Thu, Jan 28, 2021
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it was considering a ban on drinking and eating on the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) and Taiwan High-speed Rail networks during the Lunar New Year holiday. The ministry said it had recommended that the Central Epidemic Command Center implement the measures during the holiday due to a cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the center is discussing the proposal and would announce its decision today. However, the center would be inclined to respect the ministry’s professional opinion on the matter, he added. Separately, a TRA conductor has been asked to quarantine at home after coming into suspected contact with case No. 889, a man in his 60s who had been treated at the hospital and tested positive on Monday. While the conductor would not normally be considered to have been in “close contact” with case No. 889, the center is taking no chances and has increased the parameter of those being placed under home quarantine, Chen said. The public should mind their health, but there is no need to panic, he said. “You do not have to worry unless you are notified,” Chen said. As for the TRA asking its staff to practice self-health management, Chen said this was well within the purview of the company and he believed that such caution was called for. Meanwhile, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said that TRA operations between Rueifang (瑞芳) and Houtong (猴硐) stations in New Taipei City might resume earlier than scheduled. Service along the section was disrupted by a massive landslide on Dec. 4 that was triggered by days of rain. The TRA resumed two-way service along a single track on Dec. 14, and set a goal of returning to normal operations by
Relatives of Wuhan’s coronavirus dead yesterday said that Chinese authorities have deleted their social media group and are pressuring them to keep quiet while a WHO team is in the city to investigate the COVID-19 pandemic’s origins. Scores of relatives have banded together online in a shared quest for accountability from Wuhan officials, who they blame for mishandling the outbreak that tore through the city a year ago. The effort has been thwarted by official obstruction, monitoring of social media groups and intimidation, the next-of-kin say. However, pressure has escalated in the past few days, apparently to muzzle any criticism and avoid embarrassment during the highly sensitive WHO investigation. A WeChat group used by 80 to 100 family members over the past year was suddenly deleted without explanation about 10 days ago, said Zhang Hai (張海), a group member and a vocal critic of the outbreak’s handling. “This shows that [Chinese authorities] are very nervous. They are afraid that these families will get in touch with the WHO experts,” said Zhang, 51, whose father died early in the outbreak of suspected COVID-19. The WHO experts arrived in Wuhan on Jan. 14, and are due to emerge from a 14-day quarantine today and begin their probe into the virus’ origins under tight security. “When the WHO arrived in Wuhan, [authorities] forcibly demolished [the group]. As a result we have lost contact with many members,” Zhang said. Other next-of-kin confirmed the group’s deletion. WeChat is operated by Chinese digital giant Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊). Popular platforms routinely censor content deemed objectionable by the government. Relatives accuse the Hubei Province and Wuhan governments of allowing COVID-19 to explode out of control by trying to conceal the outbreak when it first emerged in the city in Dec. 2019, then failing to alert the public and bungling the response. According to official Chinese figures, it
STOKING THE FLAMES: China’s TAO spokeswoman was also involved in a war of words with Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung over Taiwan’s PCR test pricing The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday said that the nation has not exported any animal products to China since 2014, after Beijing announced a ban on meat imports from Taiwan citing the prevalence of animal-borne diseases and fears about relaxed import restrictions. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) yesterday in announcing the restriction said that authorities have already stepped up inspections of packages and luggage from Taiwan, confiscating some meat products such as seasoning, pork floss and jerky. Asked if Taiwan’s easing on Jan. 1 of curbs on imports of US pork products containing ractopamine residue had raised concern about the pork making its way into China, Zhu told reporters that China has always banned imports of meat containing the leanness-enhancing additive, as well as its use in any stage of animal rearing. As Taiwan also has highly pathogenic diseases such as bird flu, to reduce the risk of transmission, China has banned all meat products that are either produced in or have transited through Taiwan, she said. Anyone who finds Taiwanese meat products for sale is advised to report to the authorities, Zhu said, calling on consumers to only buy meat products that have been imported through the proper channels. “There is nothing worth discussing” about the TAO announcement, COA Deputy Minister Huang Chin-cheng (黃金城) said. Taiwan has never exported raw pork or chicken to China, while Beijing in 2014 banned the importation of processed food from Taiwan, he said. Furthermore, Taiwanese pig farmers do not use ractopamine and no traces have been detected in any pork imports thus far, he said. Zhu during the news conference also criticized Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), saying that he is either misinformed or intentionally misleading people by saying that Taiwan’s polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test is more accurate than that administered by China. When
The US Department of Justice rescinded a memo from the era of former US president Donald Trump that established a “zero tolerance” enforcement policy for migrants crossing the US-Mexico border illegally, resulting in thousands of family separations. US Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson on Tuesday issued a new memo to federal prosecutors nationwide, saying that the department would return to its longstanding previous policy and instructing prosecutors to act on the merits of individual cases. “Consistent with this longstanding principle of making individualized assessments in criminal cases, I am rescinding — effective immediately — the policy directive,” Wilkinson wrote. The “zero tolerance” policy meant that any adult caught crossing the border illegally would be prosecuted for illegal entry. As children cannot be jailed with their family members, families were separated and children were taken into custody by the US Department of Health and Human Services, which manages unaccompanied children at the border. While the rescinding of “zero tolerance” is in part symbolic, it undoes the Trump administration’s massively unpopular policy responsible for the separation of more than 5,500 children from their parents at the US-Mexico border. Most families have not been prosecuted under zero tolerance since 2018, when the separations were halted. Seperately, a US federal judge blocked US President Joe Biden’s administration from implementing a 100-day pause on deportations. Judge Drew Tipton granted a 14-day temporary restraining order until the case could be further examined, following a request by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. “A near-complete suspension of deportations would only serve to endanger Texans and undermine federal law,” Paxton said in a statement. On his first day in the White House, Biden signed a moratorium on the deportation of undocumented migrants who arrived in the US before Nov. 1 last year. Paxton, a close ally of Trump, immediately appealed the order. US civil rights
BACKBONE HACKED: The Department of Cybersecurity said that while the unusually high number of unidentified incidents is cause for concern, more analysis is needed The Executive Yuan’s Department of Cybersecurity last month detected 99,293 cybersecurity threats involving the government’s backbone networks, or the highest number of monthly incidents in nearly two years, according to the department’s monthly cybersecurity bulletin. The report said that 40 percent of the incidents have yet to be investigated, while 23 percent were confirmed cyberattacks and 18 percent were probes. While the amount of cyberattacks and probes falls within expectations, the large number of unidentified incidents is cause for concern, department Director-General Jyan Hong-wei (簡宏偉) said yesterday. “In some cases, a judgement cannot be made immediately following an incident report,” he said. “These incidents have to be matched against the tracking database, while further analysis and investigation could take time, ranging from many months to a year,” he said. “We have to understand what they are: whether they are a novel form of attack or whether they foreshadow a large-scale attack,” he added. Fifty-two of last month’s incidents were reported while the incident was happening, and the majority of those were detected by information technology centers, the report said. Among these incidents, 53.8 percent involved malware, denial of service attacks and insertion of cryptocurrency mining software, the report added. Notably, a state apparatus listed is category A regarding cybersecurity responsibility suffered a breach of its noncore operating system in the form of Domain Name System tunneling, the report said. It is believed that a hacker used a Structured Query Language injection technique to attack a platform for renting public venues and obtained system administrator privileges, the report said. The affected server was removed from the network and its data was backed up for outside security firms to examine, it said. “This incident illustrates the point that hackers might target noncore operating systems for attack,” the report said. “This really should not have happened,” Jyan said. “Although most apparatuses are focused on securing
FLU SHOTS: The Central Epidemic Command Center said that, starting on Saturday, government-funded flu vaccines are to be available for everyone The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported one new imported case of COVID-19, and said that 3,262 people associated with a cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital have been placed in home isolation. Yesterday, there were no new domestic cases, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center. However, on Jan. 6, a Taiwanese man in his 40s tested positive for COVID-19 while in Mexico, Chen said, adding that the man quarantined in a hotel and then a hospital before gaining approval on Saturday last week to return to Taiwan for treatment on a medical charter flight. On Sunday, after entering Taiwan, the man was isolated at a hospital and the hospital test for COVID-19 returned positive yesterday, Chen added. On Sunday evening, the center announced an expanded isolation order for people discharged from Taoyuan General Hospital between Jan. 6 and Tuesday last week, as well as for those they live with and their caregivers. At that time, Chen said that about 5,000 people were expected to be placed in isolation due to their proximity to the hospital cluster. Yesterday, he said that 3,262 people had been placed in isolation: 475 hospital employees, 305 local residents who had close contact with confirmed cases and 2,481 people recalled as part of the expanded isolation order. The infection source of the two latest cases in the hospital cluster — a married couple in their 60s — remains unknown, but the tests for 195 people who might have been exposed to them at the hospital returned negative, while antibody tests are still being conducted, Chen said. Meanwhile, the center said that, starting on Saturday, about 400,000 government-funded flu vaccines are to be available for everyone. About 6 million doses had as of Monday been administrated, and 410,000 more purchased to meet the high demand of the
WILD GOOSE CHASE? Most of the spike proteins on SARS-CoV-2 are likely to mutate, so traditional vaccine development work might not keep up, the team said Laboratory experiments have showed that five treatments, including three herbal medicines, are potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2, a team including former Academia Sinica president Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠) said yesterday. The team spoke about its findings at a news conference in Taipei after the study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America journal on Jan. 15. Academia Sinica President James Liao (廖俊智) in February last year convened a research platform to seek treatments for COVID-19, while Wong and Academia Sinica’s Genomics Research Center director Hung Shang-cheng (洪上程) assembled colleagues to determine whether existing drugs might treat the disease. The researchers obtained the genome of SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — from the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data and created a computational model, the team said. More than 1,000 of the 1,273 spike proteins on the virus are likely to mutate, which showed that efforts to create vaccines utilizing traditional processes might be a “wild goose chase,” as the treatment development could never keep pace with the rate at which the virus mutates, the team said. “The fastest way to help ease the [COVID-19] situation is to find clinically available drugs that can be used to fight off infection,” Wong was quoted as saying in a news release. “They should be oral drugs that people can take themselves when they test positive.” The team examined 2,855 human and animal drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, as well as 190 Chinese herbal medicines that are considered effective to alleviate viral infections, the team said. After screening the drugs at the institution’s High Throughput Drug Screening Facility and P3 Lab, they narrowed the candidates down to 15, they said. They created an animal model using golden Syrian hamsters that were exposed to SARS-CoV-2, which were given
‘MAINTAIN INTERVENTIONS‘: The global situation might slow after March, health expert Tony Chen said, adding that people should maintain prevention actions A cluster of COVID-19 infections at the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Taoyuan General Hospital might end in one to two weeks if people continue implementing disease prevention measures, National Taiwan University College of Public Health professor Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday. A mutated SARS-CoV-2 strain has caused a second wave of the pandemic, not only in the US and the UK, but also in Africa and Asia, Chen said, adding that an increase in the number of imported cases in Taiwan led to the cluster infection, which was inevitable. “The global COVID-19 situation is expected to continue for a while, but it might significantly slow down after March,” Chen said. “Therefore, I urge people to continue implementing non-pharmaceutical public health interventions [NPIs], meaning disease prevention actions apart from getting vaccinated and taking medicine.” Implementing NPIs is still the most important measure to prevent infections, he said. “If Taiwan can thoroughly implement NPIs, I believe the cluster infection at the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Taoyuan General Hospital can come to an end in one to two weeks,” he said. The cluster has increased vigilance in the past couple of weeks, which helps to reduce the risk of a community outbreak, he said. Based on the number of weekly confirmed cases, the US still tops the list of high-risk countries, followed by Brazil and the UK, Chen said, adding that Taiwan has dropped out of the top 30 low-risk countries to 31st because of the cluster. “Taiwan still has a very low risk of infection, so I hope everyone can cherish the COVID-19 prevention performance we have had so far, and not be affected by the cluster and lose confidence,” he said. He cited a study in the Brazilian city of Manaus, which said that an estimated 66 percent of residents have been infected with COVID-19. The city was
The Yilan County Government has been accused of discrimination over its National Indigenous Games slogan, which plays on the accent some Aborigines have when they speak Mandarin. The slogan (“原來拿麼力High”) uses characters that are pronounced in a similar way as the phrase “have always been that incredible” (原來那麼厲害), with tones that emphasize some of the characters. The county government on Tuesday said that the slogan was inspired by the “popular way of speaking among our Aboriginal friends,” which also makes it more “lively and amicable.” However, people have criticized the slogan online, calling it “extremely discriminatory.” “I was dumbfounded when I first saw it,” one person wrote. Another asked: “Is this really OK?” Action Alliance to Protect Yilan’s Mountains and Streams convener Sun Phok-ju said that the way county officials spoke about the slogan at an event last year gave her pause. When discussing their reasoning, the officials repeatedly imitated the way they believe Aborigines draw out the characters na in name lihai (那麼厲害), Sun said. Their actions constitute a “microaggression,” she said. A microaggression is a subtle and often unintentionally discriminatory statement or action against a member of a marginalized group. Other examples of microaggressions against Aborigines include assuming that they can sing well or have a high alcohol tolerance, Sun said. When repeated enough, people begin to subconsciously equate people of a certain group with the stereotypes ascribed to them, she said, adding that even though some people subjected to microaggressions might say they are harmless, the topic is still worth discussing. Yilan County Councilor Aly Saku said that in many Aboriginal languages, drawing out a syllable gives it emphasis, like saying “more” or “very.” For example, in the Amis language, itiraw means “over there,” but if the middle syllable is lengthened, it means the object is further away, Aly Saku said, adding that widespread discussion of the Games slogan could
The Ministry of Education yesterday urged parents to beware of children’s Internet use over the winter break and outlined steps they could take to protect their online safety. The Department of Information and Technology Education in a statement set out ways in which parents can direct their children toward appropriate Internet use. Parents could take advantage of the holiday to spend more time with their children to engage in outdoor activities, the department said. They could discuss with their children what to pay attention to when online, it said. One example is to make children aware that even if they “unsend” or “delete” messages online, once a message has been sent, other people can create copies or forward them, the department said. Children are digital natives and the use of digital technology is an indispensable part of their lives, it said. However, parents can help prevent children from improper use of the Internet and avoid addiction, the department said. With the ubiquity of mobile devices and Internet technology, patterns of Internet use among children have gradually changed, the department said. Parents should make an effort to understand why their children go online, it said. Although most parents give their children smartphones to stay in touch, for children the greater attraction of mobile phones might be obtaining information through the Internet, it said. Children often use the Internet to communicate with their peers and to find information related to their schoolwork, it said. Parents could improve their own familiarity with online tools, and discuss with their children online behavior and content, it said. In terms of protecting children online, the department said that most electronics are equipped with built-in parental control features. The ministry has also partnered with cybersecurity software firm Trend Micro to develop a desktop and mobile application to help manage children’s screen time, and to prevent them from being exposed to
Organizers would strive to hold this year’s Taipei International Comics and Animation Festival as planned, the Chinese Animation & Comic Publishers Association said on Tuesday. The festival is scheduled for Thursday next week to Feb. 8. If it goes ahead, people would be barred from lining up to enter the venue the night before the doors open, while a maximum of 9,000 people would be allowed inside at a time, the association said, citing the possibility that a COVID-19 cluster infection centered on Taoyuan General Hospital would prompt authorities to cancel public events. People would be asked to wear goggles, the association said, adding that it would have personnel on patrols to warn against eating and drinking on the premises. Association secretary-general Kao Shih-chuang (高世樁) said that it has not received an official notice from the government regarding the virus situation. Precautionary measures such as masks, temperature taking and requiring identification, as well registering visitor information, such as time of entry, would be enforced, Kao said. People would be asked to maintain a one-person gap between those in lines, while there would be strict crowd control measures enforced at each booth, he said. Organizer Kuei Jung Exhibition Co said that it expects the same number of companies to participate in the festival this year as last year, although there would likely be fewer visitors due to the COVID-19 situation. Comic festivals usually draw high-school students, Kuei Jung Exhibition said, adding that it would allow online registration this year. The festival is often where firms promote limited-edition merchandise, and invite renowned illustrators and comic artists to speak or sign autographs, the company said. However, due to the pandemic, such merchandise might be sold online this year, while autograph sessions might be canceled, it said.
PUBLIC SUBSIDIES: Taipei City Councilor Pan Hwai-tzong was released after posting NT$2 million bail, while New Taipei City Councilor Tseng Huan-chia was detained Judicial investigators yesterday questioned Taipei City Councilor Pan Hwai-tzong (潘懷宗) of the New Party and New Taipei City Councilor Tseng Huan-chia (曾煥嘉) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on allegations of embezzling public funds allocated to pay for their office assistants’ salaries. A bail court released Pan on NT$2 million (US$70,472) bail, while his office chief, Chen Yu-tai (陳玉臺), was released after posting NT$1.5 million bail. Tseng was detained following questioning. Prosecutors said Pan and Tseng face corruption charges in separate cases for “withholding public funds without authorization with an intent to profit” under Article 5 of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), which carries a punishment of at least seven years in prison if found guilty. Judicial investigators backed by local police on Tuesday conducted searches in Taipei and New Taipei City, focusing on the residences and offices of Pan and Tseng, as well as those of their office assistants. The former’s case is handled by the Taipei Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office, while that of the latter is handled by the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office. Investigators said Pan and Chen from 2008 to last year allegedly embezzled a total of NT$3 million in public funds allocated to subsidize office assistants’ salaries by using figurehead accounts. Each elected councilor in the six special municipalities can hire up to eight assistants to help in policy research and provide services to constituents. Public funds can be used to pay up to NT$80,000 per assistant per month, while in other counties and smaller cities councilors can hire up to four assistants, according to the Regulations on Allowances for Elected Representatives and Subsidies for Village Heads and Wardens (地方民意代表費用支給及村里長事務補助費補助條例). In Tseng’s case, prosecutors on Tuesday conducted searches and summoned 21 other people in connection with the corruption probe. A three-term city councilor, Tseng allegedly embezzled government subsidies for assistants’ salaries using falsified
NEW ALLEGATIONS: Weng Mao-chung made political donations to lawmakers and city councilors from major parties during election campaigns, local media reported More political figures and police officials were yesterday embroiled in a corruption scandal centering on former Supreme Court judge Shih Mu-chin (石木欽) and Chia Her Industrial Co (佳和集團) president Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾). Local Chinese-language media reported that Weng allegedly made political donations to lawmakers and city councilors from major parties during election campaigns, and treated high-ranking police officials to banquets and gifts to allegedly buy influence. Shih in a media interview denied the accusations, saying that he had done nothing wrong. He did not contravene the regulations governing judges, he said. “The whole thing caused great damage to my reputation in the judiciary” and he is considering whether to sue the people who tainted his reputation, he added. Earlier media reports citing a Control Yuan probe into the scandal had said that in the early 2000s, Weng — in addition to allegedly buying off judges, prosecutors and other members of the justice system — also organized banquets to meet with New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who was chief of police at the Criminal Investigation Bureau in Taipei at the time. Weng also reportedly met with former minister of national defense Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明). Legal reform advocates from the Taiwan Anti-Corruption and Whistleblower Protection Association on Tuesday issued a statement accusing the Judicial Yuan of trying to protect top judges from prosecution in the case, naming former Supreme Court chief judge Hung Chang-hung (洪昌宏) and former Supreme Court judge Hung Chia-ping (洪佳濱). It accused the Judicial Yuan of handing out lenient punishments, with only internal disciplinary measures meted out to Hung Chia-ping, as he was among the 13 judges considered to have had a lesser involvement with Weng. Their cases would not be forwarded to the Control Yuan for further investigation. “It was revealed that Hung Chia-ping met with
Chinese military exercises near Taiwan are a “solemn warning to external forces,” Beijing said yesterday, after the new US government expressed strong support for Taiwan. The US Department of State over the weekend said that US commitment to Taiwan was “rock-solid,” as Taiwan reported multiple Chinese jets and bombers had flown into its air defense identification zone. Taiwan issued warnings and deployed air defense missile systems to monitor the flyover, which on Saturday consisted of bombers, fighter jets and anti-submarine aircraft. The department later a statement urging China “to cease its military, diplomatic and economic pressure against Taiwan” following China’s sizeable show of force. China then sent 16 military aircraft into the same area on Sunday, the Ministry of National Defense said. Beijing yesterday defended the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises as necessary to “safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.” They “solemnly warn external forces to stop interference and sternly warn ... separatist forces to stop provocations,” said Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮), spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office. Zhu said that China reserves the option to “take all measures” to deal with interference, including the use of force. Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, but remains the nation’s most important unofficial ally and military backer. Former US president Donald Trump embraced warmer ties with Taiwan as he feuded with China on issues like trade and national security. The administration of US President Joe Biden has offered Taiwan cause for optimism for continued support aside from the “rock-solid” comment. Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) was formally invited to Biden’s inauguration, a precedent-setting first since 1979. The department also called on China to engage in dialogue with Taiwan’s democratically elected representatives. Zhu yesterday said the “Taiwan issue” was the “most important and sensitive core issue in China-US relations.” Additional reporting by AP, with staff writer
The Australian Office in Taipei yesterday announced that its new representative, Jenny Bloomfield, is to take office on Monday. Bloomfield was director of the Victoria State Office of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Previously, she served as Australia’s ambassador to Greece and also served in Japan, Argentina and Iran, the office said in a statement. While she has never visited Taiwan, she can speak Mandarin, as well as Japanese, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian and Farsi, it said. In announcing the new appointment, the office reaffirmed trade ties and shared values with Taiwan. “Taiwan’s world-leading epidemic prevention has bolstered its reputation in Australia and on the global stage, and the challenges of the pandemic have deepened our cooperation,” the office said. “Australia is a long-term, reliable supplier of energy, resources and services to Taiwan,” it said, adding that two-way investment in 2019 reached A$27 billion (US$20.7 billion at the current exchange rate) and trade from 2019 to last year totaled A$19 billion. “Our interests intersect across many areas, such as education and vocational skills, energy innovation and investment, biotechnology, smart cities and multilateral affairs,” the office said. Australia is also Taiwan’s second-most popular overseas study destination, it added. Since 2004, Australia has granted more than 250,000 working holiday visas to allow young Taiwanese to live and work in Australia, office data showed. Since 2015, the Australian government’s New Colombo Plan has awarded 37 scholarships and 1,007 mobility grants for Australian undergraduates to undertake study and work-based experiences in Taiwan, the data showed. Outgoing Australian Representative to Taiwan Gary Cowan would return to Australia to take up a new government position, the office said. Cowan has engaged in local activities, such as mountaineering, biking and swimming across the Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) in Nantou County, during his term in Taiwan. Last year, he launched a “Rediscover Australia, Rediscover Taiwan” campaign, hoping that
COMPETITION FOR CHIPS: Local chipmakers are already operating at full capacity, but agreed to raise it beyond 100 percent, and allocate the extra capacity for auto chips As automakers around the world face work stoppages due to a lack of chips, Taiwan’s leading chipmakers will “do their best” to “squeeze out more chips” for the global auto industry, Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said yesterday after a lunch meeting with company representatives. Speaking after meeting with representatives of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (力積電), Wang said that chipmakers agreed to help “as much as they can,” but added that it would not be easy. “Their production lines are already full or even overloaded right now, but [they understand that the] auto chip shortage is threatening the whole global auto supply chain,” Wang said. “Jobs are on the line.” Taiwanese chipmakers will try and optimize their production lines to go from “100 to 102 or 103 percent capacity,” and allocate the extra capacity for automakers, she said. Chipmakers have also committed to giving auto chips the highest support rate, and to talk to their other customers to see if they are willing to accept a reduction or delay in orders, freeing up capacity for auto chips, she said. Taiwanese chipmakers are part of the auto industry’s supply chain, manufacturing chips on a contract basis for auto chip designers, which sell them to auto components and vehicle manufacturers, Wang said. Amid the COVID-19-induced global slowdown, customers slashed orders for auto chips, while demand for chips for information and communications technology and 5G applications soared, she said. By the time auto demand came roaring back, Taiwanese foundries were already working at full capacity, she added. “Chipmakers warned customers at the time that if they continued to cut auto chip orders, it would be hard to meet those orders when they return,” she said. Wang confirmed
Thanks to robust chip demand, United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) yesterday reported net profit of NT$11.2 billion (US$394.64 million) for last quarter, compared with NT$3.84 billion a year earlier and NT$9.11 billion in the previous quarter. For the full year, net profit jumped 200 percent to NT$29.19 billion from NT$9.71 billion a year earlier. That translated into earnings per share of NT$2.42, up from NT$0.82 in 2019. Strong demand drove UMC’s factory utilization rate to 99 percent last quarter from 97 percent in the third quarter last year, the Hsinchu-based chipmaker told investors, adding that it expects the ratio to climb to 100 percent this quarter. The firm can add a mere 3 percent more wafer capacity this year, primarily from 12-inch fabs, UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told a teleconference. Demand for 8-inch wafers and some 12-inch wafers has outpaced capacity growth, Wang said. The company said it expects 28-nanometer capacity to expand 20 percent this year, with revenue contribution climbing to about 25 percent from 14 percent last year. UMC is open to new merger-and-acquisition opportunities to expand capacity, Wang said. Asked about a shortage of auto chips, he said that UMC is “trying its best to mitigate the shortage.” “We have been doing that since the beginning of this year,” he said. “Looking into the first quarter, stable demand will lead to an incremental increase in wafer shipments and blended average selling prices in US dollar terms.” UMC said that it expects chip prices to increase by 2 to 3 percent from last quarter in US dollar terms, while wafer shipments are to grow at a quarterly pace of 2 percent. As supply constraints are likely to last for the next few quarters, chip prices would rise by 4 to 6 percent this year, it said. Gross margin would expand to 25 percent this quarter from 23.9
Consumer sentiment edged up this month as people displayed more confidence in job hunting, stock investment and purchases of durable goods, a National Central University survey showed yesterday. The consumer confidence index added 1.08 points to reach 71.98, despite a cluster of COVID-19 infections, indicating that the public remains confident in the government’s virus control efforts. “The findings surprised me somewhat, as people appeared unaffected by the infections at a Taoyuan hospital,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’ s Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development, which conducted the telephone survey of 2,855 adults last week. The outbreak is mild and seems to be under control, with no new cases reported for the past three days, Wu said. The reading on consumer prices showed the biggest advance of 3.3 points to 44.45, and the gauge on stock investment increased 2.7 points to 41.3 as the TAIEX repeatedly broke records this month before corrections this week. The subindex for the job market gained 1 point to 62.95, while durable goods consumption rose 0.4 points to 112.05, reflecting a strong interest in real estate. However, confidence in the economy and household income was down slightly, with the subindices weakening by 0.6 points and 0.35 points to 84.3 and 86.8 respectively, the survey showed. Separately, the government’s business climate monitor last month flashed “yellow-red,” the first signal toward a booming state in almost 10 years, as the nation’s economy is heating up, the National Development Council (NDC) said. The “yellow-red” reading came after four straight months of “green” readings due to upturns in the local bourse, business sentiment and industrial production, while other barometers held steady in healthy territory, the council said. “The data suggest that the economy is gathering traction, even though the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose uncertainty abroad,” NDC research director Wu Ming-huei (吳明蕙) told a media briefing. The
People would expect the political parties in their country to uphold the security and prosperity of the nation, regardless of political affiliation. One exception might be fringe parties, such as the New Party, which explicitly seeks to surrender Taiwan to a hostile government. However, major parties — whether in opposition or in government — should be completely above suspicion. Yet, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) at times makes this extremely challenging. On Thursday and Friday last week, the KMT legislative caucus proposed cutting the entertainment budgets for Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) by 30 percent and Representative to the Czech Republic Ke Liang-ruey (柯良叡) by about 8 percent. Why would the party target the nation’s representatives to these two countries specifically, beyond its tenuous reasoning provided in the proposals? While KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) has accused Hsiao of irreparably damaging Taiwan-US ties by incorrectly saying that the US would not sell Taiwan smart mines — a mistake she has acknowledged and apologized for — it is the KMT itself that has been doing its utmost to stymie the government’s attempts to smooth relations with Washington. The KMT spent the past few months whipping up the public into a frenzy against US pork imports by spreading unsubstantiated or incomplete information about the health risks of pork containing ractopamine. It continues to do so, with a focus on its campaign for a referendum on the issue. The KMT has a record of trying to push back against ties with the US: For more than a decade, it boycotted the purchase of US arms that Taiwan needs to defend itself against China. Then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in 2010 said that Taiwan would not call on the US to come to its aid if it were attacked by China, and instead would defend
On Thursday last week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) congratulated US President Joe Biden and US Vice President Kamala Harris on their inauguration. Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) attended the inauguration on Wednesday last week after receiving a formal invitation from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies — the first time such an invitation has been extended to a Taiwanese representative since 1979. In Taiwan this has been interpreted as a major breakthrough, and a sign of the friendly ties between Taipei and the new US administration. If using diplomacy to gauge the Taiwan-US relationship, in the past the diplomatic protocol surrounding the relationship has been highly abnormal, despite the countries being close allies. Yet, there really was no need to be shackled by rigid, self-imposed diplomatic etiquette, which only obstructed the further warming of ties. After the US and the People’s Republic of China established formal diplomatic relations in 1979, Taipei and Washington established a set of rules for their new relationship, including prohibiting Taiwan’s president, vice president, premier and ministers of foreign affairs and national defense from visiting Washington. Former US president Barack Obama added an additional rule, banning Taiwan’s representatives to the US from setting foot inside the US Department of State. In 2015, the Obama administration’s department spokesperson also rebuked the raising of the Republic of China (ROC) national flag during a ceremony at Twin Oaks, the former ROC embassy building in Washington. The Obama administration then introduced new restrictions, including a ban on the display of the ROC flag within US government departments. When Taiwanese and US officials meet, they must do so furtively in the conference suite of a nearby hotel or a coffee shop. The unfair treatment is a constant kick in the teeth to Taiwanese diplomats posted to the US. High-level US officials have
After being menaced by COVID-19 for more than a year, Taiwan has experienced its first incident of an intensive-care physician being infected, which has led to a cluster of local cases. Taiwan’s disease control, which had been brimming with confidence, is suddenly threatened with a possible breach. As part of the emergency response, patients at the hospital can be discharged, but no new ones are to be admitted. People connected with the cluster have been checked and screened, and their movements made public, with local authorities working with the central government to investigate the outbreak. Some local businesses have closed down temporarily to disinfect their premises. These measures might be a taste of worse things to come. Nonetheless, healthcare operations are continuing as normal, and healthcare workers are free to move around. The hospital has not been completely locked down — as happened at Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital during the 2003 SARS crisis — neither has the whole population had to undergo nucleic acid tests, as has happened in Wuhan, China. More importantly, the Centers for Disease Control has remained firmly in control and has not been thrown into confusion. The only disturbance came from former department of health minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良), who angered many doctors and nurses by saying that the infected physician should be punished for not following standard operating procedures. Many healthcare professionals have called on Yaung to apologize. If medical negligence did occur, creating a breach in the wall of disease control that might lead to community infection, should someone not be held responsible? Yaung, who said: “I was just stating the facts,” is probably not willing to concede. However, does blaming and punishing individuals contribute anything to fighting an epidemic? Medical and flight safety can mean the difference between life and death. If a medical safety incident involves large-scale infections that could cause healthcare services
FAMILY FIRST: Tomas Soucek honored his wife after he scored a brace against Palace, the Czech Republic player thanking her as she takes care of their daughter Fueled by a sparkling attacking display, Manchester City’s players powered to the top of the Premier League for the first time this season — and even the opposition are stopping to admire their work. In a comical exhibit for the ever-lengthening highlights reel featuring the video assistant referee (VAR), West Bromwich Albion’s defenders virtually stopped in their tracks and looked on as Joao Cancelo curled a shot into the top corner for the second of City’s goals in a 5-0 rout on Tuesday. After all, the assistant referee had raised the flag for offside moments earlier, but City, unlike West Brom, played on as Bernardo Silva collected the ball and fed Cancelo, who — unchallenged — picked his spot from the edge of the area. A video review showed that Silva was actually onside and the goal was allowed to stand. City were on course to match their biggest league win of the season and, on the evidence of this game and the past couple of months, Pep Guardiola’s team are going to be hard to stop. “Now, with VAR in these situations, we have to follow the actions until the end because you never know what is going to happen,” Guardiola said. “Is the goal allowed or disallowed? Nobody knows. So you have to continue until the end of the action.” West Ham United midfielder Tomas Soucek netted twice in their 3-2 win against Crystal Palace, which lifted the team to fourth place. The Czech Republic international is proving a solid source of goals for West Ham, having scored seven times in his past 13 league matches. He dedicated his double to his wife in a post on Twitter. “The most beautiful feeling in football is when you realize you have helped your team, but this time I want to dedicate the win and my two goals to
Fans on Tuesday gathered across Los Angeles to remember Kobe Bryant, one year to the day after the former NBA superstar perished in a helicopter crash with his daughter Gianna and seven others. Fans laid flowers and Los Angeles Lakers memorabilia at a makeshift memorial outside the Staples Center, the arena where Bryant became a city icon during a two-decade playing career. Bryant, 41, his daughter and fellow passengers died on Jan. 26 last year when the helicopter they were traveling in slammed into a hillside in Calabasas in foggy conditions. In a post on Instagram, Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, published a letter she had received from one of her daughter’s best friends which read in part: “You have probably heard this, but if I ever become a mom, I hope my daughter turns out exactly as yours did.” Vanessa Bryant added in the post: “I miss my baby girl and Kob-Kob so much, too. I will never understand why/how this tragedy could’ve happened to such beautiful, kind and amazing human beings. It still doesn’t seem real.” Bryant’s former Lakers teammate Pau Gasol was among those who wrote messages of remembrance on Twitter. “I miss you, hermano... not a day goes by that you are not present in what I do,” the Spain international wrote. “Your spirit, your drive, your ambition, your love... continues to shine in my life and in many others. ... I hope you and Gigi are smiling down seeing how strong, sweet and amazing your girls are,” he wrote. Former Lakers player Earvin “Magic” Johnson posted a picture of himself in Lakers uniform alongside Bryant. “Kobe will always be my Lakers brother for life,” Johnson wrote. The Lakers posted a black-and-white photograph of Bryant planting an affectionate kiss on his daughter’s head, with a caption: “Family is forever.” Other Los Angeles sporting franchises also paid tribute. The Los
Brandon Saad scored twice on Tuesday, one of them in a three-goal flurry at the end of the first period, as the Colorado Avalanche beat the San Jose Sharks 7-3. Mikko Rantanen scored a goal for the sixth straight game to tie an Avalanche record, while Valeri Nichushkin added a short-handed goal and an assist in the rout. Ryan Donato and Logan Couture had a goal and an assist each for the Sharks. San Jose took a 1-0 lead on Donato’s third goal of the season 10 minutes, 39 seconds into the first period before Colorado came storming back. Joonas Donskoi tied it at 16:15, and 46 seconds later Saad gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead. “I thought all four lines were ready to skate, were tenacious on pucks,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “I thought we were stronger on pucks in the offensive zone and moving our feet whenever we were touching it.” Rantanen scored on a power play with 39 seconds left in the period, his sixth of the season. Rantanen became the fifth Colorado player to have a goal in six consecutive games since the franchise moved to Denver in 1995. Joe Sakic accomplished the feat three times — two of those were seven-game streaks — and Peter Forsberg did it twice. Milan Hejduk scored in seven straight games and Nathan MacKinnon scored in six in a row in October 2018. “I’m feeling healthy and I’m feeling good on the ice,” Rantanen said. “Playing with [Gabriel Landeskog] and Nate, there’s less pressure for me, and I just go out and play and work as hard as I can to do the right things.” In other games on Tuesday, it was: ‧ Blue Jackets 3, Panthers 4 ‧ Golden Knights 4, Blues 5 (SO) ‧ Bruins 3, Penguins 2 (OT) ‧ Coyotes 0, Ducks 1 ‧ Sabres 3, Rangers 2 ‧ Flames 3,
American Magic yesterday paid tribute to their three America’s Cup rivals who helped repair their main yacht, Patriot, after it capsized during a Challenger Series race on Jan. 17. The vessel sustained significant damage after a gust of wind caused it to go airborne and hit the water before falling on its side. It returned to the water for the first time yesterday, featuring a large sticker on its side with the New Zealand, UK and Italian flags overlapping, and the words “thank you” written alongside. “The band-aid graphic with the three flags that covers the repair is an acknowledgement from all of us of the invaluable assistance received from each of the other three syndicates,” an American Magic representative told the New Zealand Herald. American Magic grinder Sean Clarkson was confident that they would hold their own when they meet Luna Rossa in the best-of-seven repechage semi-finals, with the first race scheduled for tomorrow. “It’s a fantastic boat and we have a very good bunch of sailors,” Clarkson told the NZ Herald. “I don’t see anything different when we put it back in the water. It will be business as usual.” Ineos Team UK skipper Ben Ainslie was impressed with how quickly American Magic had completed the repairs. “You couldn’t help but imagine if that was you,” Ainslie wrote in his column for the Daily Telegraph. “I asked one of our senior engineers whether we would have been able to make it back for the semi-finals had the same thing happened to us and he said: ‘No chance.’” The winner of the semi-finals is to meet Ineos in the Challenger Series final, which is to decide who takes on Team New Zealand for the America’s Cup from March 6.
SIGN OF UNITY? Only five Republicans sided with Democrats to reject the motion, far short of the 17 Republicans who would be needed if the former US president is to be convicted Forty-five Republicans in the US on Tuesday backed a failed effort to halt former US president Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, in a show of party unity that some cited as a clear sign that he would not be convicted of inciting insurrection at the US Capitol. US Senator Rand Paul, a Republican, made a motion on the Senate floor that would have required the chamber to vote on whether Trump’s trial in February contravenes the US constitution. The Democratic-led Senate blocked the motion in a 55-45 vote, but only five Republican lawmakers joined Democrats to reject the move, far short of the 17 Republicans who would need to vote to convict Trump on an impeachment charge that he incited the Jan. 6 Capitol assault, which left five people dead. “It’s one of the few times in Washington where a loss is actually a victory,” Paul told reporters. “Forty-five votes means the impeachment trial is dead on arrival.” Paul and other Republicans contend that the proceedings are unconstitutional because Trump left office on Wednesday last week and the trial would be overseen by US Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democratic, instead of by US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Leahy, 80, was on Tuesday evening briefly hospitalized after not feeling well, but was released after an examination, his spokesman David Carle said in a statement. Some Republican senators who backed Paul’s motion said that their vote on Tuesday did not indicate how they might come down on Trump’s guilt or innocence after a trial. “It’s a totally different issue as far as I’m concerned,” US Senator Rob Portman, a Republican, told reporters. The senators voted after being sworn in as jurors for the impeachment trial. US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who moved to thwart Paul’s motion, dismissed the Republican constitutional claim as “flat-out wrong,” and said that it would
SLOWER, BUT SAFE: The contamination of the containment vessel lids would not affect the environment because they are inside the reactor buildings, a report said A draft investigation report into the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant meltdown, adopted by Japanese nuclear regulators yesterday, said that dangerously high levels of radioactive contamination have been detected at two of the three reactors, adding to concerns about decommissioning challenges. Data collected by investigators showed that the sealing plugs sitting atop the No. 2 and No. 3 reactor containment vessels were as fatally contaminated as nuclear fuel debris that had melted and fallen to the bottom of the reactors following the March 2011 tsunami and earthquake, the report said. Experts said that the bottom of the sealed plug, a triple-layered concrete disc-shaped lid 12m in diameter sitting atop the primary containment vessel, is coated with high levels of radioactive cesium-137. The No. 1 reactor lid was less contaminated, presumably because the plug was slightly knocked out of place and disfigured due to the impact of the hydrogen explosion, the report said. The experts measured radiation levels at multiple locations inside the three reactor buildings, and examined how radioactive materials moved and safety equipment functioned during the accident. They also said that a venting attempt at Unit 2 to prevent reactor damage never worked, and that safety measures and equipment designs still need to be examined. The lid contamination does not affect the environment as the containment vessels are enclosed inside the reactor buildings. The report did not give further details about if or how the lid contamination would affect the decommissioning progress. Japanese Nuclear Regulation Commission Chairman Toyoshi Fuketa called the findings “extremely serious,” and said that they would make melted fuel removal “more difficult.” Figuring out how to remove the lids would be a major challenge, he said. Removing an estimated 810 tonnes of melted fuel debris from three reactors is a daunting task expected to take decades, and officials have not been
More than 100 million COVID-19 cases have now been recorded worldwide, an AFP tally on Tuesday found, as US President Joe Biden pledged to ramp up the US’ struggling vaccine program. The number of cases, compiled from data provided by national health agencies, represents just a fraction of the real infections, as the COVID-19 pandemic has spread around the globe. The US, which has passed 26 million confirmed cases, remains the country with the largest outbreak, and the largest death toll of more than 435,000. Biden is seeking to turn the fight against the virus around, which took a ferocious grip on the country during former US president Donald Trump’s tenure. Biden said that vaccinating the entire US population was a daunting challenge, and the program inherited from the Trump administration “was in worse shape than we anticipated or expected.” “This is a war-time undertaking. It’s not hyperbole,” he said, announcing that the US is buying an additional 200 million doses and would have enough to vaccinate 300 million Americans — virtually the entire population — by early fall. Meanwhile, Hong Kong has begun using “ambush lockdowns” to suddenly close off and test everyone inside neighborhoods where COVID-19 cases have spiked. Police cordoned off a row of densely packed tenement buildings in the Yau Ma Tei area overnight on Tuesday through yesterday morning to conduct mandatory tests. The new tactic involves authorities giving no warning of an impending lockdown. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) said that such “ambush style” lockdowns are needed to ensure people do not flee before testers move in. “I thank residents in the restricted area for their cooperation,” she wrote on Facebook yesterday as the lockdown was lifted. Tuesday night’s operation was small. About 330 tests were conducted in 20 buildings, with one COVID-19 case found, but authorities say further ambush lockdowns might be necessary in
If you’re squeamish about intentionally campy, senselessly gory zombie-style bloodfests, stay away from this film. This reviewer is no fan of the genre, but somehow, between the smooth production, excellent death metal-meets Taiwanese temple music soundtrack, fast paced action and not-so-subtle digs at the government and humanity, The Sadness (哭悲) proved to be mildly entertaining. The social parody is not as relentless and biting as last August’s Get The Hell Out (逃出立法院), where the nation’s entire legislative body transforms into zombies, but that one was somewhat bogged down by very specific Taiwanese cultural references that could only be appreciated by a familiarity with the nation’s pop culture and sociopolitical events. You don’t need to know that much to understand The Sadness, just sit back and enjoy the crazy rampages and flying guts. Set in an anti-Taiwan where the government has chosen to downplay and ignore the potential effects of an ongoing “Alvin Virus” pandemic despite warnings from leading virologists, the virus suddenly mutates and starts turning people into sadistic, bloodthirsty, cannibalistic and lustful maniacs. What’s interesting here is that the infected still retain their sentience and control over their bodies. They’ve just completely given into their worst tendencies and desires — which makes them way creepier and more dangerous than the typical brainless, bumbling zombie. Even worse, a virologist suggests at one point that they may still be aware of what they’re doing, they just can’t control it anymore — it’s like fighting the urge to blink, he says. The film opens with lead couple Jack (Berant Chu 朱軒洋) and Kat (Regina,雷嘉納), who are separated when Kat heads to her job in Taipei and Jack stays in their cozy Keelung home. The violence erupts across Taiwan shortly after, and the two try to find each other amid the chaos. That’s about
Boarded-up stores, shuttered restaurants and empty office towers: COVID-19 has turned New York’s famous business districts into ghost towns, with companies scrambling to come up with ways to entice workers to return post-pandemic. “If they don’t come back, we’re sunk,” said Kenneth McClure, vice president of Hospitality Holdings, whose Midtown bistro pre-coronavirus would buzz with the sound of financiers striking deals at lunch and sharing cocktails after a hard day at the office. The group has closed its six restaurants and bars in Manhattan, two of them permanently, due to lockdown restrictions that have paused office culture — a culture as intrinsic to the Big Apple as a Broadway show, a yellow taxi or a slice of cheese pizza. “Customers that you saw three, four, five times a week just virtually disappeared,” McClure said, recalling March of last year when the pandemic first swept New York, where it has killed more than 26,000 people. According to data collected by security firm Kastle Systems, only 14 percent of New York’s more than one million office workers had returned to their desks by the middle of this month, putting the countless sandwich shops and small businesses in Midtown and Wall Street at risk. With vaccines now rolling out, corporations and business leaders are grappling with how to attract employees back after spending the best part of a year working from home, and in turn maintaining the character of business districts. Seventy-nine percent of employees questioned in a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey published this month said that working remotely had been a success, but the report also found that offices are not about to be consigned to history. Some 87 percent of employees said the office was important to them for collaborating with team members and building relationships, aspects of working life they felt was easier and more rewarding in person
A stunned silence, and then cries of joy ring out in the green Bisesero hills. Survivors of one of the most terrible episodes of the genocide in Rwanda have just spotted Alain Gauthier — their lifeline to justice. “I’ve come to say turikumwe (“we are together”) and that you mustn’t lose heart or hope,” the 72-year-old Frenchman tells them. His brow burnt from the relentless sun, Gauthier has traveled nearly 9,000 kilometers to bring news to the people of this remote village. A genocide suspect from their region is due to be tried in France, he tells them, as he is warmly embraced by Tutsi herders who have come to know him well. With his Rwandan-born wife Dafroza, 66, Gauthier has devoted decades of his life to tracking down genocide suspects who have found refuge in France. They have become nicknamed “The Klarsfelds of Rwanda” after Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, fighting to prevent evil from being consigned to a footnote of history. In just 100 days in 1994, some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate members of the Hutu majority were slaughtered, in massacres orchestrated and inflamed by the authorities. So far, the Gauthiers’ efforts have led to about 30 legal cases being initiated in France against Rwandan suspects, all of them men. Six have gone on trial, three of whom have been convicted. One was jailed for 25 years and the other two given life sentences. This early December day in Bisesero marked just one stop in a two-week trip in which Gauthier criss-crossed Rwanda. The hills stretch into the distance, their shades of green capped by a gentle mist extending over Lake Kivu. Gathered around him, the aging, weather-beaten herders, clutching sticks and wearing trilby hats, talk of wives and children lost. For weeks the Tutsis of Bisesero held off their local attackers until the extremist Hutu government
B: OK, this Web site agrees that chop suey was not invented in China, but created by Chinese American cooks feeding Chinese immigrants working on the transcontinental railroad in the 19th century. A: And look here, where it quotes a Cantonese writer traveling in the US in 1903. He says that the dish was served in Chinese restaurants in America, but that local Chinese people wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole. B: So it was a locally invented dish, purporting to be Chinese food, catering to local American tastes, but quite distinct from the food available in China. B: OK。這個網站認同的說法是：雜碎這道菜不是在中國發明的，而是十九世紀美國的中國廚師發明的，他們要煮給來美國建造橫貫大陸鐵路的華工吃。 A: 然後你看這邊，它引用了一九○三年到美國旅行的一個廣東作家寫的。他說美國的中餐館有這道菜，可是當地的中國人壓根兒是碰都不會去碰的。 B: 所以這是美國當地發明的，迎合當地美國人的胃口，號稱是中國菜，可是跟中國的食物是很不同的。 (Paul Cooper, Taipei Times／台北時報林俐凱譯） English 英文: Chinese 中文:
That just means ‘odds and ends’ (3/5) 它的意思只是「零碎雜物」(三) B: Apparently, there is a reference in the 16th century Chinese classic Journey to the West, where chop suey is introduced as a dish made of various types of offal. A: Yes, but look at the Chinese characters: za sui. That just means “odds and ends.” It sounds cobbled together by somebody trying to not to waste leftovers. B: There’s another suggestion here, saying exactly that, although much later. This story goes that the dish was just thrown together from random kitchen leftovers by a cook in San Francisco in the 1960s trying to feed hungry miners. A: Well, that certainly makes sense, given the name. Read on, read on. B: 這邊引述十六世紀的中國古典小說《西遊記》，說雜碎是用各種內臟做成的。 A: 對。可是你看「雜碎」這兩個中文字，它的意思只是「零碎雜物」，聽起來像是有人為了避免浪費，而把剩菜拼湊起來。 B: 這邊有另外一種講法，就是這樣說，不過時間點要晚得多。這個傳說是，一九六○年代美國舊金山一位廚師為了要把礦工餵飽，就把廚房裡各種剩菜一起丟進來煮，變成這道菜。 A: 嗯，這聽起來很有道理，就這道菜的名字來說。你繼續讀下去啊。 （Paul Cooper, Taipei Times 台北時報林俐凱譯） English 英文: Chinese 中文:
After filming over a dozen blockbusters, Taiwan-born director Ang Lee still considers Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon the “most difficult movie” that he has made, Entertainment Weekly reports. Released in 2000, it was nominated for 10 Oscars with four wins. It also smashed the box-office, grossing over US$128 million (about NT$3.6 billion) in North America to remain the best-selling non-English film ever. The “wuxia” film tells the story of two martial arts masters (Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh) and a governor’s rebellious daughter (Zhang Ziyi) fighting for a legendary sword. Lee says that the movie is an attempt to “fulfill [his] childhood dream.” With an exhausting five-month shoot across China, it was really an adventure with a lot of frustrations, Lee recalls. “But at the end of the day, you watch the movie, and I think we accomplished something.” Two decades later, Lee is now a renowned international director, while Zhang has become the biggest Chinese actress today. Her new costume drama Monarch Industry has attracted much attention since it debuted on the Internet on Jan. 9. (Eddy Chang, Taipei Times) 《娛樂週刊》報導，台灣導演李安拍過十幾部熱門電影後，仍覺得對他來說最難拍的作品就是《臥虎藏龍》！該片二○○○年上映，榮獲奧斯卡十項提名並勇奪四項大獎，當年還打破票房紀錄，在北美大賣了一‧二八億美元（三十六億台幣），至今仍是最賣座的非英語電影。 這部武俠經典講述兩位武林高手（周潤發、楊紫瓊），與九門提督叛逆的女兒（章子怡）爭奪傳奇青冥劍的故事，李安說該片「圓了他兒時的夢想」。他回憶在中國拍片長達五個月令人精疲力盡，這段冒險充滿著挫折。「但當拍攝結束，在觀賞電影時，我認為我們達成了某種成就。」 而在二十年後的今天，李安已成為國際名導，章子怡亦成為中國最紅的女星。她最近新推出的古裝劇《上陽賦》，自一月九日在網路開播以來即引發高度觀注。 (台北時報張聖恩)
| New Taipei City | 15-18 | 40% |  |
| Hsinchu County | 13-18 | 10% |  |
| Hsinchu City | 14-18 | 10% | |
| Taipei City | 14-18 | 30% |  |
| Miaoli County | 13-19 | 10% | |
| Taoyuan City | 13-17 | 30% | |
| Keelung City | 14-18 | 40% | |
| Yunlin County | 13-21 | 0% |  |
| Taichung City | 15-22 | 0% | |
| Nantou County | 14-22 | 0% | |
| Changhua County | 14-20 | 0% | |
| Chiayi County | 14-22 | 0% | |
| Chiayi City | 14-23 | 0% | |
| Tainan City | 15-22 | 0% | |
| Kaohsiung City | 17-25 | 0% | |
| Pingtung County | 16-27 | 0% | |
| Yilan County | 16-20 | 30% | |
| Hualien County | 17-20 | 30% | |
| Taitung County | 17-23 | 60% | |
| Kinmen County | 13-19 | 0% | |
| Penghu County | 15-18 | 0% | |
| Lienchiang County | 10-15 | 0% | |
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