Mon, Dec 05, 2022
STAND TOGETHER: Protests in China are shattering the fantasy that Chinese embrace the CCP, and Taiwanese should use their freedom to speak out, advocates said A group of Taiwanese yesterday held blank pieces of paper in Taipei’s Liberty Square in support of protesters in China. Jen Wu (吳亭臻) said she cofounded the Facebook group “A4 Revolution in Taiwan” as a platform for people to exchange ideas and news about the protests, so that more people could understand what is happening in China. “We are standing here now in Taiwan, a free and democratic country, as citizens of the global village, to voice our support for people who are fighting against tyranny, no matter what country they are in,” she said. The “Blank Paper Movement” started with protests in several major cities across China over the past week, after a fire on Nov. 24 in Urumqi, Xinjiang, killed 10 people in a building that was under COVID-19 lockdown. Protesters have demanded an end to the country’s strict “zero COVID” policy, which includes lockdowns and mass testing. They often hold blank pieces of paper to symbolize the lack of freedom of speech in the country and defiance against Beijing’s censorship. Some have called for democracy, freedom of speech and for Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to step down. Taiwanese human rights and democracy advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲), who was imprisoned in China for five years after he was convicted of “subversion of state power,” participated in the event in Taipei. He said it was important to help Taiwanese understand the real situation in China, and let them know that “we refuse to be ruled by such a government, and we refuse to be the same country as that government.” He said he learned in prison that Chinese laws are designed to control people, not protect them, and CCP officials interpret those laws to their liking. That is why the CCP imposes strict COVID-19 lockdowns and refuses to use foreign vaccines
The first group of potential citizen judges, about 35,000 people, should receive notifications in the next few days informing them of their role in the new citizen judge system which takes effect on Jan. 1. The first batch of notifications was mailed on Thursday to people living within the jurisdictions of district courts in Taoyuan, Hualien County, Yunlin County, Pingtung County, Tainan and Kaohsiung’s Ciaotou District (橋頭), the Judicial Yuan’s Criminal Department said on Friday. A total of 120,000 people nationwide are eligible to be selected as citizen judges next year, it said. Under the National Judge Act (國民法官法), passed in 2020, any citizen older than 23 is eligible to serve as a citizen judge, and participate in deliberations over crimes warranting a prison term of at least 10 years or premeditated crimes that resulted in death. Under the new system, three professional judges and six citizen judges are to form a collegiate bench to preside over trials. The Criminal Department said that those who received the notice have to complete the “potential citizen judges self-declaration questionnaire” enclosed to ensure their eligibility. If recipients find any items listed on the questionnaire that apply to themselves or have reasons that prevent them from performing the duties of a citizen judge, they must complete either a paper or online questionnaire and send it back to the local court, it said. Those who receive a second notice informing them that they have been listed as a “prospective citizen judge” should either reply in writing or attend a selection session held by the local court to affirm their role as an “official citizen judge.” Each district court has set up citizen judge hotlines or dedicated extension numbers to help answer questions about the process, the department said. The citizen judge system would reshape the judiciary, as it could make the criminal trial procedure
The US is at a pivotal point with China and needs military strength to ensure that US values, not Beijing’s, set global norms in the 21st century, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Saturday. Austin’s speech at the Reagan National Defense Forum capped a week in which the Pentagon was squarely focused on China’s rise and what that might mean for the US’ position in the world. On Monday last week, it released an annual China security report that warned Beijing would likely have 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035, with no clarity on how China would seek to use them. On Friday in a dramatic nighttime rollout, Austin was on hand as the public got its first glimpse of the military’s newest, highly classified nuclear stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider, which is being designed to best the quickly growing cyber, space and nuclear capabilities of Beijing. China “is the only country with both the will and, increasingly, the power to reshape its region and the international order to suit its authoritarian preferences,” Austin said on Saturday. “So let me be clear: We will not let that happen.” The Pentagon is also concerned about Russia and remains committed to arming Ukraine, while avoiding escalating that conflict into a US war with Moscow, he said at the forum, held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. “We will not be dragged into Putin’s war,” Austin said. “These next few years will set the terms of our competition with the People’s Republic of China. They will shape the future of security in Europe,” Austin said. “And they will determine whether our children and grandchildren inherit an open world of rules and rights — or whether they face emboldened autocrats who seek to dominate by force and fear.” Still, between the two nuclear power threats, China remains the greater risk, Austin
Indonesia’s Mount Semeru yesterday erupted spewing hot ash clouds a mile into the sky and sending rivers of lava down its side, sparking the evacuation of nearly 2,000 people exactly one year after its last major eruption killed dozens. The eruption of the highest mountain on Indonesia’s main island of Java, about 800km southeast of the capital, Jakarta, prompted authorities to raise the alert status to the highest level. “Hot avalanches” caused by piles of lava at the tip of the 3,676m volcano slid down after the eruption, Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Abdul Muhari said in a statement. The increased threat level “means the danger has threatened the people’s settlement and the volcano’s activity has escalated,” Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center spokesman Hendra Gunawan told broadcaster Kompas TV. No casualties or injuries were reported immediately after the eruption, but Gunawan warned local residents not to travel within 8km of the crater after the threat level was raised to four. The BNPB said that 1,979 people were taken to 11 shelters, with at least six villages affected by the eruption. Images on local TV showed evacuees, mostly women and children, taking shelter in a school. Videos shared by local rescue group Irannala Rescue showed a huge black cloud rising from the volcano’s crater, engulfing the sky and blocking the sun in nearby villages. The villages were being battered by monsoon rains by the afternoon and the rainfall was mixing with volcanic ash, Kompas reported. Residents were also told to avoid a southeastern area 13km along a river in the direction where the ash was traveling. “A lot of people have started to go down,” Thoriqul Haq, the administration head for Lumajang Regency, where the volcano is located, told Kompas. Most residents in the two most-threatened villages have fled, Lumajang Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Patria Dwi Hastiadi said. The Japan
‘DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE’: The vigilance of the US and EU amid increased threats from authoritarian regimes shows that democracies are resolved to uphold order, MOFA said Maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is the consensus of democracies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, after a meeting of US and EU officials on the Indo-Pacific region. The ministry’s remarks followed a joint statement on Friday by US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino that expressed concern about China’s provocations in the Strait. The US, the EU and other like-minded countries have over the past few months made many public statements about upholding peace and stability in the Strait, showing that cross-strait peace is a consensus among democracies, the ministry said. The statement was issued following the conclusion of the fourth high-level US-EU Dialogue on China on Thursday and a third meeting of the US-EU high-level consultations on the Indo-Pacific region on Friday. The two sides “expressed concern about China’s provocations that increase the risk of crisis in the Strait, which would not only undermine peace and stability across the Strait, but also have serious impacts on the broader region and jeopardize global prosperity,” the joint statement said. “They reiterated their commitment to maintaining the status quo and opposition to any unilateral actions which undermine it,” it added. Tensions across the Strait have escalated, in particular since a visit to Taipei by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi in early August, which was followed by China increasing its military exercises around Taiwan. Since then, sorties by Chinese military planes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone have become more frequent, and, unlike in the past, the aircraft sometimes cross the median line of the Taiwan Strait. MOFA yesterday said it welcomed and thanked the US and the EU for their support, and for drawing attention to China’s provocative actions in the Strait. The US’ and the EU’s constant vigilance on developments in the Strait and
PLAYING IT DOWN: The Australian prime minister described the trip as a ‘backbench visit,’ adding that he had ‘no idea’ why the lawmakers were going A group of Australian lawmakers is scheduled to arrive in Taiwan today for a five-day visit, a spokesman for one of the politicians said yesterday. The bipartisan trip is the first such Taiwan visit in more than three years, a period marked by a long disruption to air travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Details of the visit were confirmed by a spokesman for Scott Buchholz, a Liberal Party lawmaker in the delegation. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sought to play down the mission’s significance after it was first reported by the Weekend Australian newspaper. “There have been backbench visits to Taiwan for a long time. This is another one. This isn’t a government visit,” he told reporters. Albanese said the two major Australian political parties support Canberra’s “one China” policy. Asked about the aims of the trip, he said: “I have no idea. I’m not going. You should ask them.” The delegation of six members of the Australian parliament includes center-left ruling Labor Party lawmakers as well as the opposition Liberal Party and its ally, the National Party. Former Australian deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce is part of the group, the spokesman said. The lawmakers are scheduled to meet President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and other senior officials, the Weekend Australian said. The visit, backed by Taiwan, aims to convey a desire for peace in the Asia-Pacific region, it said. “Just because we are friends with Taiwan does not mean we can’t be friends with China,” Buchholz told the newspaper. Plans for the trip had been kept quiet to prevent China from lobbying against it, the report said. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) called for better relations with Australia when he met Albanese in Indonesia last month for the first formal summit between the two countries in years. It was seen as an opening for improved
GREATER NUMBER: The sorties might have been a response to the US and the EU expressing concern on Friday over China’s ‘provocations’ in the Taiwan Strait Twenty-five Chinese military aircraft and four naval ships were detected around Taiwan from 6am Saturday to 6am yesterday, including eight airplanes that had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and another two that entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft that entered Taiwan’s southwestern ADIZ were a Y-8 anti-submarine plane and a BZK-005 uncrewed aerial vehicle, the Ministry of National Defense said. The aircraft that flew across the median line include two Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets, four J-16