Thu, Mar 12, 2026
MORE OPTIONS: The bill seeks to ‘harden a critical weak point’ in the Indo-Pacific region by finding ways to diversify and protect Taiwan’s energy infrastructure US Representative Pat Harrigan yesterday introduced the Taiwan Energy Security and Anti-Embargo Act of 2026, saying it would ensure “Taiwan isn’t left vulnerable to supply shocks, coercion by the Chinese Communist Party [CCP], or external geopolitical turmoil.”“Energy is leverage,” Harrigan, a Repub
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) yesterday vowed to back the status of a lawmaker who allegedly failed to renounce her Chinese citizenship.Han read out a statement following the breakdown of interparty negotiations at the legislature, saying that the KMT would sup
New attacks yesterday hit three commercial ships in the Gulf, setting at least one vessel on fire, as Iran pressed its campaign against its energy-exporting neighbors and forced world governments to dip into their strategic oil reserves.Oil prices surged higher by more than 5 percent in early tradin
Chinese authorities have moved to restrict state-run enterprises and government agencies from running OpenClaw artificial intelligence (AI) apps on office computers, acting swiftly to defuse potential security risks after companies and consumers across China began experimenting with the agentic AI.G
A US Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft yesterday transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace, in a move the US Navy’s 7th Fleet said “demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”The transit comes ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned visit to China this mon
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday.Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship mis
WATCH FOR HITCHHIKERS: The CDC warned those returning home from Japan to be alert for any contagious diseases that might have come back with them People who have returned from Japan following the World Baseball Classic (WBC) games during the weekend are recommended to watch for symptoms of infectious gastroenteritis, flu and measles for two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said.Flu viruses remain the most common respiratory pathog
Having a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test result above 4.0 ng/mL is considered abnormal and it is worth closer testing, a physician said yesterday, as he suggested individuals with a family history of prostate cancer begin regular screening from an earlier age.A 42-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳
As Taiwan prepares to open one of its most ambitious engineering projects, residents on each side of the Tamsui River are wondering what the new Danjiang Bridge could bring — relief from gridlock, an influx of tourists or just new traffic headaches.Scheduled to open on May 12, the 920m bridge links
SAFETY CONCERNS: A retired professor said ‘convenient, safe and waste-free nuclear energy is illusory,’ and that safety and cost-effectiveness are mutually exclusive goals Proposals to revisit nuclear energy use in Taiwan should be scrapped, experts and groups opposing nuclear power said yesterday on the 15th anniversary of the Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster in Japan.Masashi Goto, who helped design the vessel containing the reactor that partially melted down after being
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) this month would submit a plan to restart the decommissioned Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春), setting the stage for it to begin generating electricity as early as 2028, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) told a heari
SOCCER SCNADAL: The foreign ministry said that its representative office in Sydney had protested over the treatment of Taiwanese fans at the game with India Former Taiwan soccer coach Chen Kuei-jen (陳貴人) was reportedly removed from an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) game involving Taiwan’s women’s national team in Sydney on Tuesday for shouting “go Taiwan” after organizers told fans to use “Chinese Taipei” to refer to the team.Taiwan defeated India 3
Taiwan’s air force is expected to conduct a series of exercises this week as part of its joint combat tactics specialty course, implementing a combat-like simulated environment, airdefensenews.com wrote on Facebook on Sunday, with Ministry of National Defense sources yesterday appearing to confirm t
The Taiwan Anti-Aggression Day Singing Festival was arranged with inspiration from Estonia’s history, organizers of the Taipei event told a news conference yesterday, adding that it was in defiance of China’s proposed “law on promoting ethnic unity and progress.”The planned Chinese legislation would
Taipei-based Libo Pharma on Tuesday led a delegation to Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture to launch a collaborative project with Fukushima Medical University in emergency radiation medicine.The collaboration would be based on LIB-101, Libo Pharma’s core investigational drug, which is under development, w
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers.The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growt
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) yesterday said it is positive about this year, citing robust demand for advanced 12-inch wafers and a pickup in smaller-diameter wafers, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom pushes up semiconductor content in end products. The silicon wafer supplier said revenue would be f
