Wed, Apr 01, 2026
A bipartisan delegation from the US Senate yesterday reiterated the importance of passing a sufficient defense budget, as Taiwan requires robust asymmetric rather than baseline capabilities to deter aggression.The visiting group included US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations members Jeanne Shahee
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today.The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services,
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years.The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up
US President Donald Trump yesterday expressed frustration with allies who have been unwilling to do more to support the US war effort, telling them to “go get your own oil” as the conflict with Iran and its closure of the Strait of Hormuz sent average US gas prices soaring and roiled global markets.
SIGNIFICANT TO THE WORLD: The delegation’s visit aims to send a clear message that bipartisan support for Taiwan is consistent, US Senator Jeanne Shaheen said The US Senate’s bipartisan support for Taiwan remains strong and Taiwan-US ties would continue for decades to come, a US Senate delegation said in Taipei yesterday, while calling on the legislature to swiftly pass a special defense budget bill.A US delegation led by Democratic US Senator Jeanne Shah
POLLS CONCERNS: There are concerns within the KMT that a Cheng Li-wun-Xi Jinping meeting could trigger a voter backlash in elections in November Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to visit next month, her party and Chinese state media reported yesterday.Cheng, who took up her role in November last year, “gladly accepted” the invitation to lead a delegat
The Taipei City Government's monthly subsidy for government-contracted daycare is to rise by NT$3,000 starting in July, a move expected to benefit 8,000 children under the age of three, city officials said yesterday.Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday announced a set of childcare measures, he
‘UNITED FRONT’ WORK: Taiwanese do not accept the ‘1992 consensus,’ nor does the world subscribe to Beijing’s ‘one China’ principle, the premier said Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday criticized Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) upcoming trip to China, saying that departing for an authoritarian country on Taiwan’s Freedom of Speech Day strikes a “raw nerve.” Cheng is scheduled to lead a KMT delegation to China fro
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) upcoming visit to China is intended to bolster Cheng’s pro-unification stance within the KMT and create the illusion for US President Donald Trump that both sides of the Taiwan Strait are leaning toward unification, a national security
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday.A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is pla
BULLYING? A third-party investigator has been hired to look into claims of workplace bullying and is to submit a full report within two months Rumors that deputy trade representative Yen Huai-shing (顏慧欣) was a victim of workplace bullying before her death at age 53 this month are being investigated, Yen’s former boss, Yang Jen-ni (楊珍妮), said yesterday.Asked by reporters about the claims after attending a meeting at the Legislative Yuan, Ya
People on trial who need interpreters or publicly appointed lawyers are underserved by the legal system, the National Human Rights Commission said in a statement yesterday, calling for judicial reform. Low-income and non-Chinese-speaking defendants face barriers in obtaining court-appointed interpre
Award-winning actor Hsueh Shih-ling (薛仕凌) was indicted yesterday for allegedly paying a syndicate to help him evade compulsory military service.Prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of at least two years and six months, citing what they described as a defiant attitude and attempts to mislead inv
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said the government has asked Taiwan’s two largest petrochemical companies to increase production as the war in the Middle East continues to disrupt global oil supply, driving up plastic bag costs.According to local media, Yeedon Enterprise Co, which owns Taiwan’
POWER RULES: Major airlines have started enforcing new restrictions limiting passengers to two portable power banks in carry-on luggage and banning their use during flights Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) yesterday said it would implement measures to manage traffic at the nation’s largest airport, as it expects more than 920,000 travelers during the Tomb Sweeping holiday.The airport operator would implement the measures from tomorrow until Tuesday next week o
DISPLAYS TO TRANSMISSION: The company said that its experience with micro LED displays puts it at an advantage as it taps into the micro LED CPO business Flat-panel maker AUO Corp (友達) yesterday said it is submitting samples of power-efficient micro LED modules to customers in preparation for commercial launch of new advanced packaging copackaged optics (CPO) used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.“We believe micro LED-based CPO is very su
GEOPOLITICS: Sentiment had improved from last year, but it shifted abruptly after the blockade in the Middle East, which is a ‘black swan’ event, Evertrust Rehouse said Taiwanese have turned markedly more pessimistic about the housing market and economic outlook following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid escalating Middle East tensions, a survey released yesterday by Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) showed.The poll showed that 42 percent of respondents expect ho
