Wed, Sep 16, 2020
A Taiwanese bird protection group yesterday said that it has been kicked out of BirdLife International — a global conservation partnership — after it refused to sign a statement saying it would never advocate independence. The Taipei-based Chinese Wild Bird Federation said that BirdLife International last week voted to remove it, ending a partnership that had been in place since 1996. Over the past 20 years, the federation has changed its English name three times to satisfy BirdLife International, and recently the international group demanded that it change its Chinese name and sign a statement that it is “formally committing to not promote or advocate the legitimacy of the Republic of China (ROC) or the independence of Taiwan from China.” The federation said that it was informed that its Chinese name — which contains “ROC” — “posed a risk” to UK-based BirdLife. Signing such a statement would be inappropriate, because “we are a conservation organization,” not a political one, it said. The federation said that as a non-governmental organization, it has never expressed a stance on the matter and that “our removal seems to be an example of politics getting in the way of good conservation.” BirdLife also informed the federation that it would not participate in any activity fully or partly funded by Taipei, and prohibited the federation from using BirdLife’s name or logo in any media bearing an ROC flag or symbol. BirdLife did not respond to requests for comment. Federation deputy secretary-general Allen Lyu (呂翊維) said that the group has long had interactions with Japanese groups and that it would reach out to them, or groups in the US and Europe, to discuss whether a response to its removal could be organized. The federation said that it would explain its plans to the public on Wednesday next week. There are no national borders for birds, it said,
Cross-strait exchanges should be based on mutual respect and held on an equal footing, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said yesterday, a day after the party pulled out of a forum in China because of what it perceived as a demeaning remark by a Chinese commentator. Chiang attributed the party’s last-minute decision not to attend the 12th Straits Forum opening in Xiamen on Saturday to the complexity of the cross-strait situation. “The current situation makes it unfavorable for the KMT to attend the forum as a party and we do not want to force ourselves to attend the forum under these circumstances, so similar exchanges can remain possible,” he said. Chiang was referring to a comment that Li Hong (李紅), host of a talk show on China Central Television (CCTV), made on Thursday last week, two days after the KMT announced that former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) would lead the party’s delegation to the forum. Li’s show focused on cross-strait affairs and discussed the KMT delegation, at which point CCTV summarized Li’s comments on the screen: “With the Strait on the brink of war, this man is coming to the mainland to sue for peace.” The summary, which implied that Wang and the KMT were heading to China to show their subservience to Beijing, stirred up controversy and anger in Taiwan. The KMT asked Li to apologize, but had not received a response before announcing on Monday afternoon that the delegation would no longer be attending the forum. However, the KMT has not prohibited party members from participating as private citizens. Chiang said that the decision highlighted the need to conduct cross-strait exchanges based on “mutual trust and goodwill and on an equal footing,” principles always upheld by the KMT. He called on both sides of the Strait to continue to uphold these principles for
‘MANIPULATION’: China has always protected the rights of foreigners and is one of the safest countries in the world, the Chinese foreign ministry said The US yesterday issued a sweeping new advisory warning against travel to mainland China and Hong Kong, citing the risk of “arbitrary detention” and “arbitrary enforcement of local laws.” The advisory is likely to heighten tensions between the two, which have spiked since Beijing’s imposition in June of a new National Security Law in Hong Kong that has already been met with a series of US punitive actions. The statement warned US citizens that China imposes “arbitrary detention and exit bans” to compel cooperation with investigations, pressure family members to return to China from abroad, influence civil disputes and “gain bargaining leverage over foreign governments.” “US citizens traveling or residing in China or Hong Kong, may be detained without access to US consular services or information about their alleged crime. US citizens may be subjected to prolonged interrogations and extended detention without due process of law,” the advisory said. In Hong Kong, China “unilaterally and arbitrarily exercises police and security power,” the advisory said, adding that new legislation covers offenses committed by non-Hong Kong residents or organizations outside the territory, possibly subjecting US citizens who have publicly criticized China to a “heightened risk of arrest, detention, expulsion, or prosecution.” When in Hong Kong, US citizens are “strongly cautioned to be aware of their surroundings and avoid demonstrations,” it said. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) told reporters at a daily briefing yesterday that the US should “fully respect the facts and should not engage in unwarranted political manipulation” when issuing such advisories. “China has always protected the safety and legal rights of foreigners in China in accordance with law. China is one of the safest countries in the world,” Wang said. “Of course, foreigners in China also have an obligation to abide by Chinese laws.”
A group of scientists on Monday sent a formal letter to The Lancet outlining doubts about the accuracy of early data on Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine, one of the authors said, adding further fuel to a dispute surrounding the “Sputnik-V” shot. Fifteen scientists from five countries signed the letter presenting their concerns to the international medical journal, said Enrico Bucci, biologist adjunct professor at Philadelphia’s Temple University. Reuters did not see the contents of the letter. The move nonetheless highlights growing concern among scientists about the safety and efficacy of the Sputnik-V vaccine, which the Russian government approved for use before completing full human trials. The official letter came days after a larger group of scientists — including the 15 — signed an open letter to The Lancet’s editor, published on Bucci’s personal blog, after the journal published the early-stage trial results from Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute. They said they found patterns in the phase 1/2 data, which was peer-reviewed in the journal, that looked “highly unlikely,” with multiple participants reporting identical antibody levels. The Gamaleya Institute did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the formal letter sent on Monday. Last week, the institute rejected the critique contained in the open letter, which was initially signed by 26 scientists, but now has 38 signatories. “The published results are authentic and accurate and were examined by five reviewers at The Lancet,” institute deputy director Denis Logunov said in a statement. He said his institute submitted the entire body of raw data on the trial results to the journal. The Lancet said it had invited the authors of the Russian vaccine study to respond to the questions raised in the open letter by Bucci. “We continue to follow the situation closely,” it added. Russian Assistant Minister of Health Alexey Kuznetsov on Thursday last week told the Interfax news agency that the institute
