Fri, Apr 26, 2024
President-elect William Lai (賴清德) yesterday named the new heads of security and cross-strait affairs to take office after his inauguration on May 20, including National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to be the new defense minister and former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lun
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Wednesday said that a new chip manufacturing technology called “A16” is to enter production in the second half of 2026, setting up a showdown with longtime rival Intel over who can make the fastest chips.TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufact
DIPLOMACY: Democratic countries have reiterated the importance of cross-strait peace and their support can deter China’s aggression, MOFA said Taiwan will continue to strengthen its self-defense capabilities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday after US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral John Aquilino issued a warning about Beijing’s ambition of being able to invade Taipei by 2027.Asked about Aquilino’s comment on Tuesday that China
Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles provided secretly by the US, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight, US officials said on Wednesday.Long sought by Ukrainian leaders, the new missiles give
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday raised what the US describes as unfair Chinese trade practices during his first full day of meetings in China with local government officials in the financial hub of Shanghai.Blinken met with Chinese Communist Party Secretary of Shanghai Chen Jining (陳吉
TAIPEI’S GRATITUDE: President Tsai Ing-wen thanked the US for its support and called for more collaboration to contribute to the peace and stability of the region The US Senate on Tuesday approved US$95 billion in aid to Taiwan, Ukraine and Israel, with the package of bills containing the funding expected to be signed into law after press time last night.The Senate passed the bills in a 79-18 vote after the US House of Representatives on Saturday approved the
A total of 41 US military personnel were stationed in Taiwan as of December last year, a US congressional report said on Friday last week ahead of Tuesday’s passage of an aid package that included US$8 billion for Taiwan.The Congressional Research Service in a report titled Taiwan Defense Issues for
A group of 17 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators departed on Friday for China, saying before their flight that they believe the trip is the right decision despite criticism from the opposition.The lawmakers led by KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) held a news conference at Taiwan Taoyuan Int
Chengcing Lake (澄清湖) in Kaohsiung is to be closed for a week after a man was killed by a falling tree in the park on Friday morning.The Kaohsiung Police Department's Renwu (仁武) precinct received a report at 10am of an accident in the Niaosong District (鳥松) park.A 66-year-old surnamed Lee (李) was wal
Eleven regions were under heavy rain advisories on Friday afternoon, as a weather front enveloped the entirety of Taiwan’s main island.The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 12:25pm issued heavy rain advisories for Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Chiayi, Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Hsinchu, Miaoli, Nant
Prosecutors on Friday indicted 32 people on fraud and money laundering charges related to the cryptocurrency trading platform ACE Exchange, recommending sentences of at least 20 years in prison for the four primary suspects.Among those indicted by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office were ACE Exc
MEDICAL: The bills would also upgrade the status of the Ethical Guidelines Governing the Research of Human Embryos and Embryonic Stem Cell Research to law The Executive Yuan yesterday approved two bills to govern regenerative medicine that aim to boost development of the field.Taiwan would reach an important milestone in regenerative medicine development with passage of the regenerative medicine act and the regenerative medicine preparations ordinance
MIGRATION: Most of the rescued black-faced spoonbills became ill because of botulinum toxin, which they ingested after consuming dead fish The number of black-faced spoonbills around the globe is up 355 to 6,988 this year, but the number in Taiwan is down 93 to 4,135 due to inadequate habitats for the migratory bird, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said yesterday. The global survey, which was conducted in January with coope
Last year, about 890 tonnes of ocean waste — mainly from China — washed up on Lienchiang County, accounting for 15 percent of the islands’ waste that year, some of which the local government is now looking to return.The Matsu Islands are only 54 nautical miles (87km) from the Minjiang River estuary
Caregivers of children aged three and younger are to receive visits at least six times a year under planned rules announced yesterday by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which are to be implemented next month at the earliest.Article 18 of the Registration and Management Regulations for Family Chi
