Sat, May 30, 2020
FREEDOM THREAT: Any communication channels established by Hong Kong residents to help restore order would be supported, caucuses said in a statement Lawmakers across party lines yesterday issued a joint statement to “sternly condemn” China’s national security legislation for Hong Kong, while asserting their support for Hong Kongers in their pursuit of freedom and democracy. The statement was signed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the Taiwan People’s Party and the New Power Party caucuses, and was read by Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The legislation was passed by China’s National People’s Congress on Thursday, bypassing review by the Hong Kong Legislative Council, exacerbating the situation in Hong Kong and posing a threat to the freedoms and safety of Hong Kongers, the statement reads. It disregards the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) promise to allow Hong Kongers a high level of autonomy until 2047, it reads. The situation worries legislators across party lines, who have united to sternly condemn Beijing’s actions, it reads. The caucuses stand with Hong Kongers in their quest for universal suffrage allowing them to directly elect the territory’s chief executive and legislative council members, it reads. They would support any communication channels established by Hong Kong residents to facilitate dialogue to restore order and attain sustainable economic growth in the territory, it reads. Taiwan would, on existing mechanisms and the condition that its security can be upheld, provide humanitarian assistance to Hong Kongers whose freedoms and safety have come under threat, it reads. The Legislative Yuan will closely watch developments in Hong Kong and, in the spirit of the Constitution, ask the Mainland Affairs Council to render a quarterly report on the special status conferred on Hong Kong to evaluate the territory’s autonomy in politics, economic activities and public issues, it reads. The Legislative Yuan would review provisions of the Act Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau (香港澳門關係條例) if there are any
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said that Taiwan would steadfastly resist Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework and vowed to defend the nation’s democracy. His Cabinet would follow President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) instructions to engage with China on the principles of freedom, parity and democracy, thereby facilitating positive exchanges, Su said in an administrative report to the legislature. The government would reject Chinese attempts to belittle Taiwan by imposing its framework on it, he said. It would closely monitor the situation in Hong Kong, provide people there with humanitarian assistance, and invite Hong Kong capital and professionals to Taiwan, he said. The government would continue to pursue “practical diplomacy” by reinforcing ties with Taiwan’s allies while expanding collaborations with like-minded nations, including the US, the EU and Japan, Su said. The government would develop a “multilateral model for collaboration” to defend the nation and improve its defense capabilities — for example by teaming up with the private sector to build military vessels and airplanes, which would help boost local industries, he said. The COVID-19 pandemic has led many nations to realize the importance of self-sufficiency, he said, adding that some are advanced countries that excel at engineering, but desperately lack basic necessities such as masks — of which Taiwan is a leading provider. Some nations have tried to combat the novel coronavirus, but have faced obstacles, as core pharmaceutical and medical technologies are controlled by China, Su said. Therefore, the government would not only ensure that Taiwan can achieve self-sufficiency in food and energy supply, as well as other daily necessities, but also form a team to provide or market such resources overseas, he said. Su said that his Cabinet would help further develop the nation’s democracy and make Taiwan a “land of bliss in tumultuous times.” Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) asked Su whether the nation has
China would attack Taiwan if there is no other way of stopping it from becoming independent, Chinese General Li Zuocheng (李作成) said yesterday. Speaking at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on the 15th anniversary of China’s “Anti-Secession” Law, Li, who is chief of the Joint Staff Department of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Central Military Commission, left the door open to using force. The 2005 law is China’s legislative basis for military action against Taiwan. “If the possibility for peaceful reunification is lost, the people’s armed forces will, with the whole nation, including the people of Taiwan, take all necessary steps to resolutely smash any separatist plots or actions,” Li said. “We do not promise to abandon the use of force and reserve the option to take all necessary measures to stabilize and control the situation in the Taiwan Strait,” he said. Li is one of China’s few senior officers with combat experience, having taken part in China’s ill-fated invasion of Vietnam in 1979. Chinese National People’s Congress Standing Committee Chairman Li Zhanshu (栗戰書) told the same event that non-peaceful means were an option of last resort. “As long as there is a slightest chance of a peaceful resolution, we will put in 100 times the effort,” Li Zhanshu said. However, “we warn Taiwan’s pro-independence and separatist forces sternly, the path of Taiwan independence leads to a dead end; any challenge to this law will be severely punished,” he said.
Cheering protesters on Thursday torched a Minneapolis police station that the department had abandoned amid three days of violent protests across the US over the death of George Floyd in the custody of police after one officer had knelt on his neck. A police spokesman said that staff had evacuated the 3rd Precinct station, the focus of many of the protests, “in the interest of the safety of our personnel” shortly after 10pm. Livestream video showed people entering the building, where fire alarms blared and sprinklers ran as blazes were set. Protesters could be seen setting fire to a Minneapolis Police Department jacket and cheering. The nighttime scene veered between an angry protest and a street party. At one point, a band playing in a parking lot across from the 3rd Precinct broke into a punk version of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song. Nearby, demonstrators carried mannequins from a looted Target and threw them onto a burning car. Later, a building fire erupted nearby. Elsewhere in the city, thousands of peaceful demonstrators marched through the streets calling for justice. Much of the violence occurred in the Longfellow neighborhood, where protesters converged on the precinct station of the police officers who arrested Floyd. In a strip mall across the street from the station, the windows in nearly every business had been smashed, from the Target department store at one end to the Planet Fitness gym at the other. Only the 24-hour laundromat appeared to have escaped unscathed. “WHY US?” demanded a large expanse of red graffiti scrawled on the wall of the Target. A Wendy’s restaurant across the street was charred almost beyond recognition. Among the casualties of the overnight fires was a six-story building under construction that was to provide nearly 200 apartments of affordable housing. “We’re burning our own neighborhood,” said Deona Brown, a 24-year-old woman standing with a friend
MAC ATTACK: The council condemned Beijing’s passage of a ‘malignant’ bill that disregards the will of Hong Kongers, and damages freedom and the rule of law “Taiwan will not sit by and watch democracy, freedom and human rights be degraded in Hong Kong,” and the Cabinet has plans to offer humanitarian assistance to Hong Kongers, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday after China’s National People’s Congress passed national security legislation for the territory. All Taiwanese — regardless of their political affiliation and whether they are in the government or private sector — have united to back Hong Kongers as well as the universal value of democracy, Tsai wrote on Facebook in Chinese. “Taiwan has the responsibility to work with partners of the global democracy alliance to support Hong Kong and its people,” she wrote. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) issued a statement condemning the passage of the “malignant” legislation, saying that the move represented a blatant disregard for the will of Hong Kongers and has seriously damaged the freedom, democracy and rule of law of the territory. Earlier yesterday, MAC Minister Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) outlined government guidelines to help Hong Kongers. A government-led, budgeted action plan is to feature interdepartmental efforts streamlined by the council and private-public collaborations, and coordinated by a state-sponsored legal person, Chen told reporters at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. With applications by Hong Kong residents seeking to immigrate to Taiwan rising, Tsai and Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) have said that the plan would mainly address settlement and well-being, Chen said. At a question-and-answer session with lawmakers, Chen was asked by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Mei-hui (王美惠) whether Article 60 of the Act Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau (香港澳門關係條例) would be invoked, which would suspend the entire act. When and to what extent the article would be invoked depends on the implications of the legislation that Beijing has imposed on the territory, Chen said. If the Hong Kong government has been compromised to the extent that it
The Chinese National People’s Congress (NPC) yesterday endorsed national security legislation for Hong Kong that has prompted new protests in the territory. Lawmakers approved the bill by a vote of 2,878 to one with six abstentions, in line with the largely ceremonial body’s custom of near-unanimous support for legislative changes decided by the Chinese Communist Party. The bill would alter Hong Kong’s Basic Law to require the territory to enforce measures to be decided by the NPC Standing Committee, which handles most lawmaking work. It reflects the determination of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government to tighten control over Hong Kong following 11 months of anti-government protests. Activists in Hong Kong say the legislation would undermine the “high degree of autonomy” promised to the former British colony when it was handed back to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” framework and might be used to suppress political activity. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) said that it is consistent with Beijing’s promises. “The decision adopted by the NPC session is designed for steady implementation of ‘one country, two systems,’ and Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability,” Li told a news conference. The proposed legislation led US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday to announce that Washington would no longer treat Hong Kong as autonomous from Beijing. That could hurt the territory’s attractiveness as a business center. Li called for mutual respect and Sino-US cooperation to promote “extensive common interests” in resolving global problems, and promoting trade, science and other fields. “Both countries stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation,” Li said. Pompeo notified the US Congress that the administration of US President Donald Trump no longer regards Hong Kong as autonomous from mainland China. “Hong Kong does not continue to warrant treatment under United States laws in the same manner as US laws were applied to Hong
HOMEWARD BOUND: Officials met one of many deep-sea fishing vessels returning to Taiwan and conducted identity checks, health screenings and quarantine procedures Anyone in Taiwan can now pay to be tested for the novel coronavirus, as the nation now has adequate testing capacity, the Central Epidemic Command Center said. The announcement yesterday followed a decision on Saturday last week to offer self-paid testing to people traveling abroad, as many countries require a negative test result before admitting foreigners. Self-paid testing was previously available only to Taiwanese making emergency visits to countries in Southeast Asia, China or Macau. People can pay to be tested once every three months at a cost to be determined by hospitals, the center said. The center yesterday reported one new case of COVID-19, a man in his 20s who returned from Russia on Tuesday. The man was one of 96 people — 94 Taiwanese and two Russian spouses — who flew from Russia to Japan’s Narita International Airport on a Japan Airlines charter flight before taking another flight to Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Although he reported symptoms including a sore throat, loss of smell and fatigue upon arrival in Taiwan, the man’s first test returned only a slightly positive response that could be interpreted as negative, but his second test was positive, the center said. As of yesterday, Taiwan recorded 442 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including seven fatalities, with 420 patients having been discharged from isolation after treatment, center data showed. In related news, several deep-sea fishing vessels are expected to return to Taiwan to unload cargo and take on supplies, a transition period when the season for catching squid in the Atlantic ends and that for catching saury in the western North Pacific begins. The fishing vessel Jyi Yang (佶洋) was the first to return to Kaohsiung’s Cianjhen Fishing Port (前鎮漁港) yesterday morning, with Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥) and other officials on hand
A research team based in Taiwan has found a key antibody that has the ability to neutralize SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The team, led by Huang Kuan-ying (黃冠穎), a doctor in the Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital’s Linkou branch in New Taipei City, is comprised of researchers from the hospital, Chang Gung University, Academia Sinica and the Institute of Preventive Medicine at the National Defense Medical Center, as well as Oxford University in the UK. The team on Thursday said that it examined antibody function through immunofluorescence assays, neutralization tests and plaque reduction neutralization tests. Tests with strains from different clades, including strains from China, the US, Europe and Egypt, showed an equivalent neutralization effect of 90 to 98 percent, it said. The test results demonstrated the potential of SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies for the development of prophylactic and therapeutic products, it added. Chang Gung University Research Center for Emerging Viral Infections director Shih Shin-ru (施信如) said that for the coronavirus to infect the body, it has to integrate with a protein attached to the surface of human cells called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2. The antibody discovered by the team can prevent this process by integrating with the enzyme first, thus blocking the coronavirus’ path to infection, she said. The team plans to use the antibody to develop medication, Shih said, adding that it would next month meet with manufacturers, which would conduct further trials before beginning mass production. If all goes well, the medicine could be on the market by the end of this year, she said. Although the antibody has shown promising results in human cell testing, Shih said that as no clinical trials have been conducted, it is still uncertain how it would perform in COVID-19 patients.
The Health Promotion Administration (HPA) yesterday announced draft amendments to the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (菸害防制法) that would ban the local sale and manufacture of vaping devices and novel tobacco products such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products. The agency said that it drafted the amendments to provide a legal basis for the regulation of products such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products — also known as non-combusted cigarettes — which are not included in the act. One amendment would raise the legal age for smoking and the minimum age for buying tobacco products from 18 to 20, it said. Due to an increasing variety of tobacco and vaping products now available, the agency said that it created a new category called “semi-cigarettes,” with the amendments to make all novel products in the category illegal to import, manufacture or sell locally. To increase protection from secondhand smoke in public indoor spaces, the amendments would ban smoking in previously excluded venues, such as half-open restaurants and cigar stores, it said. Smoking inside a bar or nightclub would also be banned, unless the venue has a smoking room equipped with an independent air-conditioning system, it added. The agency said that it hopes the Legislative Yuan would soon pass the proposed amendments. A survey released on Thursday by the agency found that smoking among young people and vaping rates increased last year. The smoking of cigarettes and e-cigarettes by junior-high and high-school students last year increased for the first time since the act took effect in 2009, HPA Tobacco Control Division Director Chen Miao-hsin (陳妙心) said. The smoking of cigarettes among junior-high and high-school students last year increased from 2.8 to 3 percent and from 8 to 8.4 percent respectively, Chen said, adding that most smokers were male. Four out of 10 respondents said that they smoked flavored cigarettes, with girls showing a
EARLY PREVENTION: One rights advocate called for better efforts to prevent children from going missing or running away, which could also limit exploitation Children’s rights advocates on Tuesday stressed the importance of addressing the issue of online child sexual exploitation at a public hearing held by New Power Party Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) in Taipei. While it is difficult for the average person to imagine, images of children being subjected to sexual abuse, sexual assault or sexual exploitation are treated by some as “products with commercial value,” ECPAT Taiwan secretary general Chen I-ling (陳逸玲) said. As demand for such material exists, it has resulted in supply and more victims, she said. In South Korea, due to the “Nth Room” scandal, people are calling for heavier penalties to be imposed for the possession of images involving the sexual exploitation of children and young people, Chen said. Not enough importance is attached to the investigation of cases involving sexually exploitative images of children and young people, she said. There is also room for improvement in terms of the ability of police to investigate such cases, she added. While the International Criminal Police Organizationand the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, commonly known as Europol, treat the online sexual exploitation of children and young people as serious cybercrimes, such cases are often not prioritized in Taiwan, Chen said. However, the blame should not be placed on frontline police officers, Chen said, adding that the investigation of such cases depends on the attitudes of decisionmakers. Police have limited resources, and if all of their resources are invested in handling other crimes, then there would be an imbalance, she said. Online grooming should be punished as an independent crime, instead of simply being treated as a preparatory act, she added. A proposal submitted by the Child Welfare League Foundation and ECPAT Taiwan on the National Development Council’s online public policy participation platform to amend laws to allow the production, distribution or possession of sexually exploitative images of children
Nantou County’s Indigenous Peoples’ Bureau is working on a certification system to recognize roasted pig made in the traditional manner of the county’s Aborigines. A training course is to be established in Sinyi Township (信義) to train Aborigines in the traditional technique, the bureau said earlier this week. The certification process would not only confirm proper roasting technique, but would also recognize proper food safety management, among other aspects of food preparation, it said. Roasting pig on a spit, barbecuing meats on stone slabs and other traditional methods are not only important parts of Aboriginal culture, but also help draw outside visitors to their communities, the bureau said. However, food stalls at the county’s night markets have begun selling food items that they falsely claim to be traditional Aboriginal foods, it said. Therefore, it was important to establish a certification system to protect the development of Aboriginal industries and to ensure that visitors are getting what they pay for, it added. The first classes are to be held on June 9 and 10 in Renai Township (仁愛), and on June 11 and 12 in Sinyi Township, the bureau said, adding that registration would be open to individuals, groups and producers from Aboriginal communities. Instructors would teach the courses alongside officials from the Department of Consumer Protection, it said. Participants would also learn how to market their products, as well as how to handle customer complaints, it added.
THE NEXT GENERATION: The KMT’s Institute of Revolutionary Practice said it would resume training this summer for young party members after a two-decade hiatus Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) yesterday said that Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) was “talking rubbish” when Su accused the party of cooperating with Beijing in promoting the “one country, two systems” model in Taiwan. Commenting on China’s National People’s Congress approving national security legislation for Hong Kong on Thursday, Su yesterday said the move highlighted Beijing’s failure to adhere to its promise to maintain the “one country, two systems” framework in the territory until 2047. The action, Su added, showed how that model, promoted by the KMT in tandem with China, was a lie. Chiang said that Su was talking nonsense, saying that his remarks had spoiled a joint statement in support of Hong Kongers from legislative caucuses across party lines. The KMT yesterday also issued a statement condemning Su’s remarks, asking him on what grounds he had made such an accusation and demanding an apology. During his previous stint as premier in 2006 and 2007, Su had proposed a refugee act to cover people from China, Hong Kong and Macau, the KMT said. Su now objects to such an act and he has no plans to amend the Act Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau (香港澳門關係條例), it said, adding that Su was “consuming” the Hong Kong issue. Commenting on China’s legislation for Hong Kong, Chiang said it is apparent that Beijing did not communicate well with Hong Kong. As bilateral trust between China and the territory is feeble, the legislation would greatly affect the freedom, democracy and human rights of Hong Kong, Chiang said, adding that the extent of the effects would be hard to gauge at the moment. Beijing’s move also led other nations to question its promise to protect Hong Kong’s autonomy, he said. Regarding Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s (李克強) comments on Thursday that reiterated Beijing’s “one China” principle, the so-called “1992 consensus”
