、堅果、葡萄、巧克力等不適合毛小孩食用的食材。 這家寵物安親班為毛孩準備的「五福臨門佛跳牆」一點也不馬虎，採用老母雞、蹄筋、魚皮、干貝、豬肉、鴻禧菇、美白菇、白菜、紅蘿蔔、黑木耳、枸杞、蓮子。 今年生肖年是虎年，毛孩年菜中有一道「幸虎肉包」，外皮是以中筋麵粉、初榨橄欖油、酵母製作，以天然色素粉做出虎皮外形，內含國產雞胸肉。 (中央社)

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