Standard Chartered Taiwan on March 26 announced that it has partnered with international fintech firm FinIQ to build an “Automated Structured Products Pricing Platform.” The bank is also introducing products from global issuers including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Barclays PLC and BNP Paribas SA. The
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) took the stage at a protest rally on Sunday in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei in support of former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who has been sentenced to 17 years in jail for corruption and embezzlement. Huang told the
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has been framed as a step toward peace. Dialogue is always preferable to confrontation, the public is told. Few would disagree.However, dialogue is not the issue. Representation i
The controversy surrounding China-born Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Li Zhenxiu’s (李貞秀) eligibility to hold office has recently become a focal point of public and media attention. At its core, beyond issues of national identity, the fundamental solution lies in governing according to the la
MULTIDISCIPLINARY: Learning from his dad and gaining an Internet following for his art, the Athletics’ Triple-A pitcher from Hualien is a man of multiple talents “I dare not show my paintings to my dad. He’s a traditional guy and would probably think, ‘Why would a baseball player be doing this?’”Athletics Triple-A pitcher Zhuang Chen Zhong-ao speaks of his “side project” — even though drawing is something he first learned from his father.At 185cm and 89kg, t
Lin Yu-ting, Taiwan’s first Olympic boxing gold medalist, had little trouble winning her first match since the 2024 Paris Olympics yesterday at the Asian Boxing Elite Boxing Championships.In the round-of-16 contest in the women’s 60kg division, Lin defeated Thailand’s Thananya Somnuek 5-0.All five j
Taiwan claimed its second Baseball5 Asia Cup title on Tuesday, rallying past Japan in the championship series to secure a berth in the WBSC Baseball5 World Cup 2026, scheduled for Dec. 9-13 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.Baseball5 is a fast-paced, urban version of baseball played with five players per sid
Sugar The Surfing Dog, the first dog inducted into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame, who spent her days outside the water comforting veterans as a dedicated therapy dog, died on Monday after battling cancer.The 16-year-old rescue dog from Huntington Beach, California, who was a five-time dog surfing world
CONTROVERSIAL LEGISLATION: Shortly after the bill was passed, a human rights group said that it had filed a petition with the Israeli Supreme Court demanding its annulment Israel’s parliament on Monday approved a bill that would allow the execution of Palestinians convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks, a move that has been criticized as discriminatory and immediately drew a court challenge.Sixty-two lawmakers, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said.Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from
Australia is investigating Facebook, TikTok and YouTube for possible breaches of the nation’s under-16 social media ban, accusing the tech companies yesterday of “failing to obey” the world-leading laws.Australia in December last year banned people younger than 16 from a raft of the world’s most pop
The scene is right out of the 1950s with students pecking away at manual typewriters, the machines dinging at the end of each line.Once each semester, Grit Matthias Phelps, a German language instructor at Cornell University, introduces her students to the raw feeling of typing without online assista
Russia’s main security agency is expanding its sweeping surveillance powers, deepening the state’s reach into economic and social life to suppress any risk of dissent to President Vladimir Putin.The Federal Security Service, or FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, is getting wide-ranging a
Nuclear power is getting a second look in Southeast Asia as countries prepare to meet surging energy demand as they vie for artificial intelligence-focused data centers.Several Southeast Asian nations are reviving mothballed nuclear plans and setting ambitious targets and nearly half of the region c
You’re sitting in class when a classmate asks to borrow a pencil. It seems like a small favor, so you agree without hesitation. The following week, the same classmate asks to share your notes. Later, they request help with a group project. You agree each time — after all, you helped out the first ti
Many consumers are guilty of filling drawers or closets with old laptops, cellphones, fitness trackers and other electronic devices once they are no longer needed. It’s hard to know where to recycle such items, or it seems costly and inconvenient to do so.The world generates millions of tons of elec
對話 Dialogue清清：這禮拜又有連假了，這次一共放四天。Qīngqing: Zhè lǐbài yòu yǒu liánjià le, zhè cì yígòng fàng sì tiān.華華：你是要過兒童節還是清明節？Huáhua: Nǐ shì yào guò Értóng jié háishì Qīngmíng jié?清清：都要過啊！不管幾歲，都要有童心，才能永遠都年輕，知道嗎？Qīngqing: Dōu yào guò a! Bùguǎn jǐ suì, dōu yào yǒu tóngxīn, cái néng yǒngyuǎn dōu niánqīng, zhīdào m
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% | |
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