Wed, Apr 22, 2026
ESWATINI VISIT: Taipei condemned Beijing’s coercive tactics after Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar unexpectedly revoked overflight permits for the president’s aircraft President William Lai (賴清德) has postponed an official trip to Eswatini, after several countries in Africa revoked overflight permits following “intense pressure” from China, a senior aide said yesterday.Lai was due to visit the Kingdom of Eswatini from today to Sunday for the 40th anniversary of Kin
The central government’s general budget for this fiscal year was yesterday sent to legislative committees for review after a presentation by Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), in another step toward ending the budget impasse that has been ongoing for more than six months.Addressing the Legislative Yuan in
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday released a report detailing unclassified portions of the government’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget as it continued to seek legislative approval for the bill.A redacted version of the report released to the public detail
SECURITY: The change comes as Tokyo moves to boost its defense industry, wars strain US weapons production and other nations look for suppliers Japan yesterday unveiled its biggest overhaul of defense export rules in decades, scrapping restrictions on overseas arms sales, and opening the way for exports of warships, missiles and other weapons.The move aimed at strengthening Japan’s defense industrial base marks another step away from the pa
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has rejected as “absurd” claims that his minister overseeing relations with North Korea revealed classified information provided by the US on Pyongyang’s nuclear facilities. South Korean media have reported that the US has stopped sharing some intelligence on Nor
President William Lai (賴清德) has postponed an official trip to Eswatini, the nation's only diplomatic ally in Africa, after several countries revoked overflight permits, a senior aide said today. "According to sources, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar unexpectedly and without prior notice rev
National Cheng Kung University law professor Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) was sworn into office today as a legislator-at-large for the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), accompanied by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and the party’s caucus.Hsu from 2012 to 2014 served as a legislator-at-large for the Taiwan
Taiwan’s fourth climate adaptation plan prepares for more severe warming scenarios, Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming (彭啓明) said today, sharing how the nation has incorporated global risk indicators and expanded extreme-heat measures with nationwide drills and a smart warning system for elderly
Legislative speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) is to lead a cross-party delegation on a trip to the UK and France from May 9 to 17, according to a document issued by the legislature to party caucuses.The delegation is to attend the annual convention of the Council of Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce in Europe,
Minister of Sports Lee Yang (李洋) today said he has cut about NT$300 million (US$9.53 million) in “unreasonable budget allocations,” planning for future spending to be institutionalized across sports associations.Since taking office on Sept. 9 last year, Lee said he has found that the biggest issue l
The Taichung District Prosecutors Office recently indicted 18 people believed to be part of a fraud ring that impersonated Chinese security officers to defraud Hong Kongers, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said today.The suspects were indicted on charges of fraud, money laundering and organi
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal g
The two winners who split the massive NT$1.35 billion (US$42.89 million) Super Lotto (威力彩) jackpot drawn on Feb. 12 have yet to claim their prize, Taiwan Lottery Co said today, urging the ticketholders to come forward before the May 12 deadline.The draw yielded two winning tickets, each entitling th
The passage of the special defense budget would signal to the US how committed Taiwan is to its own defense, US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo told a US Senate hearing yesterday. “We can’t want Taiwan’s defense more than they want it itself,” he added. The US Senate Committee on Armed
Taiwan has signed six arms procurement offers from the US with a total value of more than NT$208 billion (US$6.58 billion) covering long-range precision strike systems, missile stockpile replenishment and joint production of large-caliber ammunition, the Ministry of National Defense said today.The g
CATCHING UP: While Apple’s AI development stumbled under Cook, Ternus has already reorganized the firm’s hardware engineering division for a new AI platform, sources said Apple Inc chief executive officer Tim Cook is to hand the reins to hardware boss John Ternus this year, capping a 15-year tenure that turned the company into a US$4 trillion business that spans watches, video streaming and financial services.Ternus is to become CEO on Sept. 1, when Cook would transi
Export orders surged 65.9 percent year-on-year to US$91.12 billion last month, driven by strong demand for information and communications technology (ICT) products amid an artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing boom, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.The figure mar
UPTICK: After nine years of moderate growth, reverse mortgage lending has started to rise, with 323 new loans totaling NT$2.36bn approved in the first quarter Reverse mortgage lending in Taiwan is accelerating as more elderly homeowners tap rising property values to fund their retirement, signaling that the once-niche financial product is entering a faster growth phase.The trend comes as Taiwan rapidly moves toward becoming a “super-aged” society — when a
Inflation is more tangible than strong economic growth for Taiwanese as global crude oil prices remain high amid war in the Middle East. Taiwanese are feeling the effects of the war such as rising food prices and supply chain constraints for products such as plastic goods. In such circumstances, eco
There is a peculiar kind of political theater unfolding in East Asia — one that would be laughable if its consequences were not so dangerous. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) on April 12 returned from Beijing, where she met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and spoke ea
The most useful place to start thinking about Taiwan’s predicament is not the Taiwan Strait. It is Southeast Asia, and how the region evaluates the reliability of external powers. The latest “State of Southeast Asia” survey shows that Japan enjoys high trust across ASEAN. Japan is trusted because it
‘GO AFTER JAMAL’: The Nuggets’ Jamal Murray said the loss was ‘not all on one person’ and they did not make enough shots in the second game of the series Jaden McDaniels on Monday took perhaps his most notable shot after the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 119-114 playoff win against the Denver Nuggets in Game 2 of their NBA Western Conference first-round playoff series.The Timberwolves forward pretty much labeled all the Nuggets’ players bad defenders. Thro
The Detroit Tigers’ Lee Hao-yu on Monday collected his first and second MLB hits in their 8-6 loss to the Boston Red Sox.The Tigers’ No. 6 prospect, who batted eighth, had an RBI single and a double in four at-bats at Fenway Park, raising his batting average to .182.“He was super thrilled to get his
West Ham United’s 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace on Monday condemned Wolverhampton Wanderers to relegation from the Premier League and boosted their own survival bid, leaving Tottenham Hotspur deeper in trouble.Bottom-of-the-table Wolves have long been destined for the drop and their descent into t
English and Italian soccer giants Manchester City, Chelsea, Inter and Juventus are to square up for pre-season friendlies in Hong Kong in August, the clubs announced yesterday.Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, who are arm-wrestling Arsenal for the English Premier League title, are to take on Inter on
BATTLING CLIMATE CHANGE: Led by China and India, clean power generation increased by 887TWh last year, outpacing global electricity demand growth of 849TWh Record growth in solar, especially in China and India, was a driving factor for clean energy sources surpassing the world’s robust demand for electricity last year, a new global power analysis said.Clean power generation grew 887 terawatt-hours (TWh) last year, exceeding overall global electricity d
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday sent an offering to a shrine seen by Japan’s neighbors as glorifying its wartime past, in a move that stopped short of a visit, but might still anger China and other neighboring nations.Takaichi’s offering of a sacred tree was made on the first day of
NOVEMBER ELECTIONS: Christopher Luxon called the vote, held behind closed doors, to quell media speculation about grumblings within his party about his leadership New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon yesterday said that he had survived a vote on his leadership among his own party’s lawmakers, after slumps in the polls prompted speculation he might be ousted.The vote was held behind closed doors during a routine meeting of Luxon’s center-right National
By global standards, the traffic congestion that afflicts Taiwan’s urban areas isn’t horrific. But nor is it something the country can be proud of.According to TomTom, a Dutch developer of location and navigation technologies, last year Taiwan was the sixth most congested country in Asia. Of the 492
During her 2015 trip to Taiwan, Sophia J. Chang (張詠慧) got fewer answers than she’d hoped for, but more revelations than she could have imagined.“That was the year I last saw my grandmother. She was in hospice care in Tainan, and it was painful to see her in bed, barely able to open her eyes,” says L
In our discussions of tourism in Taiwan we often criticize the government’s addiction to promoting food and shopping, while ignoring Taiwan’s underdeveloped trekking and adventure travel opportunities. This discussion, however, is decidedly land-focused. When was the last time a port entered into it
Have you ever found yourself desperately feeding coins into a claw machine just because you’ve already spent so much trying to win that stuffed animal? Or maybe you’ve continued watching a boring movie simply because you already paid for the ticket? If so, you’ve experienced the “sunk cost fallacy.”