ON THEIR OWN: The KMT has decided not to participate as a party at this year’s forum, and if any members do go, they would not be representing the party, Alicia Wang said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday announced that it would not send a delegation “as a political party” to this year’s Straits Forum, after a Chinese TV program described the planned visit to the annual meeting as “suing for peace.” The 12th forum is scheduled to open in Xiamen, China, on Saturday. On Tuesday last week, the KMT announced that former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) would lead the party’s delegation to the forum, with KMT Secretary-General Lee Chien-lung (李乾龍) as deputy head. However, on Thursday last week, China Central Television’s (CCTV) Yangshipin (央視頻) program, hosted by Li Hong (李紅), included a headline about Wang and the delegation that read: “With the Strait on the brink of war, this man is coming to the mainland to sue for peace.” KMT Culture and Communications Committee chairwoman Alicia Wang (王育敏) told a press conference in Taipei that the KMT’s announcement last week that Wang would lead the delegation was aimed at “opening a window for cross-strait peaceful dialogue” and “promoting mutually beneficial people-to-people exchanges.” However, the “suing for peace” claim has “changed the tone of the good intention of exchange,” she said. The “overall atmosphere” across the Taiwan Strait is disadvantageous for exchange and dialogue between the two sides, so the KMT has decided “not to participate [in the forum] as a political party,” Wang said. Cross-strait relations at present are “very complicated and sensitive,” she said. “Any inappropriate comments or behavior are enough to cause serious harm to the hard-won goodwill and mutual trust,” she said. The KMT believes that the two sides of the Strait should engage in exchanges based on reciprocity and dignity, and it would continue to work toward cross-strait exchange and dialogue, she added. Asked if any KMT members would attend the forum, Wang said the forum is a non-governmental exchange event and KMT members
The National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) yesterday thanked the public and healthcare providers for their long-term support as it celebrated the 25th anniversary of the National Health Insurance (NHI) program and the record-breaking number of registers on its “My Health Bank” service. The second-generation NHI, launched in 2013, covers 99.84 percent of the population, or about 23.9 million people, with nearly 93 percent of the nation’s medical institutions taking part in the program, agency Director-General Lee Po-chang (李伯璋) said at the anniversary event. Launched in 2014, My Health Bank — a service that allows NHI members to register for an account on the online system and view their medical history on its Web site or mobile app — now has more than 5 million registered members, Lee said. The service also allows direct blood relatives to check the medical history of family members, he added. The NHI has a 90 percent satisfaction rating among the public, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said, adding that it is an exemplary model that government agencies should look up to when providing public services. Following the introduction in February of the government’s real-name system for mask rationing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of My Health Bank accounts increased from 1.68 million to 5 million, Su said. Promoting the health-monitoring service was initially difficult, but the government’s disease prevention measures, including travel history tracing and mask rationing, have contributed to the surge in its users, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said. A crisis can also be an opportunity, so it is important to make early preparations and keep a positive mindset, Chen added. In related news, the NHIA plans to double the annual funding for medical compensation to healthcare institutions to NT$12.3 billion (US$417.15 million) as part of the nation’s efforts to improve overall healthcare quality, with a focus on
TAIWAN MADE: The system, which is to be used with Formosat-7/COSMIC2, allows for greater flexibility and information security protection, an NSPO researcher said The National Space Organization (NSPO) yesterday said that it has developed the nation’s first cross-platform satellite operation control system, which is to control the Formosat-7/COSMIC2 constellation and would save nearly NT$500 million (US$17.02 million) on project development. The system was trialed on Formosat-5, a remote sensing satellite launched in 2017, and later used to control the Formosat-7 constellation, National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) president Wu Kuang-chong (吳光鐘) told a news conference at the NSPO in Hsinchu. A Taiwan-US collaboration, the six-satellite Formosat-7, which conducts weather observations, was launched on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy in June last year. Four of the Formosat-7 satellites have moved from their 720km deployment orbit to 550km mission orbits on separate planes, while the other two would move to their mission orbits by February next year, the NSPO said. The system has helped the NSPO contact the Formosat-7 satellites more than 30,000 times, over which it downloaded more than 2 million data packages, Wu said. The system marks another leap in Taiwan’s space tech development, as the nation used to purchase satellite software from foreign suppliers, he said. The system over the past 14 months has proved it is comparable to similar products from foreign suppliers, NSPO associate research fellow Chen Kun-lin (陳坤林) said. Built for NT$60 million after work began in 2009, the system saves on software development and maintenance costs that were previously outsourced, Chen said. Development and maintenance costs for the Formosat-3/COSMIC constellation and the Formosat-5 were NT$150 million and NT$170 million respectively, he said. As the system can be adapted for other missions, the NSPO would save nearly NT$500 million in development costs for its Triton, Formosat-8, Formosat-9 and Formosat-10 constellations, which are part of the nation’s third space technology development program running through 2028, he said. In developing the system, the NSPO engaged private businesses, such as CTCI Advanced Systems Inc and
The launch of weather satellite Triton, or Wind Hunter (獵風者號), has been postponed to 2022 due to component delivery delays, while cuts in the government budget have affected other satellite projects, the National Space Organization (NSPO) said yesterday. The NSPO last year said that Triton would be launched by French rocket supplier Arianespace in the second half of next year from French Guiana, although its Web site had said that the launch was scheduled for June 2022. NSPO Director-General Lin Chun-liang (林俊良) yesterday confirmed the delay, saying that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign suppliers could not deliver some components in time, including two solar energy panels. The nation is working to become more independent in space technology development to reduce uncertainty and costs in satellite development, Lin said. Triton has a NT$1.23 billion (US$41.87 million) budget, with more than 85 percent of its components developed in Taiwan, he said. Critical components, including for its Global Navigation Satellite System-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) system, its hydrogen peroxide system, its onboard computer, power control unit, GPS receiver and fiber-optic gyro, were developed by the NSPO in collaboration with other local academic or industrial partners, he said. The low-Earth orbit satellite would gather GNSS signals reflected from the Earth’s surface, which would help with research on soil characteristics and air-sea interactions, as well as boosting typhoon intensity predictions, the NSPO said. The NSPO faces a budget cut of more than NT$500 million from its proposed budget of more than NT$2 billion for next year, Lin said. Lin did not comment on a cause for the cut, but said it would affect the development schedule of Formosat-8, a constellation of six high-resolution optical remote sensing satellites. While the Executive Yuan last year agreed to allocate NT$25.1 billion for the third space technology development program, the NSPO’s annual funding might be adjusted every year, Lin said. The
INTEGRATION: Transport officials said drivers would benefit from being able to access information about alternative routes over two long weekends next month Mobile apps developed by the Freeway Bureau and the Directorate-General of Highways (DGH) have been integrated into the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ plans to ease congestion on the Chiang Wei-Shui Freeway (Freeway No. 5) over the Mid-Autumn Festival and Double Ten National Day next month. The ministry was criticized after heavy congestion on the freeway for 32 consecutive hours on the first two days of the Dragon Boat Festival in June. With two long weekends next month — Oct. 1 to Oct. 4 for the Mid-Autumn Festival and Oct. 9 to Oct. 11 for Double Ten National Day — the bureau yesterday said that the apps, which provide traffic information, would share their information. The Freeway 1968 app has an icon that can be tapped to access information related to Freeway No. 5, the bureau said. Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) told reporters at a news conference that if motorists want to bypass Freeway No. 5, they would have to know the alternative routes and traffic conditions on them. “The alternative routes to Freeway No. 5 are Highway No. 2 and Highway No. 9, but drivers would want to know which route would get them to their destinations the fastest from where they are,” Lin said. “This information should be available, but it would be a hassle and dangerous for drivers to switch between apps to find it.” “Therefore, it was necessary to integrate the apps so people can make informed decisions,” he said. The Freeway 1968 app has been downloaded about 3.8 million times and the Highway to Happiness app more than 1 million times, he said, adding that their combined data allow more drivers to access traffic updates. The ministry has investigated every avenue to tackle congestion issues on Freeway No. 5, Lin said. However, whether they are effective would only be determined
Parents and children led by the Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party and other groups yesterday rallied outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei in support of LGBT education after King & King (國王與國王), a book for children depicting a homosexual relationship, drew protests. The rally followed a similar one on Wednesday last week. The Ministry of Education gave the book to children as part of a program to promote reading among students entering their first year of elementary or junior-high school. Every first-grader was given one book from among 100 titles, including the Mandarin-language edition of the picture book. Authored and illustrated by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland, the book was originally published under the Dutch title Koning & Koning. It depicts two princes who get married. The ministry’s inclusion of the book on its list has been protested by groups over its content. Supporters of the book yesterday shouted slogans including: “Help children become themselves” and “LGBT education provides complete children’s rights.” They held signs with messages such as: “Who a child likes is their freedom” and “Whether a child likes girls or boys will not be affected by a book.” Several groups were represented, including the Garden of Hope Foundation, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights and the Taiwan Gender Equity Education Association. The inclusion of the book has drawn protests from some parents’ groups, who say that it “smuggles LGBT issues into classrooms and would create confusion in children’s minds,” Obasang chairwoman Chang Shu-hui (張淑惠) said. After reading the book, a child “might think more, and wonder: ‘Do I like boys or girls?’” Chang said. “Is this a kind of confusion, or is this a starting point for constantly asking oneself questions and a starting point for self-understanding?” she asked. “As parents, when a five or six-year-old child points to the picture book King & King on the shelf, or
LOAN PROGRAM: Nighttime inspections by Taipei labor officials found several alleged violations, including not paying the correct overtime or giving enough days off Surprise nighttime inspections of six financial institutions found that all of them appeared to be engaged in one or more allegedly unlawful activities, Taipei Department of Labor Commissioner Chen Hsin-yu (陳信瑜) said yesterday. Beginning in May, the department received several petitions from Taipei City Councilor Hsu Li-hsin (徐立信) and the Taiwan Federation of Financial Unions, reporting that bank employees have been working too much overtime trying to handle applications for COVID-19 relief loans and were not getting paid for it, Chen said. Applications for the government’s COVID-19 pandemic relief loan program for Taiwanese workers aged 20 or older opened on April 30, with each applicant able to apply for a maximum of NT$100,000 (US$3,404) per person. The Ministry of Labor has stipulated that companies handling work associated with the loan program can be regarded as working under an “unexpected event” situation as stipulated in the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), meaning that employees would be allowed to extend their working hours or work on holidays if needed. The department decided to conduct unannounced inspections at night at six randomly selected financial institutions that were offering the relief loans to check on employees’ working conditions, Chen said. She said that she had personally led the spot inspections of state-owned Bank of Taiwan, Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank, KGI Bank, Yuanta Commercial Bank, Standard Chartered Bank Taiwan and the Small and Medium Enterprise Credit Guarantee Fund of Taiwan. All six have allegedly contravened the Labor Standards Act through such actions as not paying overtime according to the legally prescribed calculation method, not giving enough days off and not giving the correct payment for working on rest days, the department said. Other alleged contraventions include not reporting the overtime situation to the labor union or the department within the required timeframe and inaccurate attendance records, it added. “The inspections found some bank employees
The New Taipei City Department of Health yesterday confirmed that Team Power Healthcare had imported unapproved masks from China and relabeled them as made in Malaysia. Food and Drug Management section head Yang Shu-chin (楊舒秦) said that Team Power Healthcare did have a medical device permit license for masks manufactured in Malaysia, but had moved its manufacturing site to China and did not apply for a new license immediately. “The company imported the masks [from China] before obtaining a [new] medical device permit license, so it contravened Article 83 of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act (藥事法),” she said. The company’s actions appear to have also contravened Article 255 of the Criminal Code, and the New Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office would open its own investigation. Article 83 stipulates that “any person who manufactures or imports medical devices without obtaining prior approval may face imprisonment up to three years or a fine up to NT$10 million [US$340,368],” Yang said. Article 255 stipulates that a person found guilty of intent to defraud others by making a false mark or indication of the country of origin or quality on merchandises could face up to one year in prison or a fine up to NT$30,000. Earlier this month the department received a list from the central government of companies with unusual imports, including Team Power Healthcare, and the central government and the city cooperated in investigating the companies, Yang said. Further details on the case, including the manufacturing site of the masks, the number of masks imported and where they were sold, are still under investigation by the Investigation Bureau’s New Taipei City Field Division, and cannot be released, she said. The Chinese-language Want Weekly (周刊王) yesterday reported that the New Taipei City Department of Health issued a document on Tuesday last week informing the New Taipei City Medical Instruments Commercial Association of alleged
The nation’s airlines would have sustained greater financial losses if it were not for the government relief package and booming air cargo service market, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) statistics showed that all of the airlines reported financial losses during the first half of this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. China Airlines (CAL) lost NT$1.313 billion (US$44.69 million) between January and June, while EVA Airways’ (EVA) losses for that period topped NT$1.834 billion. CAL’s subsidiary Mandarin Airlines and EVA’s Uni Air sustained NT$340 million and NT$18.40 million in losses respectively. Starlux Airlines, which began operations in January, also reported a financial loss of NT$1.312 billion. Asked to comment on the airlines’ financial predicament and if the government plans to provide them with more funds, Lin said that transportation and tourism service providers have borne the brunt of the repercussions brought by the pandemic. “We quickly assessed the situation and helped airlines secure a loan of NT$50 billion to help them weather this difficult time,” he said. “The financial losses sustained by Taiwanese flight carriers have been relatively smaller compared with those of international carriers in other countries,” he added. Revenues from an increase in their air cargo services helped compensate local airlines for their losses, he said. When the pandemic began to spread from China to other countries, Lin said that airline executives had told him that they expected the financial losses this year could top NT$10 billion. “The losses were much smaller than they had expected. This showed that the relief package did help the airlines, and they made timely and proper adjustments to reduce losses, such as focusing on air cargo businesses,” he said.