LOSING FAITH: While some groups called it a ‘milestone’ decision, others said that partners would no longer be able to pursue justice through the Criminal Code The Council of Grand Justices ruling yesterday that adultery as a crime is unconstitutional drew praise from some women’s rights groups, who called it a “milestone for the progress of Taiwan’s Constitution and gender justice,” but others said the decision would only result in more adultery. After the council issued Constitutional Interpretation No. 791 at 4pm, several groups gathered outside the Judicial Yuan in support of the decision, including the Awakening Foundation, the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation and the Taiwan Gender Equality Education Association. In a press release, the Awakening Foundation said that the ruling protects a person’s sexual autonomy, privacy and dignity from being compromised in a marriage. The interpretation shows that the council took the evolving definitions of an intimate relationship, as well as diversity in modern marriages, into consideration, it said. The ruling could be a blow to victims of adultery who seek justice by invoking the Criminal Code, but criminal punishment should not be the answer, as it cannot force a person to remain in a marriage against their wishes, the statement said. Decriminalizing adultery is not tantamount to agreeing with adultery, it added. Since a marriage starts from the Civil Code, people should only invoke the code in the face of marital disputes, and focus on constructive solutions, such as the distribution of wealth and childcare if a couple chooses to divorce, or counseling should they wish to remain together, it said. “Hopefully, decriminalizing adultery and allowing marital affairs be dealt with solely by the Civil Code would allow people to handle emotional lows related to marriage in a healthier way,” the foundation said. Opposition groups said that the council’s decision values sexual autonomy more than marriage and family, calling the interpretation “outrageous, insane and not in line with public opinion.” Coalition for the Happiness of our Next Generation president Tseng Hsien-ying (曾獻瑩) said
About 80 percent of reimbursements for advanced medical expenses in foreign countries between 2014 and last year were for procedures in China, National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) statistics showed. NHIA Deputy Director-General Tsai Shu-ling (蔡淑鈴) said that the agency has reimbursed NT$201.41 million (US$6.7 million) for advanced medical expenses last year, with 63 percent of the cases in China. Cases in Japan accounted for 7 percent, whereas those in Thailand and Vietnam each accounted for 5 percent. The amount the NHIA has reimbursed for overseas advanced medical expenses has gradually decreased from NT$360 million in 2017 and NT$260 million in 2018 to NT$201.41 million last year, she said. Meanwhile, 19 percent of reimbursements for outpatient care services in other countries were for acute upper respiratory tract infections, Tsai said, adding that it was followed by kidney failure and acute bronchitis, which accounted for 15 percent and 8 percent respectively. Regarding reimbursements for emergency care services, 11 percent involved accidental injuries, 7 percent were for noninfectious gastroenteritis and colitis, and 6 percent were for acute bronchitis, she said. For hospitalization reimbursements, 10 percent were for pneumonia, 6 percent for cerebral hemorrhage and 6 percent for accidental injuries. “We have a database of these reimbursements, which includes data about the doctors, clinics and illnesses and other key information, which we can use when we closely examine any case, hospital, clinic and insured person,” Tsai said. She added that this has helped the agency gradually lower overseas advanced medical expenses. The NHIA has taken other measures to reduce overseas medical reimbursements, including by connecting the database with the immigration system and ensuring that it would only reimburse medical expenses for unexpected injuries. Under Article 81 of the National Health Insurance Act (全民健保法), a person applying for reimbursements or medical expense claims through improper conduct, or by making a false certification, report or misrepresentation
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday submitted a list of 11 nominees for high-ranking posts in the Examination Yuan to streamline the government branch responsible for national exams and management of civil service personnel starting its next term in September. Before the list was sent to the Legislative Yuan for confirmation, Tsai met with the nominees at the Presidential Office. Former minister of education Huang Jong-tsun (黃榮村) and Minister of Civil Service Chou Hung-hsien (周弘憲) have been nominated to be president and vice president of the government branch. Former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), who headed the team to select the nominees out of 60 candidates, said that Tsai picked Huang for his government experience and Chou for his insight into the Examination Yuan after four years in his ministerial post. Tsai said that she hoped the nine other nominees, who would serve as Examination Yuan ministers without portfolio, would assist Huang, Chou and the body’s two subordinate ministries to push for reforms while working in cooperation with the Executive Yuan, Chen said. Two of the nominees, Yang Ya-hwei (楊雅惠) and Chen Tsi-yang (陳慈陽), are Examination Yuan members who joined in 2014 and 2017 respectively. Other nominees include former university presidents or vice presidents, such as former Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology vice president Wu Hsin-hsing (吳新興) and former National Taipei University of Technology president Yao Leeh-ter (姚立德), the Presidential Office said. The office said it expects the Legislature to review and approve the nominees by the end of next month, before the new Examination Yuan term begins on Sept. 1. The term would be the first under amendments to the Organic Act of the Examination Yuan (考試院組織法) passed in early January, which shortens the terms of members from six to four years and cuts the number of members from between 17 and 19 to between seven
A HEAVY BLOW: While the Russia-OPEC agreement should help prop up prices hit by the pandemic, the US and China continue to expand petrochemical production Oil refiner Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPCC, 台塑石化) yesterday gave a gloomy business outlook for this year, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and tumbling crude oil prices. “We have suffered immensely since the US-China trade conflict last year ... [and we are facing more] challenges with the ongoing pandemic and drops in oil prices,” FPCC chairman Chen Bao-lang (陳寶郎) told shareholders at the annual general meeting in Taipei. After posting a 38.7 percent year-on-year decline in net profit to a five-year low of NT$36.8 billion (US$1.23 billion) last year, FPCC reported a loss of NT$9.99 billion for last quarter due to plummeting crude oil prices and weakening demand amid the pandemic. “It [COVID-19] has dealt a heavy blow to market demand for crude oil, as people have avoided going shopping and flights have been canceled,” Chen said. Demand shrank further as the oil price dispute that broke out between Russia and Saudi Arabia late last quarter led the oil market to the brink of collapse, Chen added. In the first four months of this year, the company posted a 27.96 percent annual decline in revenue to NT$159.68 billion. “Russia and OPEC reached an agreement to cut production from the start of this month, which should help prop up oil prices,” Chen said. However, a complete recovery in prices appears improbable in the short term, as the US and China continue to expand their petrochemical production, Chen said. He forecast crude prices of about US$40 per barrel for benchmark Dubai crude by the end of the year, a sizable gap compared with January prices of nearly US$70 per barrel. “Ultimately it [oil price] would depend on the global economy, which in turn is dependent on the outcome of the current pandemic,” Chen said, adding that the development of a vaccine remains crucial. Chen expressed the hope that market demand might see a revival