The US-Israeli war with Iran, which began on Feb. 28, has killed thousands of people, destabilized the Middle East and rocked global energy markets by effectively closing the strait.WHAT IS THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ?Lying between Oman and Iran and linking the Gulf north of it with the Gulf of Oman to the
對話 Dialogue清清：這個週末你有空嗎？要不要一起去淨灘？Qīngqīng: Zhège zhōumò nǐ yǒu kòng ma? Yào bú yào yìqǐ qù jìngtān?華華：淨灘？你為什麼突然想參加這個活動？Huáhua: Jìngtān? Nǐ wèishéme túrán xiǎng cānjiā zhège huódòng?清清：因為我看到新聞說，海邊的垃圾越來越多，對海洋生物影響很大。Qīngqīng: Yīnwèi wǒ kàndào xīnwén shuō, hǎibiān de lèsè yuèláiyuè duō, duì hǎiyáng shēng
Two moves show Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) is gunning for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) party chair and the 2028 presidential election. Technically, these are not yet “officially” official, but by the rules of Taiwan politics, she is now on the dance floor. Earlier this month Lu confirmed in an interview in Japan’s Nikkei that she was considering running for KMT chair. This is not new news, but according to reports from her camp she previously was still considering the case for and against running. By choosing a respected, international news outlet, she declared it to the world. While the outside world likely paid little attention, domestically the message was unmistakable: She is moving on to a larger stage. Part of the dance is to leave options open before formally committing, and with the chair race due in late September, she has time. If something goes wrong in the meantime, or if power brokers in the party offer her a deal that provides more benefits than taking on the role of chair, she can pivot accordingly. Earlier this year, I suggested that strategically, she would be better off concentrating on her job as Taichung mayor until she is term-limited out of office in December next year. Taichung mayor is obviously a full-time job, and concurrently running the Taipei-headquartered party runs the risk of doing one or both jobs poorly and making mistakes that could imperil her shot at the presidency in 2028. The situation has changed. Current KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), knowing he is likely to face challengers of a higher caliber than the three relative nobodies already declared, has gone all in on appealing to the base. The base is more likely to turn out to vote in the chair election, so this makes some strategic sense in the short term.
Among Thailand’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) villages, a certain rivalry exists between Arunothai, the largest of these villages, and Mae Salong, which is currently the most prosperous. Historically, the rivalry stems from a split in KMT military factions in the early 1960s, which divided command and opium territories after Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) cut off open support in 1961 due to international pressure (see part two, “The KMT opium lords of the Golden Triangle,” on May 20). But today this rivalry manifests as a different kind of split, with Arunothai leading a pro-China faction and Mae Salong staunchly aligned to Taiwan. Last spring at Arunothai’s Jiaolian School, principal Wang Mingming (王明明) had forewarned me of the division between villages, saying, “We are not like the people in Mae Salong. They are rich. Because of the Taiwanese.” Arunothai has in recent years become split in its loyalties between Taiwan and China (see part one, “A tale of two schools,” on May 15), but in Mae Salong, links to Taiwan remain strong. Taiwan-funded monuments pay homage to the Lost Army, villagers wear T-shirts emblazoned with the Republic of China (ROC) flag and tea plantations grown Taiwan’s most famous tea varieties, including Dong Ding (“frozen peak”) Oolong, Oriental Beauty and Jin Xuan (Golden Daylily or Milk Oolong). Even the numerical classifications of the teas — Oolong No. 12 or No. 17, for example — are the same, and the shops resemble those found on Alishan. At the tomb of General Tuan Hsi-wen (段希文) — perched on a Mae Salong hilltop with a view of his ancestral homeland in China’s Yunnan province — a third generation villager wearing a vintage KMT army uniform, Yan Si-Chung (岩思中), greets visitors with sharp military salutes. “Both my father and my grandfather were soldiers in the KMT army,” the 44-year-old
| New Taipei City | 27-28 | 20% |  |
| Hsinchu County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Hsinchu City | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Taipei City | 27-28 | 20% |  |
| Miaoli County | 24-26 | 10% | |
| Taoyuan City | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Keelung City | 27-28 | 20% | |
| Yunlin County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Taichung City | 26-28 | 10% | |
| Nantou County | 25-26 | 10% | |
| Changhua County | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Chiayi County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Chiayi City | 25-27 | 10% | |
| Tainan City | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Kaohsiung City | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Pingtung County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Yilan County | 25-26 | 30% |  |
| Hualien County | 25-26 | 30% | |
| Taitung County | 25-27 | 30% | |
| Kinmen County | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Penghu County | 27-27 | 20% | |
| Lienchiang County | 27-28 | 20% | |
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