Half a million masks donated by Taiwan arrived on Monday in Victoria, the Australian state with the country’s highest transmission of COVID-19, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The donation is the latest cooperation between the two nations on COVID-19 prevention since the beginning of this year and exemplifies the slogan “Taiwan is helping” in the fight against the virus, the ministry said. Taiwan and Australia exchanged key disease prevention supplies in March and held online seminars under the Global Cooperation and Training Framework, an initiative launched by Taiwan and the US in June 2015, the ministry added. Australia is an important partner in the government’s New Southbound Policy and shares the values of democracy and freedom, it said. The two nations would continue to bolster cooperation in areas such as preventive medicine and biotechnology, the ministry said. Australia has recorded 26,692 COVID-19 infections, including 816 deaths and 23,573 recovered patients, the majority of whom are in Victoria, the Australian Department of Health Web site showed. As of Monday, 19,872 infections had been recorded in the state, including 729 deaths and 18,006 recovered patients, while the number of active cases peaked on Aug. 7, Victoria Department of Health and Human Services data showed.
Stringent contact tracing and quarantine measures are more effective than locking down cities in containing the spread of COVID-19, former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) told CNN on Sunday. Chen shared Taiwan’s experience in combating SAR-CoV-2 during an interview with CNN host Fareed Zakaria on his weekly GPS program. The Johns Hopkins-trained epidemiologist said that unlike the US, Taiwan did not lock down its cities. “City lockdown is not a good way. The very careful contact tracing and very stringent quarantine of close contacts are the best ways to contain the COVID-19,” he said. Taiwan did not conduct widespread mass testing either, he said. Instead, it tested people who showed possible symptoms of COVID-19 and then conducted contact tracing and tracking of those who might have come in contact with them, he added. “We considered it more efficient and also more effective,” he said. Chen highlighted the importance of implementing 14-day home quarantine for those who had come into contact with confirmed cases. About 250,000 people have been quarantined in Taiwan and 99.5 percent followed the quarantine guidelines, while the remaining few who broke the rules received penalties, Chen said. “I always say that we have sacrificed 250,000 people’s freedom for 14 days. But through this kind of home quarantine we can assure that 23 million people in Taiwan can work normally, go to school normally and live normally,” he said. In this way, Taiwan contained the outbreak and reduce the effect of the global pandemic on the economy, Chen said. Asked if he thought China deceived the world at the beginning of the outbreak, Chen said that the world would not have suffered as much as it did if China reported the outbreak to the WHO at an early stage. “If the WHO received the information and helped China contain COVID-19
O2O BICYCLE SHOW: The Taiwan Bicycle Show next year is to be online to offline, with forums, audio-visual conferences and livestreaming of the offline events Local bicycle makers expect demand to continue outpacing supply due to orders triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, with some companies seeing orders back up through next year. “Next year is all full in terms of orders. Our lead time on components is one year,” Giant Manufacturing Co Ltd (巨大機械) chairwoman Bonnie Tu (杜綉珍) told a news conference in Taipei organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) to announce next year’s Taipei Cycle Show. The pandemic has reduced bicycle supplies and increased demand around the world, Robert Wu (吳盈進), chairman of KMC (Kuei Meng) International Inc (桂盟國際), one of the world’s biggest bicycle chain makers, told reporters. “Understand that from February to May all of the bicycle-making countries in the world were effectively at a standstill, with only a two-month supply of components at hand — this caused a massive shortage,” Wu said. “We are still in the process of making up that shortage,” he said. “We have not even begun to meet the virus-related increase in demand for bicycles. Those orders must stand in line and wait.” Merida Industry Co Ltd (美利達) chairman Michael Tseng (曾崧柱) said that the “explosion in demand” is a “happy problem.” Beset by virus-related production and retail issues, all bicycle exports, except for electric bicycles, in the first seven months of this year declined by 29.7 percent to 905,000 units from 1.28 million units in the same period last year, data compiled by the Taiwan Bicycle Association showed. Electric bicycle exports rose in that same period to 410,000 units from 339,000 units a year earlier, association data showed. The US is the largest export market for all bicycles, except for electric bicycles, accounting for 38.2 percent of the market, while the Netherlands is the largest export market for electric bicycles, accounting for 33.6 percent of the market, the data showed. “I would
POOR INTERNAL CONTROLS: Insurance Bureau Director-General Shih Chiung-hwa said the company is expected to get back on track while its chairman is suspended The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday fined Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) NT$27.6 million (US$939,415) for a reckless investment that endangered its solvency, and suspended its chairman Eugene Wu (吳東進) for poor supervision. The penalty is the second-highest in a single case after Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) was fined NT$30 million in September last year and its chairman Du Ying-tzyong (杜英宗) suspended for two years, the commission said. In three rounds of special and regular examinations conducted since last year, the commission found that Shin Kong Life had given too much power to an asset and liability management committee on investment decisions, without any checks, Insurance Bureau Director-General Shih Chiung-hwa (施瓊華) told a news conference in New Taipei City. The committee, led by Wu, increased its investment by NT$96.66 billion in several US stocks and exchange-traded funds in two consecutive days in January, ignoring warnings from the insurer’s risk management department, Shih said. However, as US stocks tumbled, the insurer’s value-at-risk, a measure of the risk of investment loss given market conditions, increased to 43.33 percent by the end of March 27, which was 2.75 times higher than the 15.73 percent limit set by the insurer’s board members, Shih added. The investment also caused the insurer’s equity-to-asset ratio, a key solvency gauge, to fall to 2.2 percent as of the end of March, below the regulatory minimum of 3 percent, she added. “Even though the firm’s risk-based capital ratio dropped below the board member’s goal of 250 percent, the committee did not discuss how to improve it. There were no minutes of the committee’s meetings, which indicates poor internal controls,” Shih said. Wu, who should have ensured the firm’s financial strength and solvency, on the contrary weakened them by allowing the committee not to report to the board of directors and appointing more than
Presale and new housing projects in the nation’s major municipalities have reached NT$542.89 billion (US$18.48 billion) in the autumn sales season, as real demand is supporting the property market despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the online housing unit of Addcn Technology Co Ltd (數字科技) said in a report. The volume represents a minor drop of 4 percent year-on-year for the post-Ghost Month sales season, when developers and builders seek to reboot sales after lying low, the newhouse.591.com (591新建案) unit said in the report. New Taipei City accounts for the biggest share, an estimated NT$165.9 billion of presale and new housing projects, primarily in Banciao (板橋), Sanchong (三重), Sindian (新店), Linkou (林口) and Sinjhuang (新莊) districts, the report said. New housing projects total NT$25 billion in Banciao’s rezoning area, where major players such as Ruentex Industries Co (潤泰全球), I Sunny Co (愛山林建設) and the development arm of Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) have projects, it said. Hahuan Group’s (合環建設機構) urban renewal project, which makes up another NT$20 billion, offers apartments of 29 ping (95.87m2) to 76 ping on a 2,000 ping plot of land on Sindian’s Baociao Road, the report said, adding that asking prices could reach NT$800,000 per ping. Taiwan’s quick control of the COVID-19 outbreak has given land developers and real-estate builders the confidence to launch new products, while their peers elsewhere have adopted a conservative strategy, the report said. Among major municipalities, Taipei, with only NT$50 billion in new housing projects offered — a 20 percent decline from a year earlier — appears more cautious, it said. Only one project in the city, near Beitou MRT Station, has a total sales volume of more than NT$6 billion, it added. New housing projects in Taichung rose 20 percent to NT$96.83 billion, as presale apartments priced at NT$8 million have rapidly become popular, the report said. Sales strategies that highlight low
The Ministry of Education’s inclusion of a book depicting homosexuality in its recommended reading list for first-graders sparked a backlash from groups opposed to same-sex marriage, which came as no surprise. The book in question is the Dutch King & King (國王與國王), which was the world’s first children’s book to show a drawing of two men kissing — albeit with a red heart covering their lips — when it was published in 2000. While the book has sparked debate over the past week in Taiwan, many in the US have been trying to have it banned in schools for the past two decades. It also ranks 20th among the American Library Association’s most challenged books from 2000 to 2009. One high-profile case was a 2006 federal lawsuit filed by parents in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage was legalized in 2004. The judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying: “Diversity is a hallmark of our nation.” “There is no evidence of systemic indoctrination. There is no allegation that [the student] was asked to affirm gay marriage,” the judge said. Even as Taiwan becomes increasingly diverse on many fronts, discrimination remains rife and the only way to overcome this is by educating the next generation. However, many people still believe that shielding children from the world is the right thing to do. It is absurd that people still believe that learning about and understanding homosexuality could make a child gay. Still, it seems like the only tired argument that anti-LGBTQ groups can think of to plead their case. Not only do they allege that the book’s selection is a “plot by the ministry to make children gay,” they also maintain that if the practice continues, Taiwan would become a “homosexualized country,” whatever that means. The arguments are effective in playing to the fears of many parents, but
A nation existing globally respects what other nations think, and appropriates other nations’ perceptions of itself. The element that a nation wants to see most in its international image is respect, something the People’s Republic of China seems to be craving. Criteria of respect for nations are historically and culturally variant, but one primary, essential criterion has become universal since the end of the Cold War: a respect for human rights. How the government of a nation treats its people and how they treat one another has become an essential measure of that nation’s respectability. A nation might be powerful and, hence, feared or depended on; it might be rich and favored as a trade partner. However, neither power nor utility will elicit respect without ethical respectability. Moreover, respect for human rights is not an implication of a newly accepted theory or ideology, but a distillate of humankind’s chastening historical experience. The rampant violations of human rights unfolding in the Xinjiang region, Tibet and Inner Mongolia are appalling. As an opinion piece in the Taipei Times eloquently said: “China has degenerated into not just a hyper-authoritarian police state, but a Han Chinese-centric, ethnic-nationalist state” (“Beijing ramps up its ethno-fascism,” Sept. 11, page 8). Beijing’s policies — ethnic cleansing and premeditated cultural and demographic genocide — have destroyed the Chinese government’s credibility and ethical respectability. The propaganda of the Chinese Community Party (CCP) on building a “united, prosperous, civilized, harmonious and beautiful new, modern, socialist” country reminds me of a book by Guy Sorman, a prominent French intellectual, titled The Empire of Lies — The Truth about China in the Twenty-First Century. To paraphrase a Mark Twain expression popularized in the US: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and CCP propaganda.” China “fell into a moral swamp, devoid of humanity,” as Ai Weiwei (艾未未),
