The US government on Wednesday announced its latest round of arms sales to Taiwan, with eight packages at an estimated combined cost of more than US$11.1 billion. The most expensive item is the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), a long-range precision strike system.The package includes
Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chong-liang (石崇良) has spoken against offering coverage under the National Health Insurance (NHI) program to the elderly parents of Chinese spouses who move to Taiwan. Some people have said that, given the annual application cap of 60 recipients, the net economic i
Across many parts of the world, migration has become a delicate topic. The US, the UK, Australia and several nations in Europe have tightened work visa rules, raised income thresholds and adopted more cautious approaches to mobility. These shifts reflect a broader global mood in which migration is t
The High Court on Tuesday found Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) not guilty of embezzling assistant fees. The court acquitted Kao of her corruption charge, reducing her sentence to six months in prison — commutable to a fine — for causing a public official to commit document forgery. The subsequent contr
EDITORIAL CARTOON
Slowing growth, escalating trade wars, tightening cross-border capital flows and intensifying migration pressures have dominated news headlines — and for good reason. Together, these forces threaten to undermine multilateralism and accelerate the rise of blocs such as the BRICS+ group of major emerg
The fortitude of the world economy is an eye-opener. Tariffs have not resulted in the recession widely feared when US President Donald Trump imposed them in April. Some of the most vulnerable nations are not only coping, but doing pretty well.Just look at Vietnam. Is it a case of bullet dodged or de
China’s new economic model is putting the future of Asia’s Gen Z at risk. The continent is home to some of the world’s most trade-oriented economies, and rode globalization to lift the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions, but it is now being hit by a double whammy: An export base that has
The Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office on Monday announced that they would not countersign or promulgate the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) passed by the Legislative Yuan — a first in the nation’s history and the ultimate meas
The Honduran government’s decision in 2023 to end diplomatic relations with Taipei in favor of Beijing came as a blow to Taiwan’s diplomatic presence in Central America. Two years later, after promises of large-scale investment in infrastructure development and aid from China, the economic and trade
The image was oddly quiet. No speeches, no flags, no dramatic announcements — just a Chinese cargo ship cutting through arctic ice and arriving in Britain in October. The Istanbul Bridge completed a journey that once existed only in theory, shaving weeks off traditional shipping routes.On paper, it
Choosing the right schoolSix years ago, I visited Chiao Cheng Primary School in Sanyi (三義), Miaoli County, with a simple question: Could my son enter Taiwan’s public education system?At that time, I knew very little about school rankings or curricula. What drew me to the school was the quiet beauty
EDITORIAL CARTOON
We are living in an age of global disruption. Supply chains are being reconfigured to avoid dependence on any one producer or country. Trade ties are being upended by high and unpredictable tariffs — and the threat of more. Longstanding alliances are being strained by doubts about partners’ reliabil
In the summer of 2015, tens of thousands of angry Japanese took to the streets of Tokyo.Changes to security legislation pushed by then-Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe were considered by some to be so controversial, so against the spirit of Japan’s pacifist constitution, that protests against them
On the day the British government launched a high-stakes consultation to consider fresh ways of funding the BBC in the digital era, the corporation could have done without another difficult news event of its own. US President Donald Trump’s decision to follow through on threats to sue over the conte
Taiwan’s cooperation with Poland highlights how drones, like semiconductors, are becoming strategic assets. Taiwan has a “central and eastern Europe supply chain resilience plan,” and is cooperating with Poland on drone production, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said in an interview
Australia has become the first country to ban children under 16 from using social media platforms, a milestone in the history of technology governance. For Gen Z, a social media and phone-based childhood has given rise to a host of issues that endanger their mental health and well-being: a silent “d
During his trip to China, French President Emmanuel Macron discussed with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) issues of crucial importance for the future of the international community.The first issue — felt most acutely across Europe — relates to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the identification o
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