Thu, May 21, 2026
PROMOTING SAFE CHAT: Government agencies must complete AI risk assessments by July and issue internal control rules within a year, Premier Cho Jung-tai said The Executive Yuan yesterday announced the establishment of the National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy Special Committee, which is to promote and oversee AI affairs and implement the Artificial Intelligence Basic Act (人工智慧基本法).The National Science and Technology Council is to draw up nationa
POWERHOUSE: The investment is to be made ‘across the Taiwan ecosystem to expand strategic partnerships and scale advanced packaging capabilities for AI infrastructure’ Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), a US maker of artificial intelligence (AI) processors and a rival to the world’s most valuable company, Nvidia Corp, yesterday announced an investment of more than US$10 billion into Taiwan’s chip industry.The company said investments would be made “across the Taiwa
The Ministry of Education is considering establishing the Taiwan Advanced Academy of Science, with recruitment to be managed jointly by Academia Sinica and the nation’s top four universities.The policy echoes President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments at the National Chair Professorship Award Ceremony i
Philippine Secretary of Justice Fredderick Vida yesterday ordered law enforcement to apprehend Philippine Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), a day after the Philippine Supreme Court denied his bid to prevent his arrest.Dela Rosa, a former police
US prosecutors on Wednesday announced criminal charges against former Cuban president Raul Castro over the 1996 downing of civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles as the White House escalated pressure on the nation’s socialist government.The indictment accuses Castro of ordering the military to
SPEAKING UP: If he had the opportunity to talk with Trump, Lai said he would tell the US president that China was undermining peace in the region The future of Taiwan must not be decided by external forces nor can it be held hostage by fear, division or short-term gain, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday in an address marking the second anniversary of his inauguration.Speaking at the Presidential Office, Lai said democracy is the most
POLITICAL INTERFERENCE: Taiwan’s isolation from the WHA in Switzerland is ‘entirely unjustified,’ a joint statement by nine foreign representative offices said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday expressed gratitude to nine foreign representative offices in Taipei after they issued a joint statement backing Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the WHO and its inclusion as an observer in the World Health Assembly (WHA).With the 79th WHA currently bein
STICKING POINT: Beijing is holding up a proposed visit by US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, as it pressures Trump over the weapons package Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) yesterday said he is “optimistic” about Washington’s US$14 billion weapons package for Taiwan, and that the government has not yet received any notification of a potential telephone call between President William Lai (賴清德) and US President Donal
The Cabinet yesterday said that the nation’s semiconductor industry is “the result of long and painstaking independent development by local companies,” rejecting claims of theft by US President Donald Trump.“They stole our chip industry... We lost our chip industry,” Trump said again in an interview
The United States’ top envoy to Taiwan has reaffirmed that Washington’s long-standing commitments to Taiwan have not changed after U.S. President Donald Trump called arms sales to Taiwan a “good bargaining chip” in dealings with China.In a Fox News interview that aired shortly after Trump concluded
Civic groups on Wednesday welcomed the government’s planned expansion of parental leave policies aimed at addressing the low birthrate, but cautioned that monthly child-rearing subsidies alone are unlikely to significantly boost fertility.Their response came after President William Lai (賴清德) announc
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲) and Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) traded barbs yesterday over prolonged vacancies on the Constitutional Court that have left the body severely understaffed for more than 18 months.The dispute took place during
CRACKDOWN CONTINUES: The clinics have been ordered to suspend operations, and local governments would later publish a list of those clinics, an official said Thirty-five cosmetic clinics nationwide were found to have breached patient privacy regulations during a recent wave of inspections prompted by hidden camera controversies, with New Taipei City recording the most number of offenses at 14, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday.A special t
Motorcycle passenger transport services have not yet been legalized, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said yesterday, adding that people who access such services would not be covered by liability insurance plans.The ministry issued the statement after reports that Uber is con
Taiwan is to observe 121 days off work next year, with nine extended holidays that last three or more days, the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration announced yesterday.The Cabinet has approved a list of public holidays to be observed by government agencies next year, the agency said in a
MEMORY SHORTAGE: The company has raised NT$78.7 billion in private placements, which it is to use in the construction of a new plant, increasing capacity Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said more customers are tending to secure longer-term, or multiple-year DRAM supply contracts, suggesting the ongoing memory shortage could continue until the end of next year at least.The company attributed the solid customer demand to explosive growth in arti
Taiwanese consumers were more upbeat this month on the economy and spending, with optimism toward the stock market and risk appetite climbing to record highs, a sentiment survey released on Wednesday by Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) showed.The improvement in confidence came as a ceasefire betwe
The global artificial intelligence (AI) industry is entering a new phase in which growth is shifting beyond AI model development to infrastructure expansion and real-world deployment on devices and across industries, Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC) director-general Chris Hung (洪春暉
As analysts try to figure out how last week’s summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) would affect Taiwan, a closer look at Xi’s remarks offer a glimpse into his anxiety and uncertainty over initiating war in the Taiwan Strait, while attempting to disguise his
US President Donald Trump recently repeated his claim that “Taiwan stole America’s chip industry,” reigniting public debate on the issue. As a former Taiwanese minister of economic affairs and an entrepreneur deeply involved in semiconductor supply chain development, I feel a responsibility to clari
This year’s Taipei mayoral race is not your average local election. It is a contest of values — a debate over how Taiwan’s capital should navigate the road ahead.When the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officially announced Puma Shen (沈伯洋) as its nominee, the first reaction of many was not about
‘KING OF EUROPE’: The coach added to his four previous triumphs in the second-tier European competition, all of them with teams using ‘Villa’ In front of heir to the king of England on Wednesday, Unai Emery reaffirmed his status as the king of the UEFA Europa League as Aston Villa beat SC Freiburg 3-0 in Istanbul, Turkey, to secure him a record-extending fifth title in the competition.Celebrating wildly inside the Tupras Stadium was lifel
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on Wednesday bounced back from a sub-par series opener to score 30 points, while Alex Caruso added 17 off the bench as the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the San Antonio Spurs 122-113 in Game 2 of the NBA Western Conference finals.Chet Holmgren scored 13 points, while reserves Ja
Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday returned to his full two-way form for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the results were formidable.While pitching and hitting in the same game for the first time in four weeks, Ohtani homered on the first pitch of the night and then threw five innings of three-hit ball in Los A
The coach of the Suwon women’s team on Wednesday said that his team felt “hurt” by a lack of home support after losing to the first North Korean sports team to visit the South in eight years.South Korea’s Suwon went down 2-1 to North rivals Naegohyang their Asian Women’s Champions League semi-final,
‘WELCOME TO ISRAEL’: Video posted by the Israeli security minister showing activists forced to kneel with their hands tied behind their backs drew international condemnation Turkey yesterday said it was sending charter flights to Israel to repatriate Gaza flotilla activists, after Israeli forces detained them in scenes that sparked international condemnation.“We plan to bring our citizens and participants from third countries to Turkey via special charter flights we wil
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India.The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where a
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days.Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair res
It took 12 years and months of standing in the same mountain location for director Liang Chieh-te (梁皆得) to capture a few seconds of footage: Taiwan’s largest resident raptor locking talons with its mate and spinning through the air in a courtship ritual.With only about 1,000 left in the wild and ver
They have been our meat and our messengers, a source of fertilizer and a religious symbol: while pigeons are now mostly reviled as dirty city pests, they long played an important role in human society.Now, research published yesterday has revealed that the humble birds were first domesticated 3,500
As playwright Aleshea Harris tells it, something felt missing when she first sat down to write her searing and startling play Is God Is, which made waves off-Broadway in 2018.Harris was writing an epic story of Black female revenge, one that drew on Greek tragedy and mythology, but also spaghetti we
A: While Taiwan is celebrating the 7th anniversary of legalizing same-sex marriage, a poll shows that the support rate for same-sex marriage rose sharply from 37.4 percent seven years ago to 69.9 percent last year.B: Actually, I’m a bit curious about the size of Taiwan’s LGBT population.A: I’m no
A: Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage on May 24, 2019, so this week marks the seventh anniversary of that milestone. By the end of 2024, a total of 32,126 LGBT couples had tied the knot.B: How many of them got married to foreign partners?A: In 2024, there were 504 cross-border same-sex marriages.
As bee populations around the world continue to decline at an alarming rate, scientists are developing an innovative solution: robotic bees. Recent advances at research institutions like Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US have produced tiny flying robots capable of performing poll
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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