EMG inks deal to open Silks X hotel

BEST REFERRAL: Eastern Media International Corp chairman Gary Wang said that the firm partnered with Formosa International Hotels Corp because he is a loyal customer Eastern Media International Corp (EMG, 東森國際) yesterday signed a management contract with Formosa International Hotels Corp (FIH, 晶華國際酒店集團) to open a hotel under the Silks X brand that could start operations in 2025. The e-commerce and home shopping operator is to build the hotel in a mixed-use complex near the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT line’s Linkou Station with a budget of NT$1 billion (US$35.37 million), EMG chairman Gary Wang (王令麟) told a news conference. The hotel of 200 guest rooms would occupy the 26th to 33rd floors of a complex under construction, which would also house movie theaters, retail stores, banquet facilities and office space for the group’s beauty and direct sales arms, Wang said. EMG owns e-commerce platform ETMall (東森購物), Hong Kong-listed Natural Beauty Bio-Technology Ltd (自然美), and warehouses at the Taichung and Kaohsiung harbors for the storage of agricultural products. It also has a business that imports grain and consumer electronic products. Wang said that he aims to turn the complex into a local version of Cannes, France, with the assistance of the adjacent Mitsui Outlet Park (三井) and Sanlih Entertainment Television (三立), which is developing a mixed-use complex in the neighborhood. EMG is to pour NT$12 billion into building the complex, which could attract 10 million visitors and generate more than NT$8 billion in revenue per year, Wang said. “You cannot find hotels in Cannes or Hollywood that generate losses,” Wang said. “There will more likely be a shortage of rooms after the complex’s construction.” The Silks X hotel is not the first time that EMG has ventured into the hospitality business, as the group owns unprofitable resort properties, one in Yilan and another in Taoyuan. However, EMG plans to leave them idle for the moment, Wang said, adding that real-estate properties in good locations tend to increase in value over time. Wang said that

TSMC says 9,000 people need to be hired this year

RECRUITMENT: The latest hiring drive — for fabs in Hsinchu, Taichung and Tainan — aims to catch up with growth in the company and new technology development Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday unveiled a plan to hire 9,000 people this year in the latest round of recruitment as the chipmaker races to boost capacity to alleviate a chip crunch and safeguard its technology advantage. TSMC’s talent recruitment this year might be the most ambitious in its history, while last year’s drive of 8,000 added recruits doubled the 4,000 new hires that it averaged over the preceding few years. The latest drive — for fabs in Hsinchu, Taichung and Tainan — aims to catch up with growth in the company and new technology development, the Hsinchu-based chipmaker said. The annual hiring campaign was launched amid shortages of a variety of chips, especially auto chips. In January, the company revised its five-year revenue forecast to growth of 10 to 15 percent from a previous estimate of 5 to 10 percent, which it attributed primarily to stronger-than-expected demand for applications using high-performance computing and 5G smartphones. TSMC in January said that it plans an annual capital expenditure of US$25 billion to US$28 billion (US$884.14 million to US$990.24 million), mostly to develop and manufacture advanced 3-nanometer, 5-nanometer and 7-nanometer chips. The recruitment plan would bring the chipmaker’s overall headcount to more than 60,000 employees, up from 51,297 at the end of 2019. TSMC hosted a recruitment event at National Taiwan University yesterday, the first in a series of hiring activities to take place at local universities this month and next. The company expects about 3,000 students to sign up for job interviews, and said that next month it would begin accepting applications to a new internship program.

Largan settles IP suit against Ability

Largan Precision Co (大立光), the nation’s biggest supplier of camera lenses, has settled a lengthy litigation battle with smaller rival Ability Opto-Electronics Technology Co (先進光電), according to statements that the companies filed with the Taiwanese Stock Exchange yesterday. “We have signed a confidential settlement agreement,” Largan said in its statement. “Per the agreement, we will withdraw all litigation against Ability.” Details of the settlement are not to be disclosed to protect the privacy of individuals involved, the Taichung-based firm added. In 2012 and 2013, Largan sued Ability for allegedly stealing trade secrets. In 2017, the Intellectual Property Court ruled in Largan’s favor, ordering Ability to pay NT$1.52 billion (US$53.76 million at the current exchange rate) in compensation. The court’s ruling was upheld on Jan. 28. Largan hotly pursued the litigation, even requesting the court for the provisional seizure of Ability property on Tuesday last week. In 2013, Chinese-language magazine Business reported that Largan saw defending its “more than 500” pieces of intellectual property as key to maintaining its position as No. 1 in Taiwan’s opto-electronics market. Four engineers left Largan for positions at Ability and started filing patents related to production automation that Largan alleged infringed on its intellectual property, leading to the lawsuit. Over the years, Largan has also sued Samsung Electronics Co, Newmax Technology Co (新鉅科) and HP Inc for patent infringement. Largan settled out of court with all parties, except for HP. News of the settlement caused the price of Ability shares to jump 10 percent, the maximum daily increase, to NT$42.15. The price of Largan shares initially dipped NT$65 before recovering and ending the trading day at NT$3,360, slightly lower than the opening price of NT$3,375. Separately, Largan yesterday posted consolidated revenue of NT$3.21 billion for last month, down 12.44 percent from NT$3.67 billion in February last year. That represented a monthly decline of 30 percent from NT$4.61 billion

EDITORIAL: Safeguarding Pratas and Itu Aba

The Coast Guard Administration on Monday conducted the first of two drills for the quarter on the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙島). The drills are a routine exercise, but come at a time of increased Chinese military activity near Taiwan. The Ministry of National Defense last year began stationing marines on Pratas Island and Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島), following reports in May that China was planning drills off Hainan meant to simulate capture of Pratas Island. Attention was again drawn to the Pratas Islands after a routine charter flight taking supplies there on Oct. 15 last year was turned back by Hong Kong air traffic controllers as it approached the territory’s flight information region. Hong Kong said it stopped the aircraft because of “dangerous activities” in the area. That sparked speculation that it was a precursor of more actions aimed at cutting off Taiwan’s access to the islands. Maintaining sovereignty over the Pratas and Itu Aba islands is important for Taiwan, as this allows the Taiwanese navy to project its operational space. It is also important because of the implications of capturing those islands for Taiwan’s ability to protect the rest of its territory. The US has in recent months reiterated its support for Taiwan, with several US officials admonishing Beijing for pressuring Taiwan, and declaring their continued commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act. That commitment might include US military support in the event of an attack by China on Taiwan proper, or Lienchiang, Kinmen or Penghu counties. However, China might feel it is less likely that the US military would get involved if it were to attack the Pratas Islands or Itu Aba, as neither has a civilian population. Beijing might take over either of the two as a means of testing US resolve. Taiwan must not

China’s new industrial strategies

While everyone is angrily discussing China’s suspension of Taiwanese pineapple imports, Beijing yesterday started reviewing its 14th five-year plan at the meetings of the National People’s Congress and the National People’s Political Consultative Conference. It is worth noting that China’s industrial development strategies in the five-year-period from this year to 2025 would deeply affect Taiwanese and cross-strait economic and trade structures. Given its need for domestic development and the US technology ban, Chinese industrial development can be expected to adopt three main strategies. The first would be to delay and wait for change. On Dec. 7 last year, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) made a five-point proposal calling for China-US relations to “embrace a new start after all the difficulties.” On Lunar New Year’s Eve, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) emphasized during a telephone conversation with US President Joe Biden that the China-US confrontation would spell disaster for both as well as the rest of the world. These remarks reveal Beijing’s adjustments in response to the new situation, as China makes an all-out effort to reverse bilateral relations after former US president Donald Trump left office. Strategically, the Chinese side hopes to first resume dialogue, followed by a resumption of cooperation with the US, the concrete goal being to delay or reduce the US’ technology ban and export controls. The next strategy would be to break the deadlock indirectly. While actively rebuilding China-US relations, it would establish cooperation with the EU, Japanese and even Taiwanese businesses to indirectly obtain the advanced technologies affected by the US ban. The final strategy would be to promote independent industrial development. The Chinese leadership has seen that the US technology ban has exposed the nation’s manufacturing and technology industries’ overreliance on foreign technology, and that its core component parts, key raw materials and critical production

Turning Longmen into a chip hub

Taiwan’s advanced semiconductor manufacturing plants have for the past few months been struggling to keep up with demand, as they are already operating at full capacity — with demand expected to increase further. Amid these bullish expectations, policymakers should think about what they need to do to ensure that the semiconductor industry can continue to grow. One boost to the industry would be to repurpose the area around the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant — the Longmen plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) — as a central hub for semiconductor manufacturing, the “Longmen Science and Technology Park.” There are several good reasons for doing so: First, the Longmen area has adequate water and electricity. The greatest drawback of Taiwan’s “semiconductor corridor” — which stretches from the Hsinchu Science Park to the Central Taiwan Science Park and on to the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Kaohsiung’s Lujhu District (路竹) — is that it is situated along the leeward side of the Central Mountain Range, where there is dry weather. Semiconductor manufacturing requires vast amounts of water, but reservoir supplies are often threatened during the dry season. For example, in the past few years, dry weather has led to low water levels and shortages at Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫), Baoshan Reservoir (寶山水庫) and Baoshan Second Reservoir (寶二水庫), which supply the Hsinchu park; Mingde Reservoir (明德水庫) and Liyu Lake Reservoir (鯉魚潭水庫), which supply the central Taiwan park; and Zengwen Reservoir (曾文水庫), Wushantou Reservoir (烏山頭水庫) and Nanhua Reservoir (南化水庫), which supply the Lujhu park. However, the Longmen park would be on the windward side of the Central Mountain Range, where there is copious rainfall. In particular, northeasterly monsoon winds bring the area heavy rainfall when western Taiwan is in the middle of a dry season. The Longmen area is only 8km from Feitsui Reservoir (翡翠水庫) and its tributaries, which include

Pro-Beijing committee to elect some HK legislators

VETTING: The proposed change could bar opposition figures from running in Hong Kong’s legislature, which a Chinese official said must be governed by ‘patriots’ A largely pro-Beijing committee that elects Hong Kong’s leader would also choose a large part of the legislature, a top Chinese official announced yesterday as part of a major revamp that would increase central government control over Hong Kong politics. The changes are part of a draft decision submitted on the opening day of the weeklong meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s ceremonial legislature, which will all but certainly endorse it. The Election Committee would participate in the nomination of candidates for Hong Kong’s legislature and also elect “a relatively large share” of its members, NPC Standing Committee vice chairman Wang Chen (王晨) said. He did not say how many legislators would be chosen by the committee. Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper, citing unidentified sources, said it would be 30 seats in an expanded 90-seat legislature. The committee selected up to 10 members in earlier versions of Hong Kong’s legislature, but has not done so since the 2000 election. Wang added that the size, composition and selection of the 1,200-member committee would also be adjusted, and Hong Kong’s leader would continue to be elected by the committee. Currently, half of Hong Kong’s now 70-member Legislative Council is directly elected by voters. The other half is elected by professional or special interest groups from sectors such as insurance, engineering and agriculture. With the largely pro-Beijing committee nominating all candidates for the legislature, opposition figures could be barred from running in elections. The draft changes came after Xia Baolong (夏寶龍), director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing, said that Hong Kong must be governed only by “patriots.” In his speech, Wang said that “clear loopholes and shortcomings” in Hong Kong’s electoral system had allowed “anti-China” forces to undermine the overall stability in Hong Kong and jeopardize national sovereignty, security and

COVID-19: WHO not issuing interim report on Wuhan: report

The WHO has scrapped plans for a team that visited Wuhan, China, to probe the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic to issue an interim report, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported late on Thursday. The WHO team returned from its visit there last month, saying it had no clear finding on the genesis of the virus, amid tensions between the US and China on what caused the once-in-a century global health crisis. The US responded by saying it had “deep concerns” about what the team learned and it pressed Beijing for more information. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Feb. 12 said that a preliminary report with a summary of the team’s findings would be issued soon thereafter, and a full report in a matter of weeks. However, now the plan is to scrap the interim report, the WSJ said, quoting Peter Ben Embarek, the scientist who led the team. Instead, the team is to publish the full and final report, with a summary of its findings, the newspaper said, quoting a WHO spokesman. This broader report “will be published in coming weeks and will include key findings,” it quoted the spokesman as saying. “By definition a summary report does not have all the details,” Ben Embarek was quoted as saying. “So since there [is] so much interest in this report, a summary only would not satisfy the curiosity of the readers.” US Department of State spokesman Ned Price on Thursday urged China to share what it knows from the earliest days of the pandemic. “It is about learning and doing, being positioned to do everything we can to protect ourselves, the American people, and the international community against pandemic threats going forward,” Price told a briefing. “That’s why we need this understanding. That’s why we need this transparency from the Chinese government.”

COVID-19: Chinese citizen journalist protests silently in prison

Zhang Zhan’s (張展) footage of bedridden patients lining a hospital corridor in Wuhan gave a rare, unvarnished glimpse from China’s COVID-19 ground zero in the first months of the pandemic. The video was one of many that helped land the citizen journalist and former lawyer in jail, where she has been severely weakened by a hunger strike to protest her treatment. In another clip, Zhang calmly faces down a security officer who accosts her and orders her to stop filming. “It’s my right to monitor the government,” she said, as the man attempted to snatch away her phone. Zhang has become “symbolic” of the quest to uncover what happened in China at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, her lawyer said. However, sharing her amateur footage with the wider community came at a high price for the 37-year-old. She was detained in May last year and seven months later, sentenced to four years in jail for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” Her real crime, however, seems to have been publishing a narrative of the pandemic that China does not want to be told. Beijing’s version extols the strong leadership of the Chinese Communist Party in the health crisis, while glossing over the fear, confusion and criticism over early handling of the issue. Zhang decided to travel to Wuhan from Shanghai in February last year, after an online post by a Wuhan resident motivated her to find out the truth behind the outbreak. “He said he felt like he was left there to die, I was very touched by what he wrote,” Zhang said in a documentary about her by an anonymous filmmaker, posted on the Web site China Change. By then, officials had put the bustling transport hub under an unprecedented lockdown as they scrambled to contain the mysterious new virus that soon became known as

How to fight the new climate war

Michael E Mann is one of the world’s most influential climate scientists. He rose to prominence in 1999 as the co-author of the “hockey-stick graph,” which showed the sharp rise in global temperatures since the industrial age. This was the clearest evidence anyone had provided of the link between human emissions and global warming. This made him a target. He and other scientists have been subject to “climategate” e-mail hacking, personal abuse and online trolling. In his new book, The New Climate War, he argues the tide may finally be turning in a hopeful direction. The Guardian: You are a battle-scarred veteran of many climate campaigns. What’s new about the climate war? Michael Man: For more than two decades I was in the crosshairs of climate change deniers, fossil fuel industry groups and those advocating for them — conservative politicians and media outlets. This was part of a larger effort to discredit the science of climate change that is arguably the most well-funded, most organized PR campaign in history. Now we finally have reached the point where it is not credible to deny climate change because people can see it playing out in real time in front of their eyes. But the “inactivists,” as I call them, haven’t given up; they have simply shifted from hard denial to a new array of tactics that I describe in the book as the new climate war. TG: Who is the enemy in the new climate war? MM: It is fossil fuel interests, climate change deniers, conservative media tycoons, working together with petrostate actors like Saudi Arabia and Russia. I call this the coalition of the unwilling. If you had to find a single face that represents both the old and new climate war it would be Rupert Murdoch. Climate change is an issue the Murdoch press has dissembled

Highways & Byways: Of emperors, paintings and a well

Taiwan is a crowded country. The average home is small. Farmers tend fields which, by North American standards, are tiny. At the same time, the pace of life is fast. Rushing from A to B, it’s easy to miss some of Taiwan’s smaller attractions. None of the three manmade curiosities described in this article justifies going hours out of your way, but if you’re passing nearby, you won’t regret stopping to take a look at any of them. SHALU’S NOSTALGIC PAINTINGS Shalu’s Nostalgic Paintings (沙鹿懷舊彩繪), also known as Meiren Borough Painted Village (美仁里彩繪村), is a set of colorful artworks depicting Taiwan as it was a half century ago. Images in Shalu District (沙鹿), an old neighborhood approximately 17km northwest of downtown Taichung, celebrate iconic Taiwanese brands like Uni-President’s (統一) Minced Pork Flavor Instant Noodles and HeySong’s (黑松) soft drinks. There are also two-dimensional recreations of a traditional fruit stand and a shop selling ladies’ fashions. These nicely-executed backdrops, not to mention the lifelike cats that had been painted on walls, proved so appealing to Instagrammers in 2018 and 2019 that many residents grew heartily sick of the crowds and the litter they left behind. Since then, property-owners have covered up some of the murals. If you do visit, you mightn’t see everything you were expecting to. Even though this attraction isn’t as popular as it used to be, visiting on a weekday is still preferable. The fewer the people, the better the photos you’ll get. The walking distance from Shalu TRA Railway Station is less than 500m. At Kuang Tien General Hospital (光田綜合醫院), you’ll need to cross Shatian Road (沙田), which every morning is the venue for a busy traditional market. The Nostalgic Paintings are on Sinping Lane (新平巷), which runs east-west between Shatian Road and Siping Street (四平). If you plan to

Japan’s children of the tsunami shaped by tragedy

Yuto Naganuma looks silently as the cold sea breeze sweeps over the crumbling walls of the school where his little brother was lost in Japan’s devastating 2011 tsunami. Ten years on, Naganuma and others like him form a generation whose young lives were shaped by what is known in Japan as the triple disaster: a powerful earthquake that sparked a terrifying tsunami and the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. The children of the tsunami lost family, homes, schools and entire communities, and for some the experience sparked a drive to work in disaster awareness, or help children like them who have lived with tragedy. Even a decade on, the devastation Naganuma suffered is raw. “I lost my family, my community. Things that built who I am. I felt the tsunami carved away half of my body,” he said outside the Okawa Elementary School in northeast Japan, where his eight-year-old brother was killed. He was among 74 children and 10 school staff killed in one of the worst tragedies of the disaster that left around 18,500 people dead or missing, swept away after staff failed to evacuate to higher ground. Naganuma was just 16 at the time, but blamed himself for the loss. Two days before the 9.0 magnitude quake struck, he felt a major 7.3 tremor on a local beach, which he saw later as a missed warning. “I feel maybe my brother did not have to die. Had I warned people in the community, maybe they didn’t have to die,” he said as he gazed at gutted classrooms. His grandmother and great-grandmother were also killed in the tsunami, as they waited for his brother’s school bus. “I am filled with regret,” he said. “I let the day come without taking any action.” ‘LIVING BETWEEN DISASTERS’ In the years after, Naganuma focused on leading a normal life, but he struggled with survivor’s

Photo News: Tainan celebrates Lantern Festival with ‘Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival’ 從照片看新聞：台南「鹽水蜂炮」慶元宵

SPEAK UP ! 雙語會話

B: Where are we meeting the rest of the hiking group? A: The guide will pick us up in Kaohsiung and drive us to the trailhead. There’ll be five of us going. We’re thinking of hiring a car. B: Good idea. If we split the car rental fee between us it will end up much cheaper than five HSR return tickets. And we can leave a change of clothes in the car for after the hike. A: My friend has volunteered to drive. She has one request, though. B: What’s that? A: That we all have a shower before we get in the car for the return trip back to Taipei. B: 我們跟其他隊友要在哪裡集合啊？ A: 嚮導會去高雄接我們，然後載我們到山口。我們有五個人，想說要不要來租一輛車。 B: 好點子。如果我們平攤租車費，就會比高鐵來回票便宜得多。而且我們還可以把換洗衣物放在車上，下山以後可以穿。 A: 我朋友自告奮勇說她可以開車，不過有一個條件。 B: 什麼條件？ A: 到台北的回程，我們都要洗過澡才能上車。 （Paul Cooper, Taipei Times／台北時報林俐凱譯） English 英文: Chinese 中文:

SPEAK UP ! 雙語會話

You like the great outdoors, don’t you? (4/5) 你不是很熱衷戶外活動嗎？（四） A: I don’t think the hike is going to be too challenging, but we might be exposed to the sun for long periods of time, so be sure to take a sun hat, sunglasses, sunscreen and a chapstick for the lips. B: Of course, and plenty of water. I assume we can get fresh water at the peak, but I will pack at least three liters. I don’t want to dehydrate. A: It’s also important to keep your energy levels up. The guide recommends we bring snacks, sandwiches, fruit and chocolate for the trail. B: I have to be careful with my knees. I’ll be wearing some knee sleeves for support. I think I’ll also take a couple of hiking sticks. A: 我想這山路應該不會太難走，可是我們可能會在太陽底下好長一段時間，所以記得要帶遮陽帽、太陽眼鏡，還有護脣膏。 B: 當然，還要帶很多水。山頂應該會有乾淨的水，可是我還是會帶至少三公升的水，因為我才不想要脫水咧。 A: 保持體力也是很重要的。嚮導建議我們帶零食、三明治、水果和巧克力，可以在路上吃。 B: 我的膝蓋有點問題，得要小心點。我會穿護膝來增加支撐力。我應該也會帶兩支登山杖。 （Paul Cooper, Taipei Times／台北時報林俐凱譯） English 英文: Chinese 中文: