Wed, Aug 17, 2022
Washington on Monday said that US members of Congress would continue to visit Taiwan, while condemning China for restarting live-fire exercises around Taiwan amid a visit to Taipei by US lawmakers, saying it was an “overreaction.” China conducted drills in the sea and airspace around Taiwan on Monday while a five-member US delegation led by US Senator Ed Markey was in Taipei, near the end of their 21-hour visit. As of 5pm, China had deployed 30 warplanes and five military vessels in areas around Taiwan, and 15 of the aircraft had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, the Ministry of National Defense said. Asked about Beijing’s response to Markey’s visit at a news briefing, US Department of State spokesperson Ned Price said that any response to a peaceful visit “that entails bellicose rhetoric or military maneuvers or provocative actions is totally unnecessary and an absolute overreaction.” Members of the US Congress have visited Taiwan for decades, with about 10 or more congressional delegations having visited Taiwan this year alone, and they would continue to do so, Price said, adding that the practice is in line with the US’ longstanding “one China” policy. The US has taken measured and responsible steps in response to Beijing’s maneuvers so as not to escalate the situation, Price said. However, “we won’t be deterred from flying, from sailing, from operating in the region in accordance with international law,” he added. US President Joe Biden on Friday directed the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, operating in the Philippines, to remain on station longer than planned, and announced that additional steps in support of Taiwan would be forthcoming, Price said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that 33 US members of Congress have visited Taiwan since last year, continuing what has been decades of US visits. This year alone, Taiwan has welcomed 19
The US, South Korea and Japan participated in a ballistic missile defense exercise off Hawaii’s coast last week, the Pentagon said yesterday, reviving combined drills with an eye on North Korea and China. It was the first time the three countries have held such drills since 2017, after relations between Seoul and Tokyo hit their lowest in years in 2019 amid renewed historical disputes dating to Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean Peninsula. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservative who took office in May, has vowed to improve relations with Japan and deepen the US alliance to better deter North Korea, including by expanding or resuming joint drills. The missile warning and ballistic missile search-and-tracking exercise took place from Monday to Sunday last week during the multinational Pacific Dragon drills, and demonstrated the three countries’ commitment to respond to challenges posed by North Korea, protect shared security and bolster the rules-based international order, the Pentagon said in a statement. The participants shared tactical data link information in accordance with a trilateral information sharing agreement, the statement said. The US military yesterday said that it had carried out a test of a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, delayed to avoid escalating tensions with Beijing during China’s show of force near Taiwan earlier this month. China deployed scores of planes and fired live missiles in the Taiwan Strait after US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the nation. The test showed “the readiness of US nuclear forces and provides confidence in the lethality and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear deterrent,” a US military statement said. The military said about 300 such tests had occurred before and it was not the result of any specific global event. Meanwhile, a group of German Air Force fighter jets yesterday neared Singapore in a marathon bid to fly them about 12,800km from
New St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Drew on Monday pledged to bolster his country’s diplomatic ties with Taiwan during a video call with Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Drew’s St Kitts and Nevis Labour Party won six of the 11 seats contested in the Caribbean country’s Aug. 5 elections to defeat the incumbent ruling coalition and regain power for the first time since 2015. In Monday night’s call, Drew, who was sworn in on Aug. 6, thanked Taiwan for supporting his country’s infrastructure development for decades and helping it combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the ministry said in a statement. He pledged to do his best to maintain and enhance diplomatic relations during his time in office, it said. Congratulating Drew on his victory, Wu thanked the Caribbean ally for its long-term support of Taiwan’s efforts to join international organizations, the ministry said. He also said he was looking forward to working closely with the new government to advance bilateral cooperation. He also invited Drew to visit Taiwan at his earliest convenience. Taiwan established diplomatic relations with St Kitts and Nevis within two weeks of the country gaining its independence on Sept. 19, 1983, making Taiwan the first country to diplomatically recognize the Caribbean state as an independent country, the ministry added.
STRETCHED TO THE LIMIT: Sichuan Province is cutting power supply to industrial customers until Saturday to ensure grid stability amid a heat wave in Southern China Power outages in China’s Sichuan Province would not affect the operations of Apple Inc’s iPhone and computer assemblers, such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Pegatron Corp (和碩), as their products are primarily made in other manufacturing sites in China, Fubon Securities Investment Services Co (富邦投顧) said yesterday. Hon Hai assembles iPhones in Zhengzhou in Henan Province, while Pegatron and Luxshare Precision Industry Co (立訊精密) make iPhones in Shanghai and Kunshan in Jiangsu Province, Fubon Securities said in a report. Apple’s MacBook laptops are assembled by Hon Hai in Zhengzhou and by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) in Shanghai, while its iMac desktop computers are made by Quanta in Shanghai, the report said. “As the manufacturing hubs for those products are not located in Sichuan, we believe the new iPhone 14 series and MacBooks equipped with M2 chips will hit the market as scheduled,” Fubon Securities analysts Arthur Liao (廖顯毅) and Rita Tung (董姵君) said in the report. Hon Hai is the major manufacturer of the new iPhone 14 series with an order allocation of more than 70 percent, Fubon Securities said, adding that Apple is set to unveil new-generation iPhones next month. The Sichuan provincial government would suspend the supply of power to industrial customers from Monday to Saturday to ensure grid stability amid a heat wave that has engulfed southern China and stretched power grids to the limit, Chinese media reported on Monday. The provincial government would prioritize supplying power for residential use, reports said. Hon Hai, known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) outside of Taiwan, yesterday said that the power cuts would have only a limited effects on its operations in Chengdu in Sichuan Province. The company’s Chengdu plant belongs to its B business group, which was established in 2010 and manufactures products such as wearables, mobile devices, and Internet of Things and other
GOOD TIMING: The visit is significant, as it shows that China’s drills have not deterred members of the US government from visiting Taiwan, a DPP legislator said Taiwan is committed to maintaining stability in the Taiwan Strait, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told visiting US lawmakers yesterday. Tsai made the pledge as she met with a bipartisan congressional delegation led by US Senator Ed Markey at the Presidential Office. The unannounced two-day trip came after Beijing held live-fire military exercises in waters around Taiwan in the wake of a visit to Taiwan by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi from Aug. 3 to Aug. 4, the first visit by a sitting US House speaker since 1997. Members of the delegation include US representatives John Garamendi, Alan Lowenthal, Don Beyer and Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen. Tsai thanked Markey for voting for the passage of the Taiwan Relations Act in 1979 and helping Taiwan secure COVID-19 vaccines last year. China has been conducting prolonged military exercises in waters surrounding Taiwan, greatly affecting regional peace and stability, Tsai said. “We are engaging in close cooperation with allies to closely monitor the situation. At the same time, we are doing everything we can to let the world know that Taiwan is determined to safeguard our stability and the status quo of the Taiwan Strait,” she said. Aside from asking for the delegation’s support for a bilateral trade agreement, Tsai also said that Taiwan hopes to sign an agreement with the US to prevent double taxation to facilitate investment between the two countries. Markey told Tsai that he has been a supporter of Taiwan, and is one of the few members of congress still in office who voted for the Taiwan Relations Act. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, Markey said that he introduced bipartisan bills that support stability measures to lower the risk of conflict in the Taiwan Strait, invest in multilateral engagement with Taiwan and open the door to greater self-defense
China staged fresh military drills around Taiwan yesterday, slamming another visit by US lawmakers to the nation days after a similar trip by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi triggered a furious response from Beijing. The five-member congressional delegation, led by US Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, met with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday. “The Chinese People’s Liberation Army continues to train and prepare for war, resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and resolutely crush any form of Taiwan independence separatism and foreign interference attempts,” Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) said. “We warn the US and the DPP authorities: Using Taiwan to contain China is doomed to failure,” Wu added, referring to Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party. “China will take resolute and strong measures to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) told a daily briefing yesterday after Beijing announced the new drills. “A handful of US politicians, in collusion with the separatist forces of Taiwan independence, are trying to challenge the one China principle, which is out of their depth and doomed to failure,” he said. In Taipei, the Ministry of National Defense vowed to face the latest drills “calmly and seriously, and defend national security.” “Apart from expressing condemnation [of China’s drills], the Ministry of National Defense will comprehensively monitor China’s movements in sea and air space around the Taiwan Strait,” it said. China on Sunday deployed 22 warplanes and six warships into areas around Taiwan, with 10 of 22 aircraft crossing the Taiwan Strait median line, the defense ministry said. Taiwan monitored the situation with combat air patrols, naval vessels and land-based missile systems, it added. The median line has been treated as an unofficial border on both sides of the Strait, with a breach indicating a more aggressive posture than the
COMING IN SEPTEMBER? Local experts are discussing whether Taiwan should purchase this new vaccine or wait for one that targets the BA.5 Omicron subvariant The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said the nation could next month start importing a next-generation bivalent COVID-19 vaccine approved by the UK on Monday, but it was still considering other factors. The bivalent vaccine is an updated version of the COVID-19 vaccine made by Moderna, targeting two SARS-CoV-2 variants. Approved by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on Monday, it is to be used as booster shots for adults. In each dose of the bivalent booster vaccine, half of the vaccine (25 micrograms) targets the original virus strain from 2020 and the other half targets the Omicron strain, a news release by the British government said. Asked if Taiwan would approve and purchase the bivalent vaccine, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC spokesperson, said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received data for review. The new vaccine was developed to target the original strain and the Omicron BA.1 variant of SARS-CoV-2, and Moderna has also sent documents about the vaccine to Taiwan for review, he told the CECC’s regular news conference. If it is approved by the FDA, the nation might start importing the vaccine in the middle of next month at the earliest, he added. However, the bivalent vaccine has not yet gained approval in the US, as Washington has asked for vaccines that target the new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, so local experts are still discussing whether the nation should purchase the current bivalent vaccine or wait for a newer one targeting BA.5, he said. Chuang also reported 22,902 new local COVID-19 infections, 270 imported cases and 16 deaths. The local caseload is 2.4 percent lower than that on Tuesday last week, and the death toll is the lowest in 97 days, he added. Asked about a comment by National Taiwan University
The Taoyuan Union of Pilots (TUP) yesterday called for a further easing of restrictions on aircrew members when they are at outstations, as many countries have adjusted or relaxed disease prevention policies against COVID-19. The union sent a letter with the request to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) and the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA). “Since a global COVID-19 outbreak began in February 2020, the aircrew of Taiwanese airlines have been subject to a one-time room card control when they are at outstations, which means that we must remain in the room until we leave to work on our next flight assignment,” TUP chairwoman Anny Lee (李信燕) said in a video. Many countries have already eased or adjusted restrictions on aircrew at outstations, Lee said, adding that Taiwan and China are the only two countries in the world that still have strict disease prevention measures for aircrew. “We have gathered information from other countries for officials at the CECC and the CAA to consider,” she said, adding that the union welcomed the opportunity to discuss with officials how changes should be made. The union conducted a survey among members on Monday last week, Lee said. Of the nearly 500 members who participated in the survey, about 27 percent said that they had contracted COVID-19. Among those who were infected, nearly 75 percent contracted SARS-CoV-2 virus in Taiwan, while about 11 percent caught the disease in other countries, she said. “This shows that a large percentage of aircrew contracted the disease in Taiwan rather than in other countries. The risk of catching the disease at home is much higher than while at overseas,” Lee said. “Aircrew have been subject to such strict disease prevention regulations for more than two years. Given that Taiwan and many countries are not pursuing a ‘zero COVID-19’ policy, the CECC and
Organ donor registrations dropped by 48 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan Organ Sharing Registry and Patient Autonomy Promotion Center data show. As of the end of June, there were more than 10,000 people waiting to receive an organ transplant, including 8,254 people waiting for a kidney, 1,002 people waiting for a liver, 217 people waiting for a heart, 93 people waiting for a lung and 89 people waiting for a pancreas. Center executive director Liu Yueh-ping (劉越萍) said people can easily register to become an organ donor by using the National Health Insurance Express App (全民健保行動快易通APP) or by signing an organ donation consent form. The center encourages people to register to become a donor to help more people who are in urgent need of an organ transplant, she said. A total of 43,510 people were registered to be a donor in 2019, a year before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the numbers fell to 32,496 people in 2020 and to 22,793 people last year, the center’s data showed. Liu, who is also director-general of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Department of Medical Affairs, said since the organ donation consent was added to the National Health Insurance card, more than 500,000 people have registered to become a donor in the past decade. However, as many hospital visiting restrictions were imposed during the past two years, there were fewer chances for organ transplant coordinators to ask for people’s consent, so the number of signed consent forms fell from an average of about 3,500 per month to about 1,000 per month during the pandemic, she said. Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital deputy superintendent Lee Wei-chen (李威震) said family members may be emotional when facing a dying family member, so if the patients had registered to become a donor in advance, it could help their family feel less stressed. Linkou Chang
The Taiwan International Balloon Festival ended on Monday evening, having attracted 1.23 million visitors since its opening on July 2, the Taitung County Tourism Department said yesterday. The festival was held in the county’s Luye Highland. It featured 20 hot-air balloons from abroad that appeared in Taiwan for the first time, including two shaped like the Japanese mascots Yakultman and Kumanon, and one from the US in the shape of Elvis Presley, the event organizer said. The festival also featured nearly a dozen balloons from Taiwan, such as the Tourism Bureau’s mascot OhBear and the Taipei City Government’s mascot, Bravo Bear. Taitung County Commissioner Yao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴) said the annual festival, which was held for the 12th year, featured drone light shows for the first time. In related news, an international skydiving event began yesterday at the Luye Highland and would run until Wednesday next week, the Taitung County Government said. The event is to feature jumps by 10 professional skydivers from Taiwan, Russia and Ukraine, it said. Three jumps would be conducted each day — in the morning, at noon and in the afternoon — the county said.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING RISKS: Only listed firms with officially approved overseas investments can post overseas jobs on its site, 104 Job Bank said One of the nation’s leading online job banks has removed more than 100 overseas job openings posted on its Web site because of concerns over human traffickers’ attempts to lure Taiwanese to Cambodia through the promise of high-paying jobs. 104 Job Bank yesterday said it has removed 179 job postings in “high-risk countries or areas,” including Cambodia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, that have been provided by 37 companies. Other countries considered to be high risk include the United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Turkey and Uganda, the company said. They were removed as a result of the company’s tightening of standards for listings for overseas jobs advertised by companies based in Taiwan and those operating overseas, it said. Taiwan-based firms must now be publicly listed and have had their investment in the overseas company formally approved by the Investment Commission to be able to list job openings overseas, the 104 Job Bank said. At the same time, companies operating in high-risk countries will not be allowed to post job openings on the 104 Job Bank Web site unless they are well-known publicly listed enterprises, it said. Commenting on the recent overseas job scam threat, the agency cautioned people against entertaining job offers that seem too good to be true, and it said it would cooperate with police and continue to look for suspicious job openings posted on its platform. The National Police Agency said that many Taiwanese have fallen prey to human traffickers to take nonexistent jobs in Cambodia and have been abused after arriving there. A task force was set up by the government on Thursday last week to help victims still trapped there.
PUBLIC POLL: More than half believe Chinese drills would make Taiwanese less willing to unify with China, while 36 percent said an invasion was highly unlikely Half of Taiwanese support independence, according to the results of a poll released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation, which also found that President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) support rating fell by 7 percentage points. Fifty percent of respondents supported independence, 25.7 percent supported maintaining the “status quo” and 11.8 percent supported unification, while 12.1 percent had no opinion, did not know or refused to answer, the foundation said. Support for independence is the new mainstream opinion, regardless of which party is in power, foundation chairman Michael You (游盈隆) said. Insinuations that Taiwan wants to maintain the “status quo” are a fabrication that could severely mislead the international community, he added. Fifty-three percent of respondents welcomed US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, while 24 percent did not and 23 percent had no opinion. The poll found that 55.2 percent think Chinese military exercises would decrease the willingness of Taiwanese to unify with China, 17.5 percent said they would reinforce such feelings and 8.1 percent said they would have no effect, while 12 percent had no opinion and 7.2 percent did not know. Asked about the likelihood that China might attack Taiwan, about 36 percent said an invasion was highly improbable, 26.7 percent said there was some possibility, 16.7 percent said it was impossible, 12.3 percent said it was highly possible and 8.4 percent had no opinion. Compared with last month, support for Tsai’s performance dropped by 7 percentage points to 45.7 percent. Meanwhile, dissatisfaction with her performance increased by 5.6 percentage points to 40.7 percent. It is highly unusual for the support rating to drop so dramatically, especially given Pelosi’s visit and Chinese military drills, as presidents usually enjoy a boost in popular support when facing external pressures, You said. The most probable explanation is internal politics, namely dissatisfaction with Tsai’s security leadership and a
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday denied that Chinese forces came close to Penghu County, after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) published footage purportedly recorded near the county. China launched military exercises around Taiwan after the visit by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this month, as well as during a visit by five US lawmakers on Sunday and Monday. The PLA’s Eastern Theater Command on Monday released video footage of Penghu, apparently taken from a Chinese military plane. Air force Vice Chief of Staff for Operations Tung Pei-lun (董培倫) told reporters in Taipei that the footage amounted to information warfare, although he had no comment on who had taken the video. “China is using exaggerated tricks within cognitive warfare to create the illusion that its forces were close to Penghu, which is not true,” Tung said. The ministry on Monday published a map showing that the Chinese aircraft that flew closest to Penghu that day were four J-16 fighters. The fighters crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, but were closer to the Chinese coast than Penghu, the map showed. Tung said that Taiwan had a real-time grasp of what was going on in the skies, adding that Chinese aircraft have been operating to the north and southwest of Taiwan, as well as across the median line. Meanwhile, ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang (孫立方) said next year’s defense budget proposal has been submitted to the Cabinet for approval. The budget is based on the “assessment of enemy threat,” military development needs and Taiwan’s overall financial resources, he said, without providing details. Separately, the ministry neither denied nor confirmed a report by the South China Morning Post that the US Navy had jammed the radars of PLA warships and jets to prevent them tracking the plane that brought Pelosi to Taiwan. China’s tracking efforts, which involved Type 055
UNIVERSITY NOTIFIED: Several paragraphs of her thesis that have been shared online are from the literature review section and are properly cited, Tsai Pi-ru said Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如) yesterday denied allegations that she had plagiarized her master’s thesis, adding that she would wait for a university research ethics committee to rule on the matter. Former Taoyuan City councilor Wang Hao-yu (王浩宇) said on Facebook on Saturday that he had notified Takming University of Science and Technology that Tsai’s master’s thesis might contain plagiarized content. Tsai obtained her degree from an in-service master’s program at the university’s Management Information System Department. Wang posted screenshots of several paragraphs from Tsai’s thesis alongside text from sources — including news reports, Wikipedia posts and a Facebook post by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Chien Hsu-pei (簡舒培). The university on Sunday said in a post on its Web site that it had received Wang’s report, and would conduct a fair and objective review. Tsai in a radio interview yesterday said the paragraphs Wang shared were from the literature review section of her thesis and that she had cited the sources, so she is confident no plagiarism has occurred. She has consulted her thesis adviser about the accusation, Tsai said, adding that the adviser said she had cited her sources, so at worst she might only be criticized for imprecise citation. Asked by the radio host whether she would quit the legislature if the university committee determines that her thesis was plagiarized, Tsai said she would wait for the committee’s decision. Separately, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Nantou County commissioner candidate Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) and Nantou County Council Speaker Ho Shang-feng (何勝豐) are also facing plagiarism allegations regarding their master’s theses. Hsu yesterday wrote on Facebook that the DPP is trying to shift the focus after former Hsinchu mayor Lin Chih-chien’s (林智堅) master’s degree was revoked by National Taiwan University due to plagiarism. She said that Feng Chia University, where she obtained her
National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Chen Ming-tong (陳明通), former Hsinchu mayor Lin Chih-chien’s (林智堅) thesis adviser, would not teach at National Taiwan University (NTU) in the coming academic year, the university said yesterday. The announcement came hours after local Chinese-language media reported that Chen’s profile had been pulled from the faculty information page of the university’s Graduate Institute of National Development Web site, leading to speculation that he had resigned. Chen was taken off the faculty list after he requested no teaching responsibilities be given to him this year due to rising tensions with China, which leaves him with little time outside of his duties at the bureau, the university said. He remains a professor at the school and no resignation has been offered or accepted, the university said, citing rules governing public school educators. Chen has been embroiled in allegations that Lin in 2017 plagiarized his master’s thesis from the thesis of another student, Yu Cheng-huang (余正煌), which was published the previous year. Chen at the time served as adviser for both students. The two papers were found to have used identical data sets and similar methodology, and contained identical typographical errors in analyzing the 2014 Hsinchu mayoral election, which Lin had won. Chen defended the former mayor, saying that Lin was the original author and Yu had read a draft of Lin’s study before writing his own paper. However, the NTU academic ethics committee on Wednesday last week ruled against Lin on grounds that his paper was more than 40 percent similar to Yu’s and that Lin did not provide a draft of his thesis predating Yu’s study. The committee recommend revoking Lin’s degree and announced the launch of an investigation into Chen for possible failure in his responsibilities as adviser. Two days later, Lin bowed out of the Taoyuan mayoral race.
SPECULATION DAMPER: The steelmaker said that it expects a turnaround next month and is prepared for its traditional high season in the final quarter of the year China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), the nation’s largest steelmaker, yesterday said it would lower domestic steel prices by 3.32 percent on average for delivery next month, as imports from China and Russia have been trading lower than market prices, depressing demand for local steel. The price cut, the fourth monthly reduction in a row, also reflects weak demand from customers that are trying to deplete excessive inventories, the Kaohsiung-based company said in a statement. The reduction is milder than the 5.61 percent cut for shipments this month, which CSC said points to more signs of a global recovery. “The price cut aims to dispel market speculation [about a deeper downward revision] and better reflect market conditions,” CSC said. “The company expects a turnaround in September and is prepared for the traditional high season to arrive in the fourth quarter.” With a weakening global economy and extreme weather events significantly curtailing demand for high-priced commodities — slowing steel inventory digestion — major steelmakers in the US, Europe and China are reducing output by suspending operations at some furnaces for maintenance, CSC said, adding that this would help mitigate a supply glut and bring forward the low point for steel prices. Chinese steelmakers such as Baowu Steel Group Group Ltd (寶武鋼鐵) and Angang Steel Co (鞍山鋼鐵) are seeking a price rebound as Beijing is to inject 7.2 trillion yuan (US$1.06 trillion) into infrastructure construction projects to boost economic growth, CSC said. Moreover, European steelmakers might raise prices to reflect rising electricity rates and energy costs, while US steelmaker Nucor Corp has hiked the price of thin steel sheets, it said. The latest price trends “indicate that the global steel industry is seeing a price rebound from the dip,” it said. The latest price adjustments would lower prices of hot-rolled steel plates and coils by NT$1,000 per tonne and cold-rolled coils
SHIPPING BOOST: Combined revenue at semiconductor companies expanded 27.2% due to increased demand, while the transportation sector reported a 60% sales bump The combined pretax profit of Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE)-listed firms grew 24.55 percent year-on-year to NT$2.31 trillion (US$77.02 billion) in the first half of this year, with the semiconductor, shipping and electronic components sectors contributing the most, the exchange said yesterday. In the first six months of the year, the 853 listed companies — excluding 34 financial firms and two companies that did not submit second-quarter financial reports, Chung Fu Tex-International Co (中福) and Roo Hsing Co (如興) — reported combined revenue of NT$18.14 trillion, up 14.21 percent from a year earlier, the TWSE said. The combined revenue of semiconductor companies expanded 27.2 percent to NT$2.41 trillion due to increased demand for 5G products, high-performance computing devices and automotive chips, it said. Large-cap companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), MediaTek Inc (聯發科) and ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) topped the list in terms of revenue, the exchange said, adding that small-cap firms also posted bigger increases in first-half revenue. IC designer Faraday Technology Corp’s (智原) revenue in the first six months grew 103 percent to NT$6.57 billion and Winway Technology Co (穎崴科技), which provides semiconductor testing interfaces, reported that revenue rose 56 percent to NT$1.85 billion from a year earlier, the TWSE said. Companies in the transportation sector, such as cargo shippers, airlines, logistics firms and forwarding companies, reported a rise on combined revenue of 60 percent to NT$952 billion in the first half on the back of high freight rates, it said. The combined revenue of makers of electronic components grew 12 percent to NT$941 billion, led by Hotron Precision Electronic Industrial Co (鴻碩) and Cheer Time Enterprise Co (晟鈦), it said.
The leasing market for upscale offices in Taipei has shown resilience, favoring landlords, despite an economic slowdown and a surge in COVID-19 cases, property consultancy Knight Frank LLP said in a report yesterday. Taipei, Seoul and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, were the only three cities among 23 analyzed in the region where demand for “grade A” office space was strong in the first half, the report said, adding that the others showed cautious sentiment. Seoul was the top performer by vacancy rate at 1.6 percent last quarter, followed by Taipei’s 2.43 percent as the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak faded, it said. Vacancy rates were 45 percent in Phnom Penh, 28 percent in Kuala Lumpur, 27 percent in Jakarta, 20 percent in Mumbai, India, 19 percent in Manila and above 10 percent in China’s tier-one cities, Knight Frank said, adding that the numbers meant tenants had the upper hand in those markets. A tech boom in the local market pushed the vacancy rate down to 1.9 percent last quarter, making Taipei one of the few cities with a positive cyclical movement, even amid a spike in virus cases, it said. Average rent for grade A offices in Taipei rose 1 percent in the April-to-June period, accelerating from a 0.8 percent increase in the first quarter, Knight Frank said. The trend suggests an end to rent corrections of 7 percent earlier in the pandemic, it said. Rent rates have returned to pre-outbreak levels in more than 50 percent of the Taipei areas it analyzed, the report said. For the whole of this year, rent increases might surpass 2 percent, it said. Taipei had a healthy showing even with some cryptocurrency firms downsizing or exiting the market amid wild financial market swings, interest rate hikes and rising inflation, it said. Monthly rents averaged NT$4,039 per ping (3.3m2) in the city’s prime
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has restarted military maneuvers around Taiwan in response to the visit of a delegation of US lawmakers led by US Senator Ed Markey, who arrived in Taiwan on Sunday. Having failed to intimidate Taiwanese with its response to US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit earlier this month, Beijing is having another go at it. On Sunday, the PLA deployed 22 warplanes and six warships in areas around Taiwan, with 10 aircraft crossing the Taiwan Strait median line to coincide with the delegation’s arrival. Monday saw a slight increase in aircraft sorties, with the Ministry of National Defense detecting five PLA Navy vessels in waters around Taiwan and 30 aircraft, 15 of which traversed the median line. The PLA’s Eastern Theater Command on Monday released a propaganda video that showed footage of Penghu County, purportedly taken by a PLA fighter jet that flew close to the outlying islands that day. Rebutting that claim, a spokesperson for the air force labeled the video information warfare, saying: “The foreshortening effect obtained through the use of an ultra-long telephoto lens, combined with good visibility on the day, gives the impression that the islands are much nearer than they actually were.” It is not the first time that the PLA has been caught using exaggerated claims, doctored images or fake footage as information warfare. After then-US secretary of health and human services Alex Azar visited Taiwan in August 2020, the PLA released a propaganda video depicting a fictional bombing raid on the US military’s Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. The video included segments from two Hollywood action films: 2008’s The Hurt Locker and 1996’s The Rock. Pelosi’s visit saw false reports of PLA aircraft crossing the Taiwan Strait and a missile attack on Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport circulating on the Internet.
With China threatening waves of economic sanctions following US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, whether to continue with the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) or abolish it has once more become the subject of debate. The pact has held Taiwan back for so long, it is perhaps time to exhibit some economic resilience and move on. The original objective of signing the agreement more than a decade ago was to set out the framework for economic activity between Taiwan and China, and iron out protocols in four areas: trade in goods, trade in services, investment guarantees and conflict resolution. To date, the only protocol that has been successfully negotiated is the one on investment guarantees, and that was implemented in 2013. There have been no consultations between the two parties since April 2016, making the agreement worth little more than the paper it is written on. The value the ECFA brings to either side is essentially limited to the initial appetizers, the so-called “early harvest” list in trade in goods and services. In trade in services, 16 local banks were able to take advantage of a preferential threshold to set up branches in China, and 20 or so businesses were granted qualified foreign institutional investor status, allowing them to participate in China’s stock exchanges. For trade in goods, China provided an early harvest list of tariff exemptions for 521 industrial products, mainly in the fields of petrochemicals, machinery, textiles and transport, and tariff-free preferential terms for agricultural and fisheries products, including fruit, cut flowers and fisheries goods. The list came into effect in January 2011, and in the initial stages the value of exports to China of goods on the list did increase, growing by 18 percent at the high point. However, in the past few years, the economic benefit from
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan on Aug. 3 and 4 triggered a series of retaliatory countermeasures from China that included military, diplomatic, economic and information attacks. The biggest of these was an unprecedented large-scale military exercise that covered seven areas around the nation’s waters and lasted four days. In terms of information warfare, it was originally thought that China would levy high-visibility disruptions and damage government information systems with pre-emptive backdoor programs. Fortunately, this wave of cyberattack seemed to aim only to blockade the network services of government agencies — a denial of service (DoS) attack — rather than to damage their underlying information techology systems. Although the services of several government Web sites, including the Presidential Office and the Ministry of National Defense, were temporarily interrupted, they were able to recover quickly. Overall, the damage from this wave of cyberattack was quite minor. The scale of the DoS attack was not particularly excessive, either. According to publicly released reports, the Web sites of government offices collectively suffered about 15,000GB of cyberattack traffic throughout the day on Aug. 2, which is 23 times as much traffic as during the heaviest previous attack in a single day. However, a 2020 study conducted by Amazon found that the average traffic volume of the highest-end DoS attacks it experienced that year was more than 100GB per second, or about 360,000GB in one hour. Therefore, if China were to militarily launch a DoS attack against the whole nation, the scale of the attack is expected to be at least 100 times larger than what it did this time. Suppose a network service’s maximum processing capacity is 1,000 requests per second. When a DoS attacker sends requests to this service at a rate far exceeding its processing capacity, say 5,000 requests per second, the
‘DISCUS GIRL’: Croatia’s Sandra Perkovic, who is seeking a sixth continental title, said playing at the championships was special, as it was where she won her first major medal Turkey’s Kenyan-born Yasemin Can on Monday won her second European 10,000m title in Munich, as a trio of world-class heavyweights guaranteed their spots in respective finals. Fresh from sealing the Commonwealth title, Britain’s Eilish McColgan forced the pace in the 25-lap race, but Can hit the front with just less than 3km to go. Can, who previously won the 10,000m title in Amsterdam in 2016, was merciless as she turned the screw at Munich’s Olympic Stadium, clocking a winning time of 30 minutes, 32.57 seconds. McColgan claimed silver more than eight seconds behind, while a second Kenyan-born athlete, Israel’s defending champion and world marathon bronze medalist Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, took bronze. In the first field medal of the Euros, world bronze medalist Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands won the women’s shot put with a best of 20.24m on the second of her six attempts. Portugal’s Auriol Dongmo took silver with a national record of 19.82m, while Schilder’s teammate Jorinde Van Klinken claiming bronze (18.94). That was closely followed by Croatia’s Filip Mihaljevic claiming victory in the men’s shot with a best of 21.53m, Serbia’s Armin Sinancevic taking silver with 21.39m and Czech Tomas Stanek bronze (21.24). Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen kept his bid for a repeat double gold on course after winning his 1,500m heat in 3:38.48. The Norwegian was one of the stars of the Berlin Euros in 2018 when he went home with golds in both the 1,500 and 5,000m. It will be a quick turnaround for Ingebrigtsen, who had to settle for silver behind surprise British winner Jake Wightman in the 1,500m at the world champs. Croatia’s Sandra Perkovic, bidding for a record sixth continental title, also qualified for the final of the women’s discus throw. “The European championships are always very special to me because my first major medal was a European gold medal in Barcelona in 2010,”
Shohei Ohtani on Monday night turned in his usual strong start, but after he left, things were anything but normal. The Seattle Mariners scored four runs in a chaotic ninth inning, taking advantage of the Los Angeles Angels’ fielding woes for a 6-2 victory. “There’s a lot to unpack. What started out as very normal game with two good starting pitchers out there got crazy at the end,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. Jesse Winker and J.P. Crawford each had two hits and two RBIs for the Mariners, who vaulted over Toronto and Baltimore into the top wild-card spot in the American League. Ohtani struck out eight and allowed two runs in six innings. It was the first time since May 18 in Texas that the American League Most Valuable Player had a no-decision. The Japanese two-way phenom had gone 7-5 with a 2.60 ERA in his past 12 starts. “The biggest flaw today is that I threw too many balls,” Ohtani said through interpreter Ippei Mizuhara. The Angels had far bigger flaws after he departed. The game was tied 2-2 going into the ninth inning before the Mariners broke through. Sam Haggerty got aboard with a one-out single off Aaron Loup (0-4). Haggerty advanced to second when Angels catcher Max Stassi wildly threw to the bag even though Haggerty was not running. Haggerty stole third and then scored the go-ahead run on another fluky play. With runners at the corners, Julio Rodriguez hit a line drive directly at Luis Rengifo. The normally sure-handed Rengifo, who was at second base after David Fletcher left with an injury, dropped the liner and threw home. Haggerty was caught in a rundown, but ended up scoring when no one was covering home plate. “My first thought was to keep us in the inning and stop the double play. I saw Rengifo drop it
Andy Murray on Monday won his first hardcourt match of the summer on Monday, defeating Stan Wawrinka 7-6 (7/3), 5-7, 7-5 in the opening round of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio. The 35-year-old Scot was facing his 37-year-old Swiss rival for the 22nd time with both treble Grand Slam champions still coming back to full form after long-term injuries over the past few seasons. Murray lost in the first round at Washington and last week in Montreal, while Wawrinka’s last win came on grass two months ago at Queen’s Club, London; he has not won on cement since the Australian Open last year. Murray needed four match points to advance at a tournament he has won twice, in 2008 and 2011. The veteran was competing here for the 17th time. “We’re not young anymore,” Murray said. “Both of us gave our best right until the end. Matches like this are a lot tougher than when we were in our mid-20s.” Compatriot Cameron Norrie joined Murray in the second round with his 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 6-4 defeat of Dane Holger Rune. The Scot began to well up as he described his love for the game. “When I was out injured and not sure if I would be able to come back, I remembered the reasons why you play the game,” Murray said. “It’s taken a lot of effort and struggles to get back [after two hip surgeries] and play at this level again. I want to make the most of it while I’m still able to.” In the WTA draw, Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina defeated Egyptian Mayar Sherif 6-3, 6-2, for he world No. 25 to set up a second-round clash with eighth seed Garbine Muguruza, title-winner here in 2017. The 23-year-old Kazakh lifted her game in the second set to end with five aces and 13 winners
Cricketers playing Test matches in their 40s will soon be a thing of the past because of the changing nature of the sport, England pacer James Anderson said. Anderson, who turned 40 last month, made his Test debut against Zimbabwe in May 2003 and has gone on to claim 657 wickets in 172 matches. He is still going strong and is set to lead the England attack in the first Test of the three-match series against South Africa, starting today at Lord’s. Graham Gooch, an opening batter, was the last men’s Test player to play for England in their forties, making his final appearance at the age of 41 in November 1994. The last seamer to represent England in that age bracket was Les Jackson, who made the last of his two Test appearances at the age of 40 — 12 years after his debut — in 1961. Anderson said that long-time teammate Stuart Broad, who is 36, might go on to be a 40-year-old Test cricketer, but doubts anyone else will. “No one will be stupid enough,” Anderson said. “Everything that has gone in the world with franchise cricket, the Hundred, short forms of the game, I can’t see anyone wanting to play Test cricket for this long,” he said. Anderson was dropped for the tour of the West Indies in March before returning to the team this summer for the series against New Zealand and then the one-off Test with India, where he claimed a 32nd five-wicket haul of his remarkable career. Anderson said his passion for the game remains. “I feel proud I’ve got to where I have. I feel fortunate as well that I’ve still got the love for the game and the desire to get better and still do the training and the nets and whatever else that comes with it,” he said. “Because with a
TROUBLED HISTORY: Every presidential poll outcome has been contested since 2002, and this year could be the same, with seven IEBC commissioners disowning the results Kenyans were yesterday braced for a potential period of uncertainty after Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto was proclaimed winner of the hard-fought presidential election, but his opponents cried foul. All eyes were on defeated rival Raila Odinga, who failed at his fifth stab at the presidency, but has yet to make any public comments about the outcome of the election on Tuesday last week. After an anxious days-long wait for results, the 55-year-old Ruto was declared president-elect on Monday with a narrow victory over Odinga, the veteran opposition leader who had stood with the backing of the ruling party following a stunning shift in political allegiances. The aftermath of the largely peaceful vote would be closely watched as a test of democratic maturity in the East African powerhouse, where previous elections have been marred by claims of rigging and bloodshed. “Ruto it is,” the front page headline in People Daily read, while the Standard declared “Ruto the 5th,” as he will become Kenya’s fifth president since independence from Britain in 1963. The results announcement did little to calm nerves, with the election commission that supervised the vote itself split over the outcome and demonstrators in Odinga’s strongholds hurling stones and setting fire to tires. On the campaign trail, Odinga and Ruto had pledged to deal with any disputes in court rather than on the streets. “I will work with all leaders in Kenya so that we can fashion a country that leaves nobody behind,” Ruto said in his victory speech, pledging to run a “transparent, democratic, open government” for all Kenyans. “There is no room for vengeance,” said Ruto, who had run as the effective challenger after falling out with his boss, outgoing Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. “I am acutely aware that our country is at a stage where we need all hands on deck to move it forward,”
NUCLEAR INSPECTION: While the UN said it could support an IAEA visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, a Russian official said it would be too dangerous Ukraine on Monday called for new sanctions on Russia and highlighted the risks and consequences of a catastrophe at Europe’s biggest nuclear plant, where fresh shelling nearby has reignited a blame game between both sides. Ukrainian and Russian-installed officials have traded accusations over who is responsible for attacks close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Russian soldiers that if they attack the site in the now Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar, or use it as a base to shoot from, then they would become a “special target.” “If through Russia’s actions a catastrophe occurs the consequences could hit those who for the moment are silent,” he said in a late Monday-night address, calling for new sanctions on Russia’s nuclear sector. “If now the world does not show strength and decisiveness to defend one nuclear power station, it will mean that the world has lost,” he said. The world nuclear watchdog has warned of a disaster if the fighting does not stop. Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-installed official in Enerhodar, said on Monday about 25 heavy artillery strikes from US-made M777 howitzers that hit near the nuclear plant and residential areas during a two-hour period. Russia’s Interfax news agency, quoting the press service of Enerhodar’s Russian-appointed administration, said Ukrainian forces had opened fire, with blasts near the power plant. The head of the administration of the Nikopol district, which lies across the river from Enerhodar and remains under Ukrainian control, it was Russian forces that had shelled the city to try to make it appear that Ukraine was attacking it. “The Russians think they can force the world to comply with their conditions by shelling the Zaporizhzhia NPP [nuclear power plant],” Ukrainian Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak wrote on Twitter. Russian forces continued to shell towns and cities — Velika Kostryumka in the south and
Egyptians on Monday voiced outrage over reports that firefighters and paramedics took more than an hour to respond to a blaze that tore through a Coptic Christian church and killed 41 people. Grief has spread over Sunday’s fire among Copts, the Middle East’s largest Christian community, which makes up at least 10 million of Muslim-majority Egypt’s population of 103 million. Many other Egyptians have also voiced outrage over the disaster in the scorched Abu Sifin church, located in the greater Cairo neighborhood of Imbaba west of the Nile. As debate flared on social media, one Twitter user wrote that the reportedly slow response time “is not just negligence, it’s complicity.” “My cousin’s children died,” Moha El Harra said in a widely shared online livestream after Sunday’s blaze, which was blamed on an electrical fault. “I’m from the area. I know that the ambulance could have been there in three minutes. It took them an hour and a half.” “All we want is justice — for the local ambulance authority, the fire services, civil defense. All of them need to be held to account,” she said. Acting Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel Ghaffar on Sunday said that “paramedics were informed of the fire at 8:57am” and the first ambulance “arrived at the site at exactly 8:59am.” Many challenged this, with eyewitnesses saying it took “an hour and a half” for emergency services to arrive. “No, the ambulance did not arrive within two minutes,” one local resident, Mina Masry, said. “If the ambulance had come on time, they could have rescued people,” he said, adding that many lives were lost to smoke inhalation, not burns. A statement from the public prosecutor’s office confirmed that asphyxiation caused all of the 41 deaths as the corpses bore “no other visible injuries.” Another witness, Sayed Tawfik, said that as the inferno raged, some panicked
Some Florida schools have moved library books and debated changing textbooks in response to a law critics call “Don’t Say Gay” — and some teachers have worried that family pictures on their desks could get them in trouble. As students return from summer break, educators are cautiously adjusting and waiting to see how the new law governing lessons on gender and sexual orientation will be interpreted and enforced. The new law, championed by Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, bans lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade as well as material that is not deemed age-appropriate. Most educators do not expect a major change in lesson plans — one of the key reasons critics cited in saying the law was unnecessary was that teachers do not cover such subjects in early grades anyway. But some worry it sets a tone that will leave LGBTQ teachers and kids feeling ostracized. “The messaging of this law is horrible. It’s toxic, it’s discriminatory,” said Gretchen Robinson, a lesbian high school teacher in Orange County. “It targets, very obviously, LGBTQ students, it ‘others’ them, and that is not OK.” NATIONWIDE DEBATE Workshops about the law that her school district’s legal team held over the summer caused confusion. Some staff said they were told teachers in kindergarten through third grade could not display pride flags or photos of their same-sex spouses. The district later said the law only applied to classroom instruction and that the photos were allowed. It apologized for offering bad guidance with a hypothetical discussion. Robinson said schools in her area had given out rainbow-colored lanyards and inclusion stickers, but she was not sure whether teachers would continue to wear or display them. She also worried that some teachers will “err on the side of caution and leave stuff out” during lessons. The law attracted widespread