GOOD CHOICES: Experts said the appointees for cross-strait affairs are a goodwill gesture to Beijing, and lauded the selection of a civilian to head the defense ministry The new Cabinet appointments announced yesterday symbolize the continuation of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) national defense and cross-strait policies, experts said.In cross-strait affairs, the appointment of Chiu Chui-cheng’s (邱垂正) as head of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and of Vice Premier
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋).This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research a
The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast to 3.29 percent this year, a 0.14 percentage points increase from three months earlier, as exports gain faster traction despite disappointing private investment.“The economic sectors showed improvement
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence
After months of delays, the US House of Representatives on Saturday and the US Senate on Tuesday finally approved a US$95 billion foreign aid package that includes funding for Taiwan. The bills were passed with bipartisan support, with House Speaker Mike Johnson saying that “we have to do the right
The tragic death of a judge who fell from a building on April 12 accentuated the issue of long-term overtime work endangering the mental and physical health of judicial officials.Many have advocated for an increase in personnel or adjustments in case distribution to relieve the overworked judicial s
When J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) takes up his new role as minister of economic affairs next month, he will need to move fast if he is to salvage one of the government’s signature projects. Policy conflict and misguided goals threaten to sink outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) hopes of achieving renewable-en
CHASING EUROPE: Manchester United survived a scare after twice falling behind against bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United, but won and moved up to sixth place Juergen Klopp’s hopes of a dream send-off were left in tatters on Wednesday after a 2-0 loss against Everton dealt a major blow to Liverpool’s Premier League title bid.Goals from Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin at Goodison Park meant Klopp tasted a bitter defeat in his last Merseyside d
Jack Eichel and defending Stanley Cup champions the Las Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday beat the Dallas Stars to take a 2-0 lead in their NHL first-round playoff series.The Golden Knights got exactly what they anticipated and withstood that early hard push in Game 2 by the desperate Stars.The Gold
The Miami Heat on Wednesday unleashed a barrage of three-pointers to score a series-leveling 111-101 upset over the top-seeded Boston Celtics in their NBA Eastern Conference playoff duel.Eighth seeds Miami, playing without the injured Jimmy Butler, produced a battling performance to knot the best-of
The two Taiwanese basketball teams who make it to the 2023-2024 season final series of the P.League+ would secure an East Asia Super League (EASL) slot next season, the international league said yesterday.The two teams would join their counterparts from the Korean Basketball League (KBL), Japan’s B.
NATURAL DISASTER: Residents took to rooftops to save their lives and belongings in a Nairobi slum where the Kenyan Red Cross said it had rescued seven children Storms and flash floods turned roads into gushing rivers and swamped homes with waist-high muddy water across the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people.The East Africa region has been lashed by relentless downpours in recent weeks, as the El Nino weather pattern exacerbates
LOST AND FOUND: The Jewish family who owned the portrait fled Austria after 1930, but the Liesers’ heirs and current owners made an agreement to sell it A portrait of a young woman by Gustav Klimt that was long believed to be lost on Wednesday was sold at an auction in Vienna for 30 million euros (US$32 million).The Austrian modernist artist started work on the Portrait of Fraulein Lieser in 1917, the year before he died, and it is one of his last w
Five British military horses spooked by noise from a building site on Wednesday bolted during routine exercises near Buckingham Palace, threw off four riders and caused chaos as they galloped loose through central London streets and collided with vehicles during the busy morning rush hour.The commot
Years ago, I was thrilled when I came across a map online showing a fun weekend excursion: a long motorcycle ride into the mountains of Pingtung County (屏東) going almost up to the border with Taitung County (台東), followed by a short hike up to a mountain lake with the mysterious name of “Small Ghost
If you haven’t heard, capybaras are having a bit of a moment. The hashtag #capybara has over 10 billion views on TikTok and counting. Viral videos circulate of these big fluffy rodents engaging in sometimes ridiculous, sometimes hilarious behavior — surfing down the river on a crocodiles’ back or ba
The “one country, two systems” principle has been Beijing’s paramount approach to Taiwan since 1982. Taiwanese and Chinese are described by Beijing as compatriots who come from the same “family” and shoulder the same responsibility to revive the “glory of the Chinese nation.” The words “home” and “f
