Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor Inc said on Thursday “business considerations” had prompted the company to make changes to the label of a commemorative liquor bottle marking the inauguration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) so that the product could be sold in China.
Company chairman Lee Ching-cheng (李清正) said the words “Republic of China (ROC)” and “president and vice president” were removed from the label as an attempt at “putting aside disputes and achieving a win-win situation.”
He was referring to the release of the company’s commemorative edition kaoliang liquor marking the Ma-Siew inauguration on May 20 last year. China has approved the commemorative bottle for sale in 16 provinces and cities around the Lunar New Year.
The bottles to be sold in China will bear the words, “the commemorative liquor of the inauguration of Ma Ying-jeou and Vincent Siew,” instead of “the commemorative liquor of Republic of China President Ma Ying-jeou and Vice President Vincent Siew.”
Lee said that despite the changes, the pictures of Ma and Siew together and the background of the Presidential Office on the bottle meant that “anyone can easily see that they are president and vice president of the ROC.”
Lee said 1,000 of the commemorative bottles were to be sold in China, although the number could later be increased to 5,000, and would be priced at 5,000 yuan (about US$127), surpassing the previous highest price of 4,888 yuan for Kinmen kaoliang.
The price is almost seven times as high as the NT$3,600 the bottles fetch in Taiwan.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai