Wed, Feb 25, 2026
The US Department of Defense intends to allocate US$850 million for the US Indo-Pacific Command to replenish weapons stockpiles used for military aid to Taiwan, an unclassified department spending plan delivered to the US Congress on Monday showed.The funds would be sourced from the US$152 billion t
WASTE NOT: The public is urged to conserve water as rainfall during the spring, which is typically a drier season, is unlikely to alleviate drought conditions, an official said Western Taiwan saw the least rainfall this winter since 1951, with five weather stations across the nation recording the lowest cumulative rainfall since records began, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The public is urged to conserve water, as rainfall during the spring — whi
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not broken Ukraine, its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said yesterday, as the Kremlin marked the fourth year of its invasion by vowing that it would keep fighting Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II until it achieves its goals. Moscow had hoped to tak
US President Donald Trump was expected to use his State of the Union address yesterday to champion his immigration crackdowns, his slashing of the federal government, his push to preserve widespread tariffs that the Supreme Court just struck down and his ability to direct quick-hit military actions
The Legislative Yuan is to send the Executive Yuan’s version of the special defense budget to its plenary session on Friday next week, after a cross-party consensus was reached today.The parties concluded that the Cabinet’s version is to be reviewed alongside the Taiwan People Party’s (TPP) version
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 12:37pm today, with clear shaking felt across much of northern Taiwan.There were no immediate reports of damage.The epicenter of the quake was 16.9km east-southeast of Yilan County Hall offshore at a depth of 66.8km, Central Weather
DIPLOMATIC HEADACHE: Some people travel abroad to engage in illegal activity, but they still request the government’s help when they get in trouble, MOFA said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged people not to abuse Taiwan’s visa-free status by breaking the law abroad, following reports of Taiwanese flying to countries to engage in telecom fraud.“We strongly urge people not to abuse the nation’s visa-free status to engage in illegal beha
COMMON GROUND: Lai told Taiwanese businesspeople that his administration would strive to work with Beijing on common interests in peace and prosperity The National Security Bureau (NSB) has established a task force at President William Lai’s (賴清德) request to prevent foreign interference in the Nov. 28 local elections, the bureau said yesterday.The task force would seek to prevent attempts to manipulate the nine-in-one local elections by outside fo
Taiwan is to work with the US to ensure the beneficial terms it has already agreed to do not change despite ructions following a US Supreme Court ruling striking down US President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs, Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said yesterday.Trump on Monday warned countries agai
Taiwan is to attend the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Meeting later this year in Palau, a senior diplomat said yesterday, after it and other nonmembers of the bloc were barred from last year’s meeting.Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Director Michael Lin (林昭宏) said Taiwan would joi
US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday announced that he would bring Claire Lai (黎采), daughter of imprisoned Hong Kong media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai (黎智英), as his guest to US President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, the New York Times reported.Jimmy Lai, a 78-year-old
Former Hualien City mayor Wei Chia-hsien (魏嘉賢) on Sunday declared his candidacy for county commissioner, joining several pan-blue camp figures seeking to end Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi’s (傅?萁) more than two decades of political dominance in the county.Wei, an independent
The main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) will introduce a bill requiring legislative approval for the export of advanced chip technologies, aiming to ensure such know-how remains in Taiwan, the party said yesterday. As the Legislature reconvened from its winter recess on Tuesday, the KMT, which form
HOLIDAY DATA: A CDC physician said a three-month-old diagnosed with influenza B over the Lunar New Year was the youngest severe case this flu season Expanded eligibility for publicly funded influenza antiviral drugs ends this month, while expanded eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines has been extended to April. 30, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said that flu
FOUR DIE: An expert said that pygmy killer whales are gregarious creatures that often care for sickly or weak members of their pod, possibly explaining the incident Eleven pygmy killer whales beached near Haikou Port (海口港) in Pingtung County’s Checheng Township (車城), with seven being returned to the ocean and four dying, the Ocean Conservation Administration said yesterday.The Marine Animal Rescue Network received reports of the beached animals, which are actua
‘STRONG DEMAND’: As ChipMOS is facing capacity constraints, it reserves most of its capacity for major customers and has to turn down small-scale orders, its chairman said Chip packaging services provider ChipMOS Technologies Inc (南茂科技) yesterday said it plans to ramp up capital expenditure this year amid growing chip demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and data centers. The company said that part of the spending would be used to build advanced chip packaging capa
E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) yesterday said it closed last year with record-high earnings and outlined an ambitious expansion blueprint for this year, with deeper integration of its new businesses intended to reinforce growth across its banking, securities and asset management franchises. At it