A: So who were Hollywood’s highest-paid stars of 2023?B: No. 5 to No. 2 were: Matt Damon with US$43 million, Ryan Gosling with US$43 million, Tom Cruise with US$45 million, and Margot Robbie with US$59 million.A: Didn’t Tom Cruise top the list?B: Nope, Adam Sandler was No.1, having made US$73 mi
A: “Forbes” magazine just revealed Hollywood’s top 10 highest-paid stars of 2023.B: How much did those superstars make last year?A: Denzel Washington was at No. 10, having made US$24 million, which is about NT$771 million.B: That’s an astronomical figure to me.A: No. 9 to No. 6 were: Ben Afflec
Drive-through (or drive-thru) restaurants provide people with the immense convenience of being able to purchase and pick up meals without needing to leave their vehicles. These restaurants have been around for decades, and their success has spawned a number of equally handy services.The drive-throug
It’s certainly been a pleasure watching the presidential campaign launch of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Hou You-yi (侯友宜) lurch painfully about like a wounded pachyderm in search of an elephant graveyard. Hou’s fall to third place in some polls last week appears early, and it might still be recoverable. But grumbling in his party about replacing him has already begun. Indeed, all indications are that the party that twice gave us Lien Chan (連戰), the most despised politician in Taiwan, as a presidential candidate and later offered voters Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), is arcing along its normal descending trajectory, the North Korean missile test of electoral politics. A KIND OF POLICY PLATFORM Last week the KMT doubled down on this path with Hou’s calls for nuclear power and more death penalty executions, standard KMT fare for decades (the latter is unnecessary since so many potential criminals are likely to die in traffic accidents long before they harm anyone). Apparently KMT policy institutions are not echo chambers so much as mausoleums where dead ideas are embalmed and then periodically put on display. The lack of public policy imagination is obvious. A less obvious facet of KMT ineptitude: with years of speculation that Hou would be their man in 2024, neither Hou nor the party insisted on interesting or experimental public policies to showcase Hou’s greatness in preparation for the showdown. Of course, that is even more true of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Hou’s slide and the media buzz surrounding it are obscuring the truly urgent problem the pro-Taiwan side faces: DPP presidential candidate William Lai (賴清德) has not expanded his voter support beyond the party base. In most polls he remains below 40 percent. Independent voters are staying away in droves, and for the moment the young are turning to
July 17 to July 23 When Yeh Ken-chuang (葉根壯) came of age, the traditional skills of architecture and carpentry that had been in his family for four generations were disappearing. After helping his uncle Yeh Teh-ling (葉得令) construct ships, residences and temples for more than a decade, Yeh struck out on his own at the age of 28 in 1960 as a damusi (大木司, chief carpenter), earning his lifelong title “Chief Chuang” (壯司). Around this time, builders in his homeland of Penghu were increasingly using reinforced concrete instead of wood, due to the humid climate. The period also saw a frenzy in temple construction as the economy improved, meaning there was plenty of work for Yeh. Adept in non-structural techniques such as doors, windows and furniture, as well as the intricate carvings and detailed decorations that adorned the structures, Yeh was able to adapt his skills, leading the reconstruction of the historic Hsiliao Daitian Temple (西寮代天宮) on Penghu’s main island in 1963. According to the book Crossing Traditions in Yeh Ken-chuang’s Large-scale Carpentry Skills (宮廟巧藝 :跨越傳統的葉根壯大木作技術), it was Penghu’s first temple that used a purely reinforced concrete structure. Before his life was cut short, Yeh created more than 70 temples and related structures across the various islands of Penghu and left behind more than 230 building plans. Although Yeh could have built temples and other structures on Taiwan proper, he only worked on a handful of projects outside of Penghu because he wanted to be close to his family. CLAN OF CARPENTERS The Yeh family’s woodworking tradition began with Yeh Ma-li (葉媽利), who learned the architecture and carpentry trade from an unknown master on Kinmen. The Yehs trace their roots to Kinmen, although this branch had been living in Penghu since the early 1600s. Yeh Ma-li was Penghu’s chief temple builder between 1860 and
New Taipei City | 14-23 | 10% | |
Hsinchu County | 14-22 | 10% | |
Hsinchu City | 14-22 | 10% | |
Taipei City | 14-22 | 10% | |
Miaoli County | 12-22 | 10% | |
Taoyuan City | 14-22 | 10% | |
Keelung City | 15-21 | 10% |
Yunlin County | 14-24 | 0% | |
Taichung City | 14-24 | 0% | |
Nantou County | 14-24 | 0% | |
Changhua County | 14-23 | 0% |
Chiayi County | 13-24 | 0% | |
Chiayi City | 14-25 | 0% | |
Tainan City | 15-22 | 0% | |
Kaohsiung City | 17-23 | 0% | |
Pingtung County | 16-25 | 0% |
Yilan County | 14-22 | 10% | |
Hualien County | 16-22 | 10% | |
Taitung County | 17-23 | 10% |
Kinmen County | 11-18 | 0% | |
Penghu County | 17-20 | 0% | |
Lienchiang County | 10-13 | 10% |