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Monday released a revised proposal for social studies standards in public schools that lays out a mostly shining vision of American history, after an initial draft of the standards came under heavy criticism last year from conservatives and Native American educators. The Republican governor claimed the new proposed standards are free from “political agendas” and include an increased focus on Native American history. But they received swift criticism from some educators as a thinly-veiled political document. They emphasize the qualities of America’s founders and mimic language Noem has used as she jumped on the conservative cause of weeding certain “divisive” teachings on race from public schools. The 15-member standards workgroup, selected partially by the governor, included Noem’s chief of staff, two Republican lawmakers and the director of the South Dakota Catholic Conference, but just three educators certified by the Department of Education. The group’s work was facilitated by William Morrisey, a former professor at Hillsdale College — a conservative institution in Michigan that has tried to remake education across the country. “South Dakota’s children deserve the very best social studies education in the nation,” Noem said in a statement. “These standards raise the bar for the breadth and depth of civics and history education. They feature a true, honest, and balanced approach to American history that is not influenced by political agendas.” ’TRUE AND HONEST HISTORY’ Noem, who is seen as a potential 2024 White House contender, has also advocated for the “1776 Pledge to Save Our Schools” as part of a conservative drive to emphasize the qualities of the founders of the US. She has also tried to purge so-called critical race theory from the state’s public schools. Despite the academic framework being one of her favorite targets, her administration has provided scant evidence that teaching associated with critical
It’s not just the economy. While inflation and recession fears weigh heavily on the minds of voters, another issue is popping up in political campaigns from the UK and Australia to the US and beyond: the “China threat.” The two finalists vying to become Britain’s next prime minister, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, clashed in a televised debate last month over who would be toughest on China. It’s a stark departure from outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s business-focused “Sinophile” approach and part of a hardening of anti-China rhetoric in many Western countries and other democracies, like Japan, that is coming out in election campaigns. Nations for years have sought to balance promoting trade and investment with the world’s second-largest economy with concerns about China’s projection of military power, espionage and its human rights record. The pendulum is swinging toward the latter, as evidenced in US, European, Japanese and Australian opposition to the threatening Chinese military drills that followed US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week, and growing warnings from Western intelligence agencies about Beijing’s snooping and interference. A delegation of US lawmakers arrived Sunday in Taiwan to discuss reducing tensions in the Taiwan Strait and investments in semiconductors, among other topics. That shift has made China a target for vote-seeking politicians as opinion polls show public sentiment in many democracies turning against China. Some candidates blame China for economic woes at home in addition to posing a security threat to its neighbors and the wider world. DRAMATIC SHIFT China loomed large in Australia’s election in May in which the conservatives, who ultimately lost, tried to paint the opposition as being unwilling to stand up to Beijing. America’s growing rival on the global stage is also expected to figure in this fall’s US congressional races, particularly in Midwest industrial states, long after former President
The Taipei Times bilingual pages are having a makeover, with professionally curated content for both English and Chinese learners of all levels. With our new partners Ivy English, English OK and others, Taipei Times readers can improve their language studies while keeping abreast of important issues in Taiwan and abroad. A new departure for us is the addition of a Chinese-language learning module, with content provided by the National Taiwan Normal University “Mandarin Training Center.” 《台北時報》雙語版最優質的中英文內容，多年來一向受到讀者們的喜愛。近日起版面全新升級！每週和《常春藤解析英語》、《English OK中學英閱誌》……等專業英語機構合作，提供豐富多元且實用的英語學習內容，不但適合各種程度學生及上班族自修，老師、家長用它當教材也超便利。原先頗受歡迎的雙語新聞則予以保留，持續帶領大家了解國內外之重要議題。 而此次改版除了英語學習以外，本報特別和台灣師範大學「國語教學中心」聯手，為外國讀者們推出華語學習單元，打造最強全方位中英文雙語版，精彩內容在網站上也看的到唷！
A: I just saw a job vacancy in Cambodia on a recruitment Web site, and the salary is really high. B: Heavens above! Haven’t you seen the news? A: What news? B: Those job adverts are all employment scams set up by fraud groups. Don’t fall for it! A: 求職網站上有去柬埔寨工作的職缺，薪水好高唷。 B: 天啊！你都沒在看新聞嗎？ A: 怎麼啦？ B: 那些都是詐騙集團的求職騙局，你千萬別上當！ （Translated by Edward Jones, Taipei Times／台北時報張聖恩）
According to a recent job posting, Canadian confectionery company Candy Funhouse is on the hunt for the world’s first Chief Candy Officer, with a salary of up to 100,000 Canadian dollars (NT$ 2.38 million) per year. Turns out it is possible to eat candy for a living! According to National Public Radio (NPR), the job posting on LinkedIn — the social platform for professionals — reads: “Do you love all things candy and chocolate? Are you passionate about confectionary treats and exploring unreleased and existing products? If so, this is the perfect position for you!” The Ontario-based company said the position pays 100,000 Canadian dollars annually. The job can be a remote working position, or based at the company’s Canada or New Jersey offices. The chief candy officer (CCO) will serve as head taste tester and try over 3,500 products each month. Aside from eating about 113 pieces of candy a day, the CCO will be leading the company’s candy strategy, run candy board meetings and have a say in which products Candy Funhouse will produce. Applicants can be as young as five years old and must reside in North America. The deadline to apply is Aug. 31. No previous experience is needed. The article reminds people that the position would no doubt involve excessive consumption of sugar, which the World Health Organization recommends limiting to 10 percent of one’s daily calories. Excess sugar consumption can increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. (Translated by Rita Wang, Taipei Times) 根據近來一則徵才訊息，加拿大零食公司Candy Funhouse在找「糖果長」，年薪十萬加元（約新台幣兩百三十八萬元），有糖吃又有錢拿。 美國全國公共電台網站報導，職場社交平台領英上的徵才訊息問道：「你喜歡各種糖果和巧克力嗎？你熱愛糖果零食且想探索未上市和現有產品嗎？如果是，這會是你的理想職位。」 這家總部設於加拿大安大略的公司說，這個職位年薪十萬加元，可以遠距工作，或在公司設於加拿大或美國新澤西的辦公室工作。 糖果長將是首席試吃員，每月試吃大約三千五百種產品味道。除了平均一天試吃大約一百一十三種糖果，糖果長將主管公司的糖果策略，主持糖果委員會會議，對於公司將生產哪些產品有發言權。 年滿五歲即可應徵，無經驗也沒關係，但必須住在北美洲。應徵截止日期是八月三十一日。 報導提醒，這個職位很可能會讓人食糖過量。世界衛生組織建議每日的糖攝取量在總熱量的百分之十以下，過量會增加第二型糖尿病和心臟病的風險。 （中央社）
| New Taipei City | 28-31 | 20% |  |
| Hsinchu County | 27-30 | 30% |  |
| Hsinchu City | 27-30 | 30% | |
| Taipei City | 27-31 | 20% | |
| Miaoli County | 26-30 | 30% |  |
| Taoyuan City | 28-31 | 30% | |
| Keelung City | 28-30 | 20% |  |
| Yunlin County | 25-29 | 30% | |
| Taichung City | 27-31 | 30% | |
| Nantou County | 26-30 | 30% | |
| Changhua County | 27-30 | 30% | |
| Chiayi County | 26-29 | 30% | |
| Chiayi City | 25-29 | 30% | |
| Tainan City | 25-29 | 30% |  |
| Kaohsiung City | 28-31 | 30% | |
| Pingtung County | 25-29 | 30% | |
| Yilan County | 26-30 | 20% | |
| Hualien County | 27-30 | 40% | |
| Taitung County | 25-29 | 40% | |
| Kinmen County | 27-30 | 20% | |
| Penghu County | 28-29 | 40% | |
| Lienchiang County | 27-29 | 20% | |
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