‘DISTILLATION’: OpenAI this month told US lawmakers that Chinese companies ‘free-ride on the capabilities developed by OpenAI and other US frontier labs’ US artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic PBC said on Monday that it had uncovered campaigns by three Chinese AI firms to illicitly extract capabilities from its Claude chatbot, in what it described as industrial-scale intellectual property theft. Anthropic said DeepSeek (深度求索), Moonshot AI
Taiwan’s semiconductor-driven economy is expected to remain on a steep growth trajectory this year, as changes to US tariff policies are unlikely to undermine the growth momentum facilitated by Taiwan’s manufacturing technology leadership and capacity readiness amid artificial intelligence (AI) infr
On Feb. 7, the New York Times ran a column by Nicholas Kristof (“What if the valedictorians were America’s cool kids?”) that blindly and lavishly praised education in Taiwan and in Asia more broadly.We are used to this kind of Orientalist admiration for what is, at the end of the day, paradoxically
Since taking office in 2024, President William Lai (賴清德) has faced an opposition-held majority in the legislature. Major policy initiatives have been blocked, with ramifications for governing efficiency and Taiwan’s broader political climate.When executive-legislative tensions ran high while Lee Ten
LATE RALLY FAiLS: Jalen Duren led a late Detroit Pistons fightback, but it ultimately fizzled as a resolute San Antonio Spurs saw out the game Victor Wembanyama on Monday led a defensive masterclass as the San Antonio Spurs outmuscled the Detroit Pistons 114-103 in an intense and aggressive clash between the NBA’s two most in-form teams.Sitting second in the Western Conference, the Spurs were pushed hard for their ninth straight victory by
The West Indies on Monday blew away Men’s T20 World Cup surprise packages Zimbabwe by a colossal 107 runs in Mumbai, India, as Shai Hope’s team opened their Super Eights campaign with a dominant victory.Shimron Hetmyer blasted 85 off 34 balls as the West Indies piled up 254-6, the second-highest tot
Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick on Monday praised the impact of super-sub Benjamin Sesko after the Slovenian’s cool finish earned a 1-0 win at Everton.Sesko is yet to start in Carrick’s six matches in charge, but has come off the bench to net in three of his past four appearances with v
Jack Draper on Monday returned to the ATP Tour after almost six months away with a 7-6 (10-8), 6-3 win over Quentin Halys in the first round of the ATP 500 event in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.The Briton in August last year withdrew ahead of the second round of the US Open. His only match since then
‘OCCUPATION’: Hong Kong said it had lodged ‘stern protests’ with Panama’s consulate, and would ‘staunchly support’ the rights and interests of Hong Kong companies Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino on Monday ordered the temporary occupation of two ports run by a unit of CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd following the Supreme Court’s ruling against the firm’s concession, escalating a dispute that has become a proxy battle between the US and China in Latin America.M
REBUKE: The US diplomat would not recover access to French officials until he explains his failure to show up for a summons by the French foreign affairs ministry France cut off US Ambassador Charles Kushner’s contact to French government officials after he failed to show up for a summons over US Department of State comments about the killing of a far-right activist in Lyon.“In light of this apparent failure to grasp the basic requirements of the ambassadoria
The world’s only flightless parrot species was once thought to be doomed by design. The kakapo is too heavy, too slow and, frankly, too delicious to survive around predators, and takes a shamelessly relaxed approach to reproduction.However, the nocturnal and reclusive New Zealand native bird’s fate
The Siberian crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus) is an exceptionally attractive bird. Mature specimens have snowy white plumage and wingspans well over 200cm. This critically endangered species wasn’t recorded in Taiwan until December 2014, when a juvenile landed in New Taipei City’s Jinshan District
When sifting through the seemingly endless collection of documents in the Epstein files gets to be too much and Ellie Leonard needs a break, she takes a walk outside. Then it’s back to the computer.The New Jersey mother of four is among hundreds of citizen-journalists, or sleuths, absorbed by the ma
Politically charged thriller One Battle After Another won six prizes, including best picture, at the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday, building momentum ahead of Hollywood’s Academy Awards next month.Blues-steeped vampire epic Sinners and gothic horror story Frankenstein won three awards each,
Steam curls from a shallow iron pot as thin ribbons of beef turn from ruby to blush. Warishita — a mixture of soy sauce, sugar and mirin — goes in, and the room fills with a salty-sweet aroma. Tofu slips in beside mushrooms and greens, chopsticks hover and voices soften. More than a hot pot, “sukiya
The Lantern Festival, celebrated on the 15th day of the first lunar month, is one of the most important traditional festivals in Chinese culture. The word yuan means “first,” and xiao means “night,” referring to “the first full moon night of the lunar year.” In 2026, the Lantern Festival falls on Ma
對話 Dialogue清清：過完年回來上班，我真的有點不太適應，早上起床變得特別困難。Qīngqing: Guò wán nián huílái shàngbān, wǒ zhēn de yǒudiǎn bú tài shìyìng, zǎoshang qǐchuáng biàn de tèbié kùnnán.華華：我懂你。年假每天睡到自然醒，現在一聽到鬧鐘，就很想再多睡一下。Huáhua: Wǒ dǒng nǐ. Niánjià měitiān shuì dào zìrán xǐng, xiànzài yì tīng dào nàozhōng, jiù hěn xiǎng zài duō
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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