With a new White House document in May — the “Strategic Approach to the People’s Republic of China” — the administration of US President Donald Trump has firmly set its hyper-competitive line to tackle geoeconomic and geostrategic rivalry, followed by several reinforcing speeches by Trump and other Cabinet-level officials. By identifying China as a near-equal rival, the strategy resonates well with the bipartisan consensus on China in today’s severely divided US. In the face of China’s rapidly growing aggression, the move is long overdue, yet relevant for the maintenance of the international “status quo.” The strategy seems to herald a new “cold war,” given that it employs ideas and rhetoric reminiscent of the US-Soviet ideological rivalry: liberal democracy versus communist dictatorship, and free-market capitalism versus “socialist capitalism.” However, it is evident that the Chinese communist regime neither pursues a global revolution nor world domination. It simply behaves as a classical imperialist power bent on aggrandizing its sphere of influence through its Belt and Road Initiative and massive arms buildups, while exercising egregious domestic oppression via law enforcement organs and extensive overseas political maneuvering through intelligence organizations. The strategy misidentifies the exact nature of the regime and thus prescribes suboptimal, if not totally off-the-mark, policies. Facing China’s threats, Americans are, understandably enough, frightened with the illusion of communism. China’s nakedly invasive hegemonism and imperialist colonialism, particularly to its “near abroad,” are not unique to the communist regime, but are continually found in the historic Sino-centric world, where dynasties rose and fell according to the cyclical pattern of expansion and contraction, and of centralization and decentralization in tandem with natural and social catastrophes. The dynamics resulted from a chain of the vicious cycles of destruction of natural environment, overpopulation, natural disasters, famine, mass movements of refugees, large-scale uprisings and wars, among other events. Dynastic
KEY GOAL: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei is now free to focus on taking her fourth doubles title of the year with Barbora Strycova; they are due to face Nao Hibino and Makoto Ninomiya Taiwanese No. 1 Hsieh Su-wei on Monday returned to the court for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the WTA Tour, falling to a 6-3, 6-1 defeat to US Open quarter-finalist Elise Mertens, who made a solid transition from the hard courts in New York to the clay at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. “I’m not sure how well I adapted, to be honest,” Mertens told the WTA Web site. “I just feel like I might still be struggling a little. It was also [Hsieh’s] first match of the week, so that was a bit of an advantage for me. Going from hard to clay is a little difficult with the sliding and timing, but I tried to give everything I had today, tried to adapt where I could.” While Kaohsiung-born Hsieh, the world No. 62, hit 11 winners, she was undone by 22 unforced errors and eight double faults as the world No. 11 improved her head-to-head record against the Taiwanese to 3-1, the Belgian’s only loss coming when she had to retire trailing 6-2, 4-0 in Tianjing, China, in 2018. “You can expect a lot of different shots: drop-shots, slice, a lob if you come to net,” Mertens said of Hsieh. “You can expect some really good shots, but I tried to mix it up, too, because I think she likes the hard-hitters, so she can use the pace and get her variety going. I think I did everything well today.” The defeat means Hsieh can concentrate on her main objective in Rome, a fourth doubles title of the year alongside partner Barbora Strycova after victories in Brisbane, Dubai and Doha. As top seeds, world No. 1 Hsieh and world No. 2 Strycova received a bye to the second round. They are to face unseeded Japanese duo Nao Hibino
Denis Gurianov on Monday night scored a power-play goal 3 minutes, 36 seconds into overtime as the Dallas Stars reached their first Stanley Cup final in 20 years with a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over the Vegas Golden Knights. Joel Kiviranta also scored a power-play goal late in the third period to force overtime as the Stars rallied from a 2-0 deficit to shock the Golden Knights and win the Western Conference final series 4-1. “We found our game. We scored a goal and that got us going, then the power play took over,” said forward Joe Pavelski of the Stars’ eighth come-from-behind win in the post-season. On the winning goal, Gurianov, 23, took a pass from John Klingberg and hammered a one-timer past Vegas goalie Robin Lehner on the short side that sparked a mob scene celebration with Dallas goalie Anton Khudobin in the middle. Canada’s Jamie Benn also scored, while Khudobin stopped 34 shots for the Stars. Dallas are to play either the New York Islanders or the Tampa Bay Lightning for the NHL championship. Dallas had been outshot and outplayed for most of the series, but thanks to timely scoring and brilliant goaltending from Russia’s Khudobin they were able to stun the favored Golden Knights. Khudobin, who stopped 153 of 161 shots in the series, assumed the starting role last month from Ben Bishop, who is injured. “He stepped into an unsure situation and just ran with it. He got more confident with every game,” Pavelski said of Khudobin. Vegas coach Pete DeBoer said that his team’s scoring woes started in the previous round against the Vancouver Canucks and carried over into the conference final. “There’s no doubt the last couple games of the Vancouver series against [Canucks goalie Thatcher] Demko probably rattled our confidence in that area as a group,” DeBoer said. “Honestly up
Badminton’s showpiece Thomas and Uber Cup was yesterday postponed after a string of countries withdrew over COVID-19 fears, officials said, in a major blow to the sport’s restart. The men’s and women’s world team championships had been set to take place in Aarhus, Denmark, next month, and would have been the first international tournament since the COVID-19 pandemic halted badminton in March. However, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) said that it had taken the “tough decision” to delay the event as the pullouts meant the organizers were not able to deliver a high enough level of competition. No new dates were announced for the tournament, but the BWF said that it would not take place before next year. “These are exceptional circumstances we find ourselves in, and while a return to international badminton remains a priority for the BWF, the health and safety of the entire badminton community is of utmost importance,” the BWF said in a statement. A further delay to the tournament had started to look inevitable after some of Asia’s top talent withdrew. Indonesia, who are 13-time Thomas Cup champions, as well as Taiwan, Australia, South Korea and Thailand had all decided to skip the event. Leading Indian player Saina Nehwal, who had been due to play in the women’s Uber Cup, had questioned whether pushing ahead was a good idea, while the Olympic Council of Malaysia had also called for a postponement.
