The Taiwanese godfather, Hsu Hai-ching (
At a dinner held in his honor at the Sovereign of the Seas restaurant in Taipei, 100 tables overflowed with representatives from underworld gangs and organized crime groups from as far away as Japan.
Although Hsu retired from underworld activity more than 30 years ago, his network of influence was readily apparent in the crowd of wellwishers, whose sartorial taste ran uniformly to black.
They included leaders of the Bamboo Union (
Well-known gangsters from southern Taiwan such as A-Yao (
Among the most visible were representatives of the Japanese crime group Yamaguchi-gumi (山口組).
Hsu was orphaned at a young age and entered gang life in his early teens in order to take care of his younger brother and sister. His slight build and quick hands soon earned him his nickname.
By his early twenties, Hsu had risen to become a gang leader in the Wanhua district of Taipei.
When the KMT retreated to Taiwan, their policy of using Taiwanese to govern Taiwanese led them to nominate Hsu in the elections for the first Taipei City council, despite his purported illiteracy.
Hsu was elected by a large margin, and although a dislike of politics led him to serve only one term in office, his political career enhanced his influence in his various enterprises, legitimate and otherwise.
By the 1950s, Hsu had become a tycoon of the "entertainment" industry, running numerous gambling parlors and hostess bars in the Wanhua district, where he also ran some general stores.
Hsu is also well-known in gang circles as a master arbitrator, having negotiated many underworld disputes.
He is particularly known for settling a bloody feud between two Kaohsiung gangs, the Seven Sages (七賢) and the Sandy Ground (沙仔地), thereby earning his other nickname, "the last arbitrator."
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
RSS