ELECTRONICS BOOST: Corporate spending, particularly in the manufacturing sector, has become the driving force behind Taiwan’s gross domestic expenditure on R&D Taiwan’s gross domestic expenditure on research and development (R&D) is ranked third-highest in the world as it reached 3.36 percent of total gross domestic product, or NT$616 billion (US$20.55 billion), in 2018, the Ministry of Economic Affairs Department of Statistics said in a report yesterday. That surpassed Japan’s 3.26 percent, the US’ 2.83 percent and China’s 2.19 percent. Taiwan’s gross domestic expenditure on R&D closely followed Israel’s and South Korea’s, which remained the top two spenders on R&D at 4.9 percent and 4.53 percent respectively in 2018. Corporate spending has become the main driving force behind Taiwan’s gross domestic expenditure on R&D, making up 80.3 percent of total expenditure, on a level with that of South Korea, ministry data showed. Japan, China and the US posted slightly lower figures at 79.4 percent, 77.4 percent and 72.6 percent respectively. The ministry data also showed that Taiwan’s spending on R&D is concentrated on technical development, which increased 8.2 percent from 2017 to make up 69.7 percent of total expenditure in 2018. Corporate spending was highest in the manufacturing sector, namely the computer, electronics and optical components industry, which made up 73.6 percent of total corporate expenditure on R&D in 2018. By comparison, South Korean firms in this industry made up only about 51.9 percent of total R&D expenditure, while in Japan and China, it only made up 19.5 percent and 16.2 percent respectively. Taiwanese companies’ R&D spending in the service sector only made up 8.2 percent of total corporate expenditure on R&D. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s spending on basic research declined by 3.6 percentage points over the same period, making up only 7.3 percent of total expenditure. This is mainly due to budget cuts in government spending, as well as in higher education, the report said. However, Taiwan’s spending on applied research increased 8 percentage points from 2017 to 2018, contributing 23 percent of
Taiwanese hotel and restaurant operator FDC International Hotels Corp (雲品國際) has signed a contract with Taiwan Cement Corp (台灣水泥) to run a boutique hotel in the cement maker’s headquarters complex in Hangzhou, China, the hotelier’s first foray into overseas markets. FDC chairman Emile Sheng (盛治仁) inked the deal with Taiwan Cement president John Li (李鐘培) in Taipei on Wednesday. The new hotel is expected to start operations under the Fiore Della Cina brand in 2024. Taiwan Cement started construction on the property in December last year. FDC won the management contract by beating other international contestants, Sheng said. The planned hotel represents FDC’s first overseas expansion after resolutely growing its wedding and banquet business in Taiwan even though its hotel arm is taking a hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. FDC runs luxury resort Fleur de Chine (日月潭雲品酒店) near Sun Moon Lake, Palais de Chine (君品酒店) near Taipei Railway Station, as well as independent banquet facilities in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan. The collaboration with Taiwan Cement, which is to continue 25 years after the hotel’s opening, comes after FDC’s search for a new growth engine in a competitive industry, Sheng said. “Our banquet business should rebound from the effects of the outbreak in the second half of this year, aided by pent-up demand and government stimulus measures,” Sheng said, adding that more than 250 bookings have been made. Shareholders on Wednesday approved the company’s plan to distribute NT$2.5 per share in cash and stock dividends based on last year’s net income of NT$184 million (US$6.13 million), or earnings per share of NT$2.8. FDC is using cutthroat discounts to attract guests to its facilities. Shareholders of My Humble House Hospitality Management Consulting Co (寒舍餐旅) on Thursday gave their go-ahead to distribute a NT$1 cash dividend after net profit of NT$113 million last year, or earnings per share of
A little more than three years after the Council of Grand Justices issued its historic Constitutional Interpretation No. 748 ruling that Civil Code provisions defining marriage as between a man and a woman contravened the Constitution, the grand justices have declared that treating adultery as a criminal offense is unconstitutional and that such laws were immediately terminated. With yesterday’s ruling, Interpretation No. 791, the justices have once again gone where elected politicians and the Ministry of Justice have too long feared to tread — hiding behind pedantically worded opinion polls, whether government or privately commissioned, showing that a large majority of respondents were opposed the decriminalization of adultery. Interpretation No. 791 overturns Interpretation 554, issued in 2002, which upheld Article 239 of the Criminal Code on offenses against marriage and family, and declared “the freedom of sexual behavior is subject to the restriction put on it by marriage and the family system.” The grand justices’ ruling also pushes the ministry and the Executive Yuan to fulfill their obligations under the Act Governing Execution of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (公民與政治權利國際公約及經濟社會文化權利國際公約施行法), passed by the Legislative Yuan on March 31, 2009, stipulating that government agencies must conform to the two covenants’ human rights guarantees and formulate, amend or abolish those laws and regulations that are not in compliance with the covenants within two years of the act entering into force. Under the 2009 law, the government was required to establish a reporting system to monitor its compliance with the two covenants. Two reviews by groups of international experts of the government’s rights reports, in 2013 and 2017, both found fault with the government’s implementation of various elements of the covenants. Both reports recommended the government abolish the criminalization of adultery on the
During last year’s legislative review of the central government budget for this fiscal year, lawmakers requested that the Ocean Affairs Council assess feasibility and necessity of building airborne patrolling and monitoring capabilities for the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The council in February submitted the assessment report to the legislature, and it has since been discussed in several Chinese-language media. Having spent several decades teaching maritime law enforcement and security, and observing the situation in the waters surrounding the nation as well as the development of coast guard agencies around the world, this is an issue of great importance. Something is always going on in the waters around Taiwan. Off the west coast, Chinese fishing boats often cross into Taiwanese waters where they overfish and dredge sea sand. Off the north and the east coast, Japanese government vessels occasionally interfere with operations of Taiwanese fishing boats. Off the south coast, Vietnamese boats have often operated illegally in Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone during fishing season, and some are even hired by Taiwanese to engage in illegal activities such as drug trafficking and human smuggling. In the past few years, China has conducted frequent military maneuvers in the region. Since 2016 it has been common for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to deploy warplanes and military vessels to encircle Taiwan or send them to the South China Sea or the West Pacific, passing through Taiwan’s waters and airspace. In the past few months, as countries across the world have been occupied with the fight against COVID-19, Beijing has seized the opportunity to strengthen its military influence in the South China Sea and the Asia-Pacific region. Taiwan must be cautious when dealing with these maritime threats and provocations in order to avoid accidental conflicts and undesirable incidents. The coast guard is globally accepted as the government body responsible for
In the movie Star Wars: Episode 3 — Revenge of the Sith, the Galactic Senate gathered to vote on the reorganization of the Galactic Republic into the Empire. Sith Lord Darth Sidious justified this change to “ensure the security and continuing stability” of the Republic. The Senators were elated. Princess Padme Amidala of the planet Naboo said: “This is how liberty dies ... with thunderous applause.” A similar event might have occurred when the Chinese National People’s Congress gathered to vote on national security legislation for Hong Kong. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) would echo Darth Sidious, claiming that stability is China’s only way forward. His words would be met with the thunderous applause of 2,980 delegates from around China, but not a single directly elected representative from Hong Kong would have a say. The freedom-loving world watches with dismay and horror as the orchestrated show of “democracy” in China reveals itself. However, remember that none of this is surprising. When Hong Kong was handed over to China in 1997, the territory was the face of modern China and what all its major cities aspired to be. Forbes reported that in 1993 Hong Kong’s economy was valued at 27 percent of China’s, but by 2018 it was only 2.7 percent. Hong Kong has been eclipsed by China. As of last year, Beijing’s economy was worth US$553 billion; Shanghai, US$540 billion; Shenzhen, US$374 billion; and Hong Kong, US$372 billion. The numbers show that China has lost interest in Hong Kong. The territory has no long-term value for China since other cities can replicate and surpass its success. A founder of the Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), said: “The Chinese do not know ‘liberty,’ but only about ‘getting rich.’” The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), liberators of the oppressed and the guiding light of the Chinese, follow wherever the
CONCERNS: Some ‘high risk’ matches, such as a home fixture for Liverpool that could see them clinch the title, could be moved to neutral venues to stop fans congregating English Premier League clubs on Thursday agreed to restart the season on June 17, provided that all safety requirements are in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Aston Villa v Sheffield United and Manchester City v Arsenal — both rearranged games — are due to take place on that date, the league said in a statement. After those matches, all 20 clubs would have played 29 matches heading into the weekend of June 19 to 21, when the rest of the top flight is scheduled to be in action. The last Premier League match before the shutdown was Leicester v Aston Villa on March 9, with all English professional soccer suspended four days later. Premier League shareholders also approved a proposal that would see all 92 remaining matches broadcast live in the UK. Planned kickoffs would also differ from traditional times. “Today we have provisionally agreed to resume the Premier League on Wednesday 17 June, but this date cannot be confirmed until we have met all the safety requirements needed, as the health and welfare of all participants and supporters is our priority,” English Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said. “Sadly, matches will have to take place without fans in stadiums, so we are pleased to have come up with a positive solution for supporters to be able to watch all the remaining 92 matches.” “Football is back soon,” England captain and Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane wrote on Twitter. The restart date is conditional on top-level sport being given the green light to return by the British government. “We are still working on govt guidance before we green light sports’ return,” British Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Oliver Dowden wrote on Twitter. The Premier League suspended all fixtures in March after Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi tested positive
From masks, racket bumps, poplar tree fluff everywhere and the prospect of a final played at the press center, Prague’s first post-lockdown tennis tournament offered a plethora of bizarre moments. The three-day Czech Tennis President’s Cup, pitting eight women and eight men, which ended on Thursday, was played under tight health protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19. “The gloves, masks, the fact nobody handed us the towels, no handshakes, that was definitely bizarre,” two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova said after winning the women’s event. “And playing without people, the atmosphere was not exactly what we are used to,” added the 30-year-old world No. 12, who beat Karolina Muchova 6-3, 6-3 in a final disrupted by rain. The showers even made organizers contemplate moving the final to a nearby hall comprising two courts right next to each other — one ready for the match and the other serving as the press center. The event was held behind closed doors, with a handful of spectators demoted to spots behind the fence where they struggled to observe social distancing regulations. On the court, the line judges had to wear masks, just like the ball boys and girls, who also wore gloves to prevent contamination. Throughout the tournament, the players wore masks all the way to the court. “I guess this was the most bizarre thing, wearing the masks, and that you can’t shake hands with the opponent and the umpire,” said losing semi-finalist Barbora Strycova, the women’s doubles world No. 2 and partner of Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei. Instead of handshakes, the players merely bumped their rackets at the net. “We both laughed about it. It was my first ‘racket shake’ and it was weird,” Muchova said after her first-round match. “The strangest thing was having no stands with people around us, nobody cheered, we only waved at the referees,” the world No. 26
Italy’s Serie A on Thursday was given the green light to resume on June 20 after a three-month absence as one of the nations hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic begins to ease restrictions. Italian Minister for Sport Vincenzo Spadafora said that the government’s Technical and Scientific Committee (CTS) had agreed to the health protocol proposed by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC). “Italy has started to return to normal life again, it is only right that football should do the same,” Spadafora said. “The federation assured me that it had a plan B and a plan C. In light of these considerations, the championship can resume on June 20.” FIGC president Gabriele Gravina told the minister during a videoconference that there would be a playoff system if the league was again interrupted, while the existing standings would be used if it was stopped. “We had a very useful meeting,” Spadafora said. “From the start, I said that football could restart once all the security conditions had been met.” No top-flight Italian matches have been played since US Sassuolo beat Brescia 3-0 on March 9. Serie A now faces a scheduling nightmare for matches that are to take place behind closed doors. “I’m happy and satisfied,” Gravina said. “The restart of football represents a message of hope for the whole country.” Serie A teams were due to meet yesterday to examine the possible schedules for the remaining Serie A and Coppa Italia matches, 127 in total. Most teams have 12 league games left to play, but there were four postponed fixtures. “Finally today we have a date and the certainty that the championship will resume, it is a further signal that Italy is starting again,” Juventus captain Giorgio Chiellini said. “We can’t wait to get on the pitch and do what we love most, certain that we can give so many
Relief and excitement were the overwhelming emotions for Afghanistan after Cricket Australia confirmed that the nation would host them for a one-off Test in Perth from Nov. 21, Afghanistan Cricket Board chief executive Lutfullah Stanikzai said. Uncertainty had loomed over Afghanistan’s first Test against Australia due to travel and other restrictions imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19. However, Cricket Australia on Thursday gave the day-night match the green light when it announced its summer schedule, headlined by a marquee series against India. “There were rumors that this Test match might not go ahead, but it is a relief for us and our cricket fans that we have been given a confirmation,” Stanikzai said in an interview. “The world in general — and the cricketing world in particular — may not be the same after the coronavirus, but we have to move on and cricket has to return.” Having had to postpone a tour of Zimbabwe next month due to travel restrictions, the importance of the match against the world’s No. 1 Test team was not lost on Stanikzai. “It’s going to be a fantastic opportunity for our players’ development and in general for the development of Afghanistan cricket,” he said. “Everyone in the cricket world, especially in Test cricket, looks up to Australia. It’s going to be a historic and memorable occasion for Afghanistan as a new cricketing nation to play Australia in a Test match.” The Test newcomers, who were awarded coveted red-ball status in 2017, will not be completely unknown quantities to Australian cricket fans. Players such as Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman have become favorites in Australia’s Twenty20 Big Bash League, with their fearless hitting and economical bowling. Afghanistan have played four Tests to date — defeats to India and the West Indies, and victories over Ireland and Bangladesh.
DOUBLE TROUBLE: Former and current cancer patients are much more likely to die from COVID-19, according to two studies, one of which found a death rate of 28% New research shows how dangerous the novel coronavirus is for current and former cancer patients: Those who developed COVID-19 were much more likely to die within a month than people without cancer who got it, two studies found. They are the largest reports on people with both diseases in the US, the UK, Spain and Canada. In one study, half of 928 current and former cancer patients with COVID-19 were hospitalized and 13 percent died. That was far more than the various rates that have been reported in the general population. The results were published on Thursday in the journal Lancet and would be discussed this weekend at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference being held online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A second study in the Lancet from researchers in England of 800 patients with various types of cancer and COVID-19 found an even higher death rate — 28 percent. The risk rose with age and other health problems, such as high blood pressure. The studies have big implications: More than 1.6 million new cancers are diagnosed in the US each year, several million Americans are in treatment now and about 20 million are cancer survivors. Jeremy Warner, a Vanderbilt University data scientist who led the larger study, said that the results show the wisdom of measures that many hospitals have taken to delay or modify care for many cancer patients, and the need for people treated in the past to be extra careful now. “If they don’t have COVID-19, they want to do anything they can to avoid getting it,” Warner said. “The pandemic is posing incredible demands on the cancer care system” and the new studies show good reason for concern, said society president Howard Burris, who heads the Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, Tennessee. “We’re trying to minimize trips to the clinic”
Empty offices and restaurants in the city of Sydney are driving hungry rats into homes and suburbs, and the loosening of restrictions could create “a new rat plague,” a leading rat catcher said. As city centers have closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, suburban rat infestations have spiked, said Geoff Milton, a Sydney rat catcher with 35 years of experience. Rats naturally seek out houses in winter, and the sudden drop-off in food and garbage in cities is exacerbating the problem. Calls about suburban rats have risen 30 percent from the same time last year, Milton told reporters. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also warned that New York rats had become more “unusual or aggressive,” and have begun eating each other due to a lack of food. University of Sydney rodent expert Peter Banks said that the same thing had already happened in Australia. Cannibalism would have happened “within days” of restrictions being enacted, as city-dwelling rats ran out of food, he said. “We locked down and stopped using the city and closed restaurants quite rapidly, and that was quite long ago,” Banks told reporters. “The rats have to eat immediately, so this would have happened days after, because the rats are so food stressed.” “They are so dependent on our garbage and our spilt food. The rats we have in the center of Sydney are the same species as in New York,” he said. “They are wholly dependent on us. If they produce babies they can’t support, they kill them. Or one of their relatives comes in and kills them.” “They will eat other rats that die, for sure. It’s hard to say whether they will go and kill another rat. They will not let a meal of another rat go by,” he added. Milton said that this had driven rats into new areas. “They
Indonesian officials are forcing people who break social distancing rules to recite Koran verses, stay in “haunted” houses and submit to public shaming on social media as the country battles to contain surging novel coronavirus infections. The Southeast Asian archipelago began deploying about 340,000 troops across two dozen cities to oversee enforcement of measures aimed at halting transmission of the disease, such as wearing masks in public. However, provincial leaders are buttressing these efforts with their own zealous campaigns to fight the coronavirus. Police in western Bengkulu Province have assembled a 40-person squad to find lockdown scofflaws and force them to wear placards with promises to wear masks and keep their distance from others. Pictures of the perpetrators are then uploaded to social media for maximum shaming effect, one official said. “People in Bengkulu still aren’t aware of the importance of following the rules, especially when it comes to wearing masks and not gathering” in big groups, said Martinah, head of Bengkulu’s public order agency, who goes by one name. “This is for the sake of themselves and their families,” he added. Some of those singled out by police have bristled at the punishment, including fisherman Firmansyah, who was punished for failing to abide by the mask rule while alone on his boat. “It’s silly to wear a mask when I’m out at sea,” he said, after he was nabbed returning to shore. “There’s no regulation to wear a mask in the water. If there was I’d comply with it.” Farther north in conservative Aceh Province, those flouting public health regulations have been forced to atone by reading passages from the Koran. The area’s tiny non-Muslim minority are spared from the punishment. “If we find them not wearing masks they’ll just be reprimanded,” local government spokeswoman Agusliayana Devita said. The capital, Jakarta, this month announced new rules that could
Captain Wynn Gale — a fifth-generation Georgia shrimper — is on the side of the road on an April morning, selling shrimp at the same street corner where his dad sold shrimp. “How’s the pandemic treating you?” I ask. “Sales have dropped off by about two-thirds. No out-of-towners coming through on the I-95. No local traffic.” He sighs. “I’m going to tough it out. I can survive with what I’m selling. But that’s all I’m doing. Most shrimpers don’t have 401k retirement plans, you know?” Gale would rather be out on his boat, a 1953 trawler he had for nine years but recently sold to a man in North Carolina. “It made me good money, but I couldn’t find a crew! You just can’t find anyone who wants to work shrimp boats any more. Most of ‘em are on drugs. Give ‘em a check and they’re gone.” He has a small boat he can run himself now. In the past, shrimping was an admirable vocation. Gale first got out on a shrimp boat when he was 12. “Mama wouldn’t let me go any earlier, but from 12 years on out — every weekend I wasn’t in school or summer vacation I was on a shrimp boat.” He spent the next 20 years learning from his dad, who shrimped for 45 years. “What was an average day like?” “I’d leave about 4:30 in the morning and get to the dragging grounds about 6:30, maybe 7am. I’d put out in daylight, make three or four drags that day. The latest I’d be out would be 4pm,” he says. “Look,” he tells me. “What I’m doing right here, right now, selling shrimp on this corner — it sucks. It’s way better out there on the water. It’s where I’ve lived all my life. If I wasn’t in the ocean, I
