The annual Taipei 101 New Year's fireworks display is to be extended this year from five to six minutes, and is to feature large-scale LED light projections, although the exact theme is to be kept under wraps until the big day, said Janet Chia (賈永婕), chairwoman of Taipei 101 operator Taipei Financial Center Corp.
The theme for this year’s Taipei 101 fireworks display is “Team Taiwan” and “Champion” to celebrate Taiwan’s victory last month at the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Premier12 tournament, she said.
The Finance Committee of the Legislative Yuan today invited the Ministry of Finance, the Financial Supervisory Commission and Chia to give a report on company, which is jointly invested by Mega Financial Holding Co and the Taiwan Stock Exchange, discussing this year’s revenue, plans and goals for next year’s operations and the arrangements for next week’s fireworks display.
Photo courtesy of Taipei 101
Chia thanked Cathay Financial Holding for sponsoring the projection mapping display, which is to include images of all of “Taiwan’s heroes,” she said.
Responding to why a promotional video of this year’s firework display was posted on social media instead of shared at a news conference, Chia said that news conferences require a considerable amount of money.
She said she saved the funds by collaborating with legislators to create a short promotional video and shared it to her personal social media page in a joint post with Taipei 101, she said, adding that it boosted traffic to the 101 page, which previously had limited engagement.
Asked if she planned to take the position of minister of finance or join the Cabinet at some point in the future, she said she “absolutely could not.”
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT