Sat, Feb 28, 2026
OTHER OPTIONS: Given possible US intervention and Taiwanese counterattacks, China might opt to blockade Taiwan or take its outlying islands instead of an all-out invasion A US think tank has urged Taiwan to adopt a “hellscape” strategy that would flood the Taiwan Strait with drones and other uncrewed systems to deter invasion by China.In its report, Hellscape for Taiwan, published on Thursday, the Center for a New American Security said Taipei’s asymmetric defense ap
Taiwan’s first domestic measles case of the year has been confirmed and more than 500 contacts are being monitored until March 17, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.An eight-month-old infant fell ill after returning from Vietnam at the end of last month and was later diagnosed wit
The Philippine, US and Japanese militaries conducted joint exercises this week over the Bashi Channel that separates the Philippines from Taiwan, officials said yesterday.Aircraft from the three nations patrolled over the Philippines’ northernmost Batanes in drills aimed at showcasing their “ability
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling party approved plans to beef up the country’s intelligence capability, a party official said yesterday, as Takaichi pushes ahead with a defense overhaul.Takaichi has vowed to make Japan “strong and prosperous” through key policy changes including in de
DOUBT REMAINS: The MAC deputy minister said all agencies must comply with Cho’s warning not to share information with Li, while the TPP’s Ko said Li is eligible to serve Until China-born Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Li Zhenxiu’s (李貞秀) eligibility to serve in public office has been confirmed, government agencies should not provide her with any information, confidential or otherwise, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday.Li, who was born in China, but ha
HIGH RANKS: Taipei Veterans General Hospital rose 34 places in ‘Newsweek’ magazine’s top 250 hospitals, while NTUH returned to the list after a three-year absence Researchers from National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), Academia Sinica and the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) platform for the early detection of pancreatic cancer.In a paper published this month in Nature Communications, the researchers
Thousands of people took part in an annual march in Taipei yesterday to remember those killed during the 228 Incident, with speakers urging Taiwanese not to compromise on their sovereignty and to safeguard their homeland.Organized by a coalition of civil society groups, the theme of the march was “k
TIME AND PLACE: The KMT chairwoman sniped at the judiciary and its ‘partiality’ during a memorial for the 1947 uprising and government-ordered massacre The 228 Incident marked Taiwan’s first major democratic movement after World War II, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said yesterday, urging people to safeguard hard-earned democracy.Ahead of 228 Peace Memorial Day today, Cheng said that the Incident was not only a trage
CYBERWARFARE CONTINGENCIES: Latent malware presited in Taiwan’s electronic infrastructure could hammer services and agencies in the outbreak of a conflict China might target Taiwan’s critical infrastructure by executing simultaneous cyberwarfare attacks with embedded malware in the case of a war, a report said.The Presidential Office’s Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee has convened multiple meetings since last year to work on defense resil
WHITE DOLPHINS: Land reclamation activities to expand the gas terminal would destroy the habitat of the critically endangered species, environmentalists said Environmental groups yesterday staged a protest in Taichung against CPC Corp, Taiwan’s gas terminal expansion project, calling on the government not to pursue its policy to replace coal with gas at the expense of critically endangered white dolphins.The project was proposed in line with the governme
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is stepping up efforts to integrate campus waste treatment with agrifood education and other concepts as the nation looks to ban the use of food scraps as pig feed next year as part of the government’s preventive measures against African swine fever.Multiple schools h
The first bird call imitation competition, to be held alongside the 16th Dasyueshan Bird Race, opened for submissions on Wednesday.The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s Taichung branch organized the competition in collaboration with the Taiwan Wild Bird Federation this year, with the goal of
DRAWBACKS: While commendable, more government support, including teacher training and stable wages, is needed to expand Taigi education in the nation Academics hailed the nation’s first experimental school that teaches courses in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), while calling for more teachers and state funding the support the program.Beiling Primary School in Kaohsiung’s Lujhu District (路竹) in September last year started the experimental pro
After feasting on food and snacks that are high in oil, salt and sugar during the long Lunar New Year holiday, many people are still feeling the effects of excessive eating, ranging from bloating and constipation to a fluctuating appetite and even fatigue, nutritionist Hsieh Hsin-yi (謝欣頤) said. Peop
People release paper lanterns during the Pingsi Sky Lantern Festival at Pingsi Junior High School yesterday.
SHIPMENTS BOOST: The firm expects this year’s shipments of general-purpose servers to exceed last year’s, with AI servers to account for more than half of sales Cloud computing equipment supplier Wiwynn Corp (緯穎科技) on Thursday said it expects revenue this year to exceed last year’s level, as shipments of new servers based on application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) and graphics processing units (GPU) are set to begin in the second half of this year.S
‘SEISMIC SHIFT’: The researcher forecast there would be about 1.1 billion mobile shipments this year, down from 1.26 billion the prior year and erasing years of gains The global smartphone market is expected to contract 12.9 percent this year due to the unprecedented memorychip shortage, marking “a crisis like no other,” researcher International Data Corp (IDC) said.The new forecast, a dramatic revision down from earlier estimates, gives the latest accounting of
The Japanese government would invest ￥250 billion (US$1.6 billion) in state-backed Rapidus Corp as part of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s pledge to boost domestic chipmaking.The latest funding, which would be distributed over the next two financial years, brings Japan closer to its goal of
Today marks the 79th anniversary of the 228 Incident, an anti-government protest that began on Taipei’s Dihua Street (迪化街) the morning after a Taiwanese widow — accused of selling contraband cigarettes — was assaulted by Monopoly Bureau agents. What began as public outrage over official abuse and co
For this academic year’s university admissions, more than 300 university departments are assessing applicants based on a single subject, out of which 189 departments would consider only Chinese language and literature. To respond to a declining birthrate and expand the applicant pool, this measure r
According to media reports, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) has expressed interest in promoting the relocation of the Legislative Yuan, with the Grand Hotel Taipei as the preferred site. However, with regard to site location, building structure and political significance, Chiang Kai-shek Memori
EXHIBITION GAME: While the right-hander is set to play for Taiwan at the WBC, their first opponents, Japan, have lost the services of Padres pitcher Yuki Matsui Taiwan on Thursday lost an exhibition game to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 4-0, but Taiwanese fireballer Hsu Jo-hsi’s dominant performance for the Hawks gave local fans reason for hope ahead of the World Baseball Classic (WBC).Hsu, who is to represent Taiwan at the WBC, tossed three scoreless innings
Fenerbahce on Thursday earned a rare 2-1 win in England, but were still knocked out of the UEFA Europa League by Nottingham Forest in the playoffs.Forest entered the second leg with a healthy 3-0 lead from the opener in Istanbul — where Vitor Pereira made an impact in his first game in charge — and
FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Thursday said that he spoke with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and that he has “full confidence” in Mexico as a host country for this year’s FIFA World Cup, despite violent incidents following the death of a drug lord that left at least 70 people dead.On Sund
SailGP organizers yesterday said that the ultra-fast catamaran series is considering fitting the fleet with air bags and Kevlar safety straps after two sailors were seriously injured in the previous series of races.Two weeks ago, New Zealand grinder Louis Sinclair broke both his legs and France’s Ma
DIFFERING CLAIMS: Kabul said 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed and several had been captured, while Islamabad said two of its fighters died and denied any were captured Pakistani Minister of Defense Khawaja Asif early yesterday said that his country had run out of “patience” and now considers itself in an “open war” with Afghanistan, after both sides launched strikes following what Islamabad described as an Afghan cross-border attack.Asif wrote on X that Pakistan h
Kenya next month is to resume construction of a Chinese-backed railway it abandoned almost seven years ago after funding dried up — this time without taking new loans from Beijing.Kenya hopes to raise as much as US$4 billion by securitizing a railway levy to fund the 369km extension of the Standard
South Korea would soon no longer be one of the few countries where Google Maps does not work properly, after its security-conscious government reversed a two-decade stance to approve the export of high-precision map data to overseas servers.The approval was made “on the condition that strict securit
Since its formation almost 15 years ago, Kaohsiung rock band Elephant Gym (大象體操) has shattered every assumption about contemporary popular music, and their story is now on screen in a documentary titled More Real Than Dreams.It’s an unlikely success story that says a lot about young people in Taiwan
Before the last section of the round-the-island railway was electrified, one old blue train still chugged back and forth between Pingtung County’s Fangliao (枋寮) and Taitung (台東) stations once a day. It was so slow, was so hot (it had no air conditioning) and covered such a short distance, that the l
If Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back was the supreme document of the Beatles’ final moments together and of their dissolution, Morgan Neville’s Man on the Run is a kind of sequel.It begins in late 1969, just months after Savile Row rooftop concert. The Beatles have broken up. Paul McCartney has
★ 本文由生成式 AI 協作，本刊編輯編修。For tourists looking for a scenic way to spend an afternoon in Kaohsiung, heading to the British Consular Residence of Takao is the perfect choice. Its elevated position allows one to take in the bustling Kaohsiung Harbor to the east and the dazzling sunset over Sizihwan Bay to
A: Harvard professor Robert Waldinger’s “7-day Happiness Challenge” includes: Day 1: Take stock of your relationships; Day 2: The secret power of an 8-minute phone call; Day 3: Small talk with strangers has big benefits.B: That’s not too hard. What’s next?A: Day 4: Why you should write a “living
A: Happy Lunar New Year. I wish you joy and health in the Year of the Horse.B: Thanks, you too. Actually, the Harvard Study of Adult Development claims that they’ve finally discovered the secret to living a happy life after 85 years of research.A: What is it? Money? Fame? Career?B: Nope, the key
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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