For more than a century, Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) has been connecting the north and south of the nation. Between 1912 and 1926, the rail network was expanded to the eastern counties of Hualien and Taitung. Even though the number of people living in Taiwan has grown massively — it has more than tripled since World War II — a combination of population outflow in certain places, and a greater range of transportation options, has led to the closure of several TRA stations. One of the most-visited retired stations is in, and named for, Kaohsiung’s Cishan District (旗山). Until the late 1970s, it was a key stop on the 39.4km-long Ciwei Branch Line (旗尾線), which was built between 1910 and 1912 to link Jioucyutang (九曲堂) on the Western Trunk Line with Ciwei Sugar Factory (旗尾糖廠) and neighboring Meinong District (美濃). The line, which carried rice and bananas as well as sugar and people, was dismantled in 1982. The station at Cishan was left to decay until 2005, when the Kaohsiung County Government listed it as a relic and funded renovation work. Like many of the railway buildings that date from the period of Japanese rule, Cishan Station (旗山火車站) is single story and mostly made of wood. Yet its resemblance to Taiwan’s most famous colonial-era retired station, at Shengsing (勝興) in Miaoli, isn’t strong. On account of its Tudor-influenced shape, it looks more like the former Chiayi Forest Management Club (營林俱樂部) in downtown Chiayi. There are frequent buses between Cishan and downtown Kaohsiung, and some from Tainan to Cishan. Between 1903 and 1998, what’s since become known as the Old Mountain Line (舊山線) was the highest stretch of the main north-south railroad. Shengsing Station (勝興火車站), at an altitude of 402m, is an authentic if often crowded tourist attraction. Thanks to its popularity, there’s always plenty
It’s difficult to watch Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, a four-hour Netflix series on the now-deceased convicted sex offender without a choking sense of outrage. How many girls had to suffer to get attention? How perversely twisted is the American justice system that a Gatsby-esque billionaire, friends with such powerful figures as Bill Clinton , Prince Andrew and Donald Trump, a longstanding donor to Harvard and MIT, could buy his way out of an almost certain life sentence for child sex abuse and trafficking? Filthy Rich arrives, of course, less than a year after Epstein, 66, died, officially by suicide, in a New York jail last August. “There’s no justice in this,” Shawna Rivera, speaking publicly for the first time about Epstein’s alleged abuse starting when she was 14, says in the final episode. “There was just so much more to be said that will never be said.” There is, however, much to be learned from the sordid, winding, thwarted path to Epstein’s eventual arrest on sex trafficking charges in July last year. Filthy Rich doesn’t so much break new ground as synthesize the abundance of information with the visceral impact of first-person testimony on Epstein’s crimes — stories of predation, self-doubt and shame by numerous survivors betrayed by the justice system supposed to protect them. Epstein’s decades-long legal saga is “the biggest example I’ve ever seen of somebody using their money and influence to thwart reporting on the subject and to work out an outrageous deal,” Joe Berlinger, an executive producer, told the Guardian. Production on Filthy Rich began before Epstein became a household name — before his death, before his shock arrest, before a 2018 Pulitzer-winning investigation by the Miami Times-Herald into the sweetheart plea deal negotiated by federal prosecutors to keep Epstein out of prison. “The level of incompetence and back-door dealing
A : However, for someone like me who rarely listens to classical music, it’s difficult to imagine a classical musician livestreaming a recital. B : So you don’t think a livestream creates an enchanting, intimate feeling? A : I’m sure it does, but at the same time, won’t much of the subtlety of the performance be lost? B : I think rock groups actually suffer from the same problem. A : 不過，對於我這種很少聽古典音樂的人，很難想像音樂家自己辦線上獨奏會會是什麼樣子。 B : 你不覺得這樣很迷人嗎？會有一種更親密的感覺。 A : 話是沒錯。可是在此同時，許多音樂上的細節卻被犧牲掉了。 B : 我想搖滾樂團應該也有類似的顧慮吧。 English 英文: Chinese 中文:
Fans around the world are celebrating the 30th anniversary of Madonna’s megahit Vogue, which became her eighth Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 on May 19, 1990, topping the chart for three weeks. With some influences of disco music, the upbeat house song set trends in dance music, and was seen as a career-defining smash that transformed her into the Queen of Pop. Vogue is from Madonna’s 1990 soundtrack for the film Dick Tracy. Inspired by the dramatic dance style of “voguing” in Harlem as a way of self-expression, she performed with voguing choreographers in her classic black-and-white MV directed by David Fincher. As Billboard commented, “While Madonna hardly invented the iconic moves, her global reach propelled ‘voguing’ into the mainstream.” Madonna also saluted 16 golden-era Hollywood superstars in a rap section, such as James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. With the passing of actress Lauren Bacall in 2014, all the Vogue icons in the song have died, but their legacies will live on through the music. (Eddy Chang, Taipei Times) 全球樂迷近日歡慶瑪丹娜金曲《風尚》三十週年。該曲在一九九○年五月十九日，成為她的第八首告示牌百大熱門單曲榜冠軍。受到迪斯可曲風影響，這首輕快的浩室舞曲開創舞曲新風潮，被視為將瑪丹娜推上事業高峰、奠定其流行樂女王地位的神曲！ 《風尚》出自於瑪丹娜一九九○年的《迪克崔西》電影原聲帶，她受到源自於哈林區一種叫「voguing」的舞蹈所啟發，也就是用誇張的舞蹈風格來表達自我，並邀請「voguing」編舞家們和她拍攝由大衛芬奇執導、以黑白呈現的經典音樂錄影帶。告示牌則評論︰「瑪丹娜雖未發明這種招牌舞步，她的全球觸及率卻將『voguing』推向主流市場。」 在一段饒舌中，娜姐還特別向好萊塢黃金年代的十六位巨星致敬，其中包括詹姆士狄恩、瑪麗蓮夢露……等。女星洛琳白考兒於二○一四年過世後，雖然這些《風尚》人物全都不在了，他們遺留的傳奇將隨著音樂流傳下去。 (台北時報張聖恩)
| New Taipei City | 25-30 | 10% |  |
| Hsinchu County | 26-29 | 10% | |
| Hsinchu City | 26-29 | 10% | |
| Taipei City | 25-29 | 10% |  |
| Miaoli County | 26-29 | 10% | |
| Taoyuan City | 25-30 | 10% | |
| Keelung City | 25-28 | 0% | |
| Yunlin County | 25-29 | 10% | |
| Taichung City | 26-30 | 10% | |
| Nantou County | 25-30 | 10% |  |
| Changhua County | 26-30 | 10% | |
| Chiayi County | 25-29 | 20% | |
| Chiayi City | 25-30 | 10% | |
| Tainan City | 27-29 | 30% |  |
| Kaohsiung City | 27-30 | 30% | |
| Pingtung County | 25-31 | 10% | |
| Yilan County | 24-28 | 10% | |
| Hualien County | 25-28 | 0% | |
| Taitung County | 26-30 | 0% | |
| Kinmen County | 25-27 | 10% | |
| Penghu County | 25-28 | 10% | |
| Lienchiang County | 24-26 | 30% | |
RSS