Ben Roethlisberger on Monday threw three touchdown passes in his first game in a year as the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the New York Giants 26-16 in the NFL season opener for both teams. Roethlisberger, who played in just two games last year before needing season-ending elbow surgery, completed 21 of 32 passes for 229 yards in the empty Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. “I am just so excited, I am just thankful. I told the guys in the locker room before the game that I’m back because of them,” Roethlisberger said. “I don’t need to accomplish anything personally any more. It’s about being with a defense that I think is as good as any I have ever played with, skill guys that are young and fun to play with and then, of course my line, who I love to death and they love me,” he said. “They are the reason I came back to play,” Roethlisberger added. The Steelers need Roethlisberger to return to his 2018 form if they are to make the playoffs in the American Football Conference. Roethlisberger threw touchdown passes to JuJu Smith-Schuster (10 yards) and James Washington (13) in the second quarter to give the Steelers a 16-10 halftime lead. The scoring toss to Washington came with seven seconds left after the Steelers traveled 78 yards on eight plays. “Us being out there right before half having two minutes to go down out points on the board it was like: ‘OK that is the Ben we know,’” Smith-Schuster said. “Being able to go down and have those points on the board [on that] drive — that is what we do,” he said. Smith-Schuster caught two touchdown passes, while Benny Snell rushed for a career-high 113 yards on 19 carries for the Steelers, who finished 8-8 last season. Quarterback Daniel Jones was 26-for-41
‘ASKED TO MOVE OUT’: Indonesian coast guard personnel argued with a Chinese vessel over territorial claims after it entered the country’s exclusive economic zone An Indonesian patrol ship confronted a Chinese coast guard vessel that spent almost three days in waters where Indonesia claims economic rights and that are near the southernmost part of China’s disputed claims to the South China Sea. The Indonesian Maritime Security Agency on Friday night detected Chinese ship 5204 entering Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in what Indonesia calls the North Natuna Sea. The agency sent a patrol ship that closed within 1km of the Chinese coast guard vessel and they communicated to affirm their position and their nation’s claims to the area, Indonesian Maritime Security Agency head Aan Kurnia said. “We asked them to move out, as it was Indonesia’s EEZ, but they insisted that it is China’s ‘nine-dash line’ territory. Our officers at the vessel argued with them until they moved out,” Kurnia said, adding that he reported the incident to Indonesian government ministers. “Finally, the Chinese coast guard vessel [set] off from North Natuna Sea on Monday 11:20am,” he said. China’s “nine-dash line” delineates its claim to virtually the entire South China Sea. A 2016 international arbitration ruling involving the Philippines invalidated most of China’s sweeping claims to the sea, but China has ignored the ruling and called it a sham. Indonesia does not have a territorial claim to the South China Sea, but a section of Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone that includes natural gas fields lies within China’s “nine-dash line.” Chinese ships have regularly entered the area Indonesia calls the North Natuna Sea, causing tensions between the countries. Chinese ships also regularly patrol off the island of Borneo and near James Shoal (Zengmu Shoal, 曾母暗沙) east of the Natuna Islands (納土納), China’s southernmost territorial claim, which Malaysia says belongs to it. The South China Sea accounts for more than 10 percent of the global fish catch, and surrounding states have taken increasingly extreme
Vietnam has jailed four people over their roles in the death of 39 migrants found in a refrigerated truck in the UK last year, state media said. The deaths of the 31 men and eight women from Vietnam, who were found in a vehicle near London in October, highlighted the enormous risks of illegal migration to Europe and sparked an international outcry. The four defendants — the youngest aged 26 and the oldest 36 — were given prison sentences of between two-and-a-half years and seven-and-a-half years by a court in Ha Tinh Province on Monday, the official provincial newspaper reported. They were found guilty of “organizing, brokering illegal emigration,” it said, adding that three others had been given suspended sentences. However, Nguyen Dinh Gia, who lost his 20-year-old son, Luong, in the tragedy, told reporters that he believed the defendants should not have been given jail terms. “The people involved were just trying to help and then the accident happened,” he said, adding that he had not known the trial was taking place. “He was an adult who made his own decision and joined the trip voluntarily with the aim to improve his life, earning money to alleviate our poverty.” Gia said his son had wanted to travel to the UK from France, where he had been living illegally since 2018. The journey to the UK, where he aimed to look for work in a nail salon, would have cost him about ￡11,000 (US$14,177). “It has been almost a year, but whenever I think about this, it’s still painful,” Gia said. Luong and the majority of the other migrants came from a handful of poor central provinces, hotspots for illegal migration to Europe. The truck carrying the victims — including two 15-year-old boys — arrived on a ferry from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge in the early hours of
As Japan’s next prime minister, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga is to face an early, and difficult, leadership decision: whether to call a general election before his honeymoon with voters fades or wait and risk seeing ratings slide. The decision would affect Suga’s chances of holding office beyond the remainder of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s term, which expires next year. A successful early election might also help him gain momentum to push his agenda, including deregulation and smashing bureaucratic silos. Suga won the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) leadership poll on Monday, and the party’s parliamentary majority means he is virtually guaranteed to replace Abe, who is resigning after nearly eight years as prime minister because of illness. Suga on Monday acknowledged that the question of timing for a lower house election was a tough call amid worries about COVID-19 and a slumping economy. A poll for the powerful chamber must be held by late October next year. Twelve years ago, then-Japanese prime minister Taro Aso was expected to call a snap election soon after taking office while his ratings were relatively high. He waited, his popularity declined and when he called an election in 2009, the LDP lost power for three years. The memory of that trauma lingers, although the LDP’s opposition is far weaker now. “There’s only a year left, so the timing of when to dissolve the lower house is a vexing problem,” Suga told a news conference on Monday after the LDP vote. Speculation has swirled that Suga would call a lower house poll for as early as next month. Aso, now minister of finance, yesterday said that an early election should be considered, because the Tokyo Olympics would be held next year. Suga on Monday sounded cautious on the idea, saying that his priorities were to end the COVID-19 outbreak and
