Wed, May 06, 2026
OVERCOMING CHALLENGES: Despite external interference that delayed his plan to visit Eswatini, Taiwan showed its resolve to engage with the world, William Lai said Bilateral visits between heads of state are a “basic right” and should not be seen as “breakthroughs,” President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday upon returning from a delayed trip to the Kingdom of Eswatini.“Some media outlets described [overcoming] external [Chinese] interference as a breakthrough
Paraguayan President Santiago Pena’s state visit to Taiwan this week is a testament to the solid friendship between the two nations that cannot be undermined by Chinese coercion, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday.MOFA spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) made the remarks at a regular
The opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan yesterday voted down President William Lai’s (賴清德) nomination of Hsu Hsi-hsiang (徐錫祥) as prosecutor-general. With the rejection, the Ministry of Justice, the parent agency of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, would, as a matter of practice, submit a recommen
MARITIME CONFLICT: The draft resolution could impose sanctions or force on Iran, part of a strategy to pressure Tehran, three Western diplomats said UN Security Council members were yesterday to begin talks on a US-Bahrain-backed draft resolution that could lead to sanctions against Iran, and potentially authorize force, if Tehran fails to halt attacks and threats to commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, three Western diplomats said.Fresh
China is slowing its efforts to repatriate Chinese nationals who are in the US illegally, a senior US official said, warning that Washington was prepared to increase travel restrictions on the country if Beijing did not reverse course.The new US threat toward China comes just days before US Presiden
President William Lai (賴清德) arrived home today from Eswatini saying Taiwan would not give in to pressure, having taken a circuitous route over the southern part of the Indian Ocean to avoid airspace controlled by close friends of China.The government said China had forced three Indian Ocean states
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday.The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in Sou
Lawyers and civil groups today petitioned for a constitutional review of the Taoyuan Aerotropolis zone expropriation, the largest such project in Taiwan’s history.The Taoyuan Aerotropolis project, the first phase of which covered more than 2,500 hectares, has been mired in controversy since the plan
A driver in New Taipei City tested positive for narcotics after allegedly causing an eight-vehicle pileup while attempting to pick up a dropped cellphone, leaving six motorcyclists injured, police said today.The accident occurred on Guanqian Road, a key thoroughfare connecting Shulin (樹林) and Yingge
Fresh controversy has arisen over zodiac animal-head bronzes donated to the National Palace Museum’s Southern Branch in Chiayi County by Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan (成龍), which have been in storage for a decade. The museum removed the sculptures from display in November 2016 amid accusations that th
China Airlines (CAL), one of Taiwan's major international carriers, has launched a reciprocal ticket redemption program with US-based low-cost carrier JetBlue Airways for their respective frequent flyer members.In a statement today, CAL said its Dynasty Flyer members could use their CAL miles to red
A Hsinchu man has been granted deferred prosecution after admitting to placing a small bet on a local election outcome via an overseas online prediction market platform, prosecutors said today.The Panama-based cryptocurrency prediction platform Polymarket had offered a market titled "2026 Taiwanese
Nuclear fuel rods are specially designed and not interchangeable between Taiwan’s four nuclear power plants, Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) chairman Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) said today, amid calls to transfer unused rods from a plant in the north to recommission another plant in the south.The government is
A man who posted social media threats calling for President William Lai (賴清德) to be decapitated was sentenced to two months in prison suspended for two years by the Taipei District Court on Monday last week. The sentence is commutable to a fine of NT$1,000 per day, and he was also ordered to pay NT$
TPass customers can expect cash rebates to be credited on May 25, after a three-month delay caused by a stalled central government budget in the Legislative Yuan, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) said today. A total of NT$27.03 million (US$865,980) in accumulated reb
Marking its fifth year, KGI Financial Holding Co has teamed up once again with the China Development Foundation for the KGI Walker Challenge. The 15-day initiative mobilized approximately 4,500 employees globally, empowering them to transform personal wellness into tangible climate action.The initia
BUSINESS GROWING: The company said it would produce interposers used on 30-nanometer and 40-nanometer technologies at the fab, which would open next year Foundry service provider Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) yesterday said it is adjusting its product portfolio for its new 12-inch fab in Singapore to meet a customer’s demand for interposers used in advanced packaging technology for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Vanguard said
A Liberian-flagged supertanker carrying 2 million barrels of crude oil is to dock at Mailiao Port today, giving Formosa Petrochemical Corp’s (台塑石化) underused refineries a timely boost, a company executive said yesterday. Formosa Petrochemical president Lin Keh-yen (林克彥) said that the vessel, the FPM
Taiwan’s technology companies outpaced traditional sectors by swiftly penetrating the global artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain to occupy an indispensable place in the industry, breaking away from the slim-profit-margin business models of providing manufacturing services on a contract basis.
Recently, Taipei’s streets have been plagued by the bizarre sight of rats running rampant and the city government’s countermeasures have devolved into an anti-intellectual farce. The Taipei Parks and Street Lights Office has attempted to eradicate rats by filling their burrows with polyurethane foam
A portion of Taiwanese society, provoked by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), has voiced intense opposition to Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han’s (洪申翰) announcement early last month that 1,000 Indian workers could arrive as part of a pilot program of a bilateral agreement with India to bolster Taiw
CRUSHING BLOW: City, with 71 points from 34 games, trail Arsenal by five points, but with a game in hand after a chaotic 3-3 draw with the Toffees Manchester City’s Premier League title hopes were dealt a crushing blow on Monday as they dropped precious points at Everton, relying on Jeremy Doku’s strike deep in stoppage-time to salvage a 3-3 draw.City, with 71 points from 34 games, trail leaders Arsenal by five points, but with a game in hand
Anthony Edwards on Monday returned from injury to eclipse a record-breaking defensive performance from Victor Wembanyama as the Minnesota Timberwolves upset the second-seeded San Antonio Spurs 104-102 in the NBA playoffs.Newly crowned NBA Defensive Player of the Year Wembanyama muscled his way to 12
China’s Wu Yize on Monday won the World Snooker Championship for the first time with a dramatic 18-17 victory over Shaun Murphy in the final.Wu held his nerve to seal his thrilling triumph in a tense last frame shoot-out at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre.The 22-year-old is the second Chinese player to
Houston Astros right-hander Teng Kai-wei, the only active Taiwanese pitcher in the major leagues, on Monday continued to impress out of the bullpen, tossing two scoreless innings in an 8-3 home loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.Teng took the mound at the start of the sixth inning with the Astros trail
‘ALL-OUT EFFORTS’: With scores of people injured in the blast in Liuyang, Xi Jinping called on authorities to investigate the cause swiftly and pursue accountability An explosion at a fireworks plant in a central Chinese province killed at least 26 people and injured 61 others, state media reported yesterday, prompting the halting of all firework manufacturing near the site.The blast occurred at a fireworks plant in the city of Changsha in Hunan Province on Mond
Thailand yesterday unilaterally terminated a longstanding agreement with Cambodia to work toward joint offshore energy exploration, defying calls from its neighbor to stay the course on the 25-year-old pact.The Thai Cabinet’s cancelation of the agreement, which seeks to develop a framework to jointl
As evening falls in Fiji’s capital, a steady stream of people approaches a makeshift clinic that is a first line of defense against one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics.In the South Pacific nation — a popular tourist destination of just under a million people — more than 2,000 new HIV ca
Hulien County’s Fenglin Township (鳳林) has grown a reputation as a place where life moves slowly and people can catch their breath.Rather than push against this rhythm, the town of around 10,000 has chosen to embrace it and make it part of its identity. Enter the snails.Fenglin has been putting on sn
We all love a power move, such as running, jumping, throwing balls, swinging kettlebells or scaling walls. In comparison, deliberate, controlled movement can seem a bit boring. But this slower side of exercise is frequently safer and less physically demanding than its more showy rival. And according
For many people, Bilingual Nation 2030 begins and ends in the classroom. Since the policy was launched in 2018, the debate has centered on students, teachers and the pressure placed on schools.Yet the policy was never solely about English education.The government’s official plan also calls for bilin
In the dense forests of Tanzania, a young researcher sat quietly among the trees, her gaze fixed on a troop of chimpanzees. It was 1960, and Jane Goodall, armed with nothing but a notebook and endless curiosity, was about to change science forever. Inspired by childhood stories like the Dr. Dolittle
★ Bilingual Story is a fictionalized account. 雙語故事部分內容純屬虛構。Rain hammered the roof in hard, uneven bursts. “Hold him still!” Baosheng pressed one hand against the stranger’s brow as the man twisted on the wooden bed. His left eye was swollen shut. The right one burned red like a coal. “It feels l
對話 Dialogue清清：五一勞動節連假剛過，你好好地休息了嗎？Qīngqing: Wǔyī láodòng jié liánjià gāng guò, nǐ hǎohǎo de xiūxi le ma?華華：老實說，好像也沒有。每天都在外面跑，反而覺得更累。Huáhua: Lǎoshí shuō, hǎoxiàng yě méiyǒu. Měitiān dōu zài wàimiàn pǎo, fǎn’ér juéde gèng lèi.清清：我也是，本來想放鬆一下，結果行程排得很滿。Qīngqing: Wǒ yě shì, běnlái xiǎng fàngsōng yíxià, jié
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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