The nation’s three major science parks last year posted a combined revenue of NT$5.8 trillion (US$182.6 billion), up 21.83 percent year-on-year and a new record, the National Science and Technology Council said in a report yesterday.The council attributed the strong performance to continued growth i
The Ministry of Education has been advancing the government’s Bilingual 2030 initiative by distributing funds and encouraging schools to offer courses taught in English.Schools are encouraged to design diverse, engaging and life-oriented bilingual learning activities, K-12 Education Administration o
Japan’s elections have delivered Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi a significant political mandate, which comes at a pivotal moment for the Indo-Pacific region, with clear positive ramifications for Japan’s regional allies, including Taiwan.Since assuming office in October last year, the Takaic
Over the last decade, India, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has invested huge political capital in transforming its engagement with Southeast and East Asian countries under its Act East Policy. Consequently, ties between India and these countries have reached a new high.Unlike
QUARTER-FINAL CHALLENGE: China, the tournament’s reigning champions, won all their group matches, including coming from behind to beat North Korea 2-1 China and Taiwan are to clash this week in a politically tinged AFC Women’s Asian Cup quarter-final while Australia hope that a bumper home crowd can help drag them through against a dangerous North Korea. Also in the last eight, title favorites Japan would be expected to make light work of the Phil
Australian police helped two more members of the Iranian women’s soccer delegation slip their minders to claim asylum, but one has changed her mind and decided to go back to Iran, the Australian interior minister said yesterday. Australian Minister of Home Affairs Tony Burke announced in the Austral
The surprising loss by the US to Italy in the World Baseball Classic on Tuesday night means that the US need help to advance to the quarter-finals. The 8-6 defeat left the team with a 3-1 record at the end of their pool schedule. Mexico and Italy are to wrap up Pool B play this morning Taipei time w
Lamine Yamal’s last-gasp penalty on Tuesday earned Barcelona a 1-1 draw at Newcastle United in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League last-16 tie, while Liverpool lost 1-0 to Galatasaray in Istanbul for the second time this season. Atletico Madrid piled more misery on Tottenham Hotspur by winn
RESTRICTIONS: The IAPA report documented 170 attacks against journalists in the US last year, with government actions aimed at limiting free expression Press freedom in the Americas suffered a “dramatic deterioration” last year, a regional watchdog said on Tuesday in an assessment of conditions for the profession in 23 countries across the western hemisphere.The Miami-based Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has been publishing an annual freed
HIDDEN PRICE: From 2008 to 2024, officials falsified documents to state that a wall at the end of a runway was made of breakable materials, the audit found South Korea’s deadliest aviation disaster on home soil — which killed all but two of the 181 people aboard a Jeju Air Co flight in December 2024 — was caused by cost-cutting decisions during airport construction that were concealed for 16 years, a government audit found.The operators of Muan Interna
Graffiti defaces tattered clay walls and trash piles up in Japan’s oldest student dormitory, but Masako Ueda is savoring every last moment in the mice-infested building slated for temporary closure.The elite Kyoto University’s “Yoshida Dorm” is self-governed by students, who treasure it as a bastion
Earlier this week Nikkei Asia published an op-ed titled “The myth of Taiwan’s ‘pro-China’ defense budget blockade” by Michael Cunningham, a China Program senior fellow at the Stimson Center. The essay contended that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) blocks the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP)
Since taking office on Nov. 1, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) has been busy putting her stamp on the party. Negotiations have been ongoing on a meeting between her and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平), which Cheng hopes will take place in the first
Awards season has a way of diminishing the movie year into a handful of films that are talked about ad nauseam for months. But as good as some of this year’s Oscar nominees are, you have to go outside the consensus — and the same old categories — to remember the best of 2025.So ahead of Sunday’s Osc
A: Did you watch the preliminary games of the 2026 World Baseball Classic? Pool C included Australia, the Czech Republic, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. All the games in Tokyo were absolutely intense.B: Of course. Many teams called up star players from Major League Baseball this time. Going up aga
The English Lake District, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2017, is renowned for its landscapes, literary legacy and traditional farming. Yet, its esteemed status now sits at the center of a debate: is the designation protecting the region—or harming it? Conservationist Lee Schofield has sparked
The US-Israeli war on Iran, launched on Feb. 28, has set the Middle East alight, threatening millions of people’s lives and livelihoods as the violence spreads in widening arc stretching from central Asia to the edge of Europe.The joint operation, named “Epic Fury” by the US and “Roaring Lion” by Is
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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