To bring sustainability and prosperity to their farms, some agriculturalists in southern Taiwan have embraced innovative types of companion planting. In contrast to the monoculture that dominates much of the rich world’s farmland, companion planting is the cultivation of different crops in proximity, usually to optimize the space, for pest control or to enhance pollination. The symbiotic relationship between cacao trees and betel nut, which may be unique to Pingtung County, is striking when one visits the cacao plantations maintained by Choose Chius (邱氏可可) and Wugawan (牛角灣) in Neipu (內埔). The history of growing cacao in Taiwan goes back to Japanese colonial rule. Taichiro Morinaga, founder of Morinaga & Co — the first modern candy company in Japan, and the first manufacturer of chocolate in that country — visited Taiwan in 1927 to find land suitable for growing cacao. He hoped the company could become self-sufficient in cocoa in order to meet the high demand for chocolate in Japan. His successor, Matsuji Ogushi, continued the cacao mission in 1937, setting up a cacao-focused research institute in Pingtung County. However, challenging conditions and the outbreak of World War II dashed Morinaga’s and Ogushi’s Taiwan chocolate dreams. When the Japanese left in 1945, the Neipu area was dotted with cacao trees, but unsustainable farming techniques meant few of them survived. The growing of cacao became a forgotten wrinkle in the region’s agriculture history, especially after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime began to promote betel nut for its economic value. HAKKA CHOCOLATE Now, as before, cacao cultivation is concentrated in Hakka communities in Pingtung County. Chiu Ming-sung (邱銘松), a Hakka farmer who started growing betel nut in 1975, led the cacao comeback in 2000. He was seeking a new business direction, recognizing that the popularity of betel nut was beginning to wane. Chiu discovered that growing cacao
Four hundred years after English colonists landed on Plymouth Rock and upended the lives of her ancestors, Paula Peters is on a quest to recover a small part of what her people have lost. A year of trans-Atlantic commemorations marking the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower voyage opens in Southampton, England, on Saturday with an exhibition centered on one casualty of colonization: the wampum belt of Metacom, a 17th-century leader of the Wampanoag Native American nation. Woven with imagery depicting tribal history and legends, the beaded belt was “as important to the Wampanoag as the crown jewels would be to the king of England,” said Peters, a Wampanoag writer and educator. In 1620, the Wampanoag, who had lived for millennia in what is now New England, helped the exhausted Mayflower settlers survive their first winter. But within a few decades, tensions had erupted into a brutal 1670s conflict known as King Philip’s War. Metacom was killed, and his belt sent to England’s King Charles II as spoils of war. “From all we can tell it did arrive in the U.K., but it never arrived in the hands of the king,” Peters said from her home in Mashpee, Massachusetts. “We have been searching for that belt for generations of our people,” The hunt took Peters to the British Museum, which has one of the world’s largest collections of wampum belts. She didn’t find it there, but she had an idea: The Wampanoag would make a new belt, then send it to England for display. It would help share their story, and might bring new leads in the search. Wampum belts — made with beads fashioned from the white and purple shells of whelks and quahog — play a central role in the culture of the Wampanaog and other Native peoples in eastern North America. The new
Warren Hsu (許華仁) sees chocolate making as creating art and performing magic. Zeng Zhi-yuan (曾志元) “talks” to his cacao beans and compares the fermenting process to devotedly caring for a child. Despite their different products and business models, the two helped put Taiwanese chocolate on the map in 2018 at the prestigious International Chocolate Awards’ (ICA) World Finals when Hsu’s Fu Wan Chocolate (福灣) claimed two golds, five silvers and two bronzes, while Zeng took home four golds. That year, Taiwanese chocolatiers burst through the gates with a total of 26 medals, an impressive feat given that many locals don’t even know that the nation produces cacao. The two bagged even more awards at last year’s ceremony. This year’s results will be announced in November. “I personally believe that my artistic creations are beautiful, flavorful and layered,” Hsu says; some of Fu Wan’s more unusual offerings include zesty white pepper and fleur de sel, as well as sergestid shrimp and almond. “I’m just making something that speaks to me, and I’m fortunate that other people feel the same way too.” Virtually all of Taiwan’s cacao is grown in Pingtung County, which now boasts between 200 and 300 hectares of plantations in the heart of betel nut country near the foothills of Dawu Mountain (大武山). When betel nuts started losing value due to their decline in popularity about 10 years ago, some farmers took to growing cacao — an ideal companion crop with betel nut trees because it protects them from the sun — but only in recent years has the chocolate-making side matured. Unlike their European or US counterparts who import their beans, Taiwan’s chocolatiers employ a tree-to-bar, one-stop-shop system where they either work closely with farmers or grow their own beans. ICA officials noted that Taiwan produces cacao, boasts
Veteran singer Tarcy Su staged a show at the Taipei Music Center on Saturday last week, becoming the first to hold a large solo concert at the venue since it opened in Taipei’s Nangang District on Aug. 27. After releasing her first album for 13 years in March, Su finally held the first paid concert in her music career spanning three decades since 1990. To celebrate the grand opening of the new multipurpose center, singer-songwriter Kay Huang, the center’s chairwoman, also launched an inaugural concert featuring various artists on Sept. 5. The lineup included Golden Melody Award-winning singer LaLa Hsu, singer Waa Wei and band Sodagreen, which performed under a temporary stage name “Oaeen” due to a contract dispute with its former label. The Taipei Music Center, which cost NT$6 billion (about US$204.8 million) to build, is divided into three parts: the 6,000-capacity Performance Hall, the Pop Music Culture Hall and the Industrial Hall. It is part of the government’s efforts to boost Taiwan’s status as a hub in the Mando-pop world. (Eddy Chang, Taipei Times) 資深歌手蘇慧倫於上周六，在位於南港區的台北流行音樂中心(北流)開唱，成為該中心自八月二十七日開幕以來，首位舉辦大型個人演唱會的藝人。她在睽違十三年後於三月推出新專輯，一九九○年出道至今三十年，這次終於首度舉辦售票演唱會。 為慶祝這座全新的多功能中心盛大開幕，身兼北流董事長的創作歌手黃韻玲稍早在九月五日，亦邀請多位藝人參與開幕演唱會。演出陣容包括金曲歌后徐佳瑩、歌手魏如萱，以及和前東家鬧出合約糾紛，而暫時化名為「魚丁糸」演出的天團蘇打綠。 北流中心造價高達六十億台幣(約兩億多美元)，分為三大場館︰包括可容納約六千人的表演廳、一座流行音樂文化館和產業區。政府希望透過該中心，能提升台灣在華語流行音樂世界的中心地位。 (台北時報張聖恩)
Let’s go for a spin in my new set of wheels (3/5) 坐我的新車去兜風吧（三） A: Whoa, we’re only staying for three nights. What are you doing bringing all that luggage? B: Well, I wasn’t sure what the weather would be like, so I packed for all eventualities. I can put one bag in the trunk and the other on the back seat. A: No can do: the trunk in a Mini is minuscule. The toolkit and the spare tire take up most of the space. You’ll just have to sling one bag on the back seat and keep the other between your feet in the front. B: OK, no problem. A: 哇哦，我們只要過三個晚上，你打包那麼多行李做什麼啦？ B: 哦，我不太確定天氣會變得怎麼樣，所以為各種狀況做了準備。我可以把一包行李放在後車廂，另一包放在後座。 A: 不行，迷你車的後車廂超迷你，工具箱和備胎佔了絕大部分空間，你只能把一包行李丟到後座，另一個放在你前座腳中間。 B: 好哦，沒問題。 （Edward Jones, Taipei Times／台北時報章厚明譯） English 英文: Chinese 中文:
Let’s go for a spin in my new set of wheels (2/5) 坐我的新車去兜風吧（二） A: How about we organize a road trip to test out my new set of wheels? B: Alright. Any thoughts on where to go? A: I’m thinking of driving along the east coast and staying in Taitung for a long weekend. What do you think? B: That’s a great idea — but does your vintage car have air conditioning? A: I’m afraid not, but at least the weather is starting to cool down now. How about this Saturday? B: Sure. Let’s do it! A: 我們來規劃一趟公路旅行，試試我的新車，你覺得如何？ B: 好啊。你有想到去哪裡嗎？ A: 我打算沿著東海岸開，然後週末連假待在台東。你覺得呢？ B: 那真是太棒了──不過，你的經典車有空調嗎？ A: 恐怕沒有哦，反正天氣開始變涼了。星期六出發怎麼樣？ B: 當然。就這麼做吧！ （Edward Jones, Taipei Times／台北時報章厚明譯） English 英文: Chinese 中文:
| New Taipei City | 28-29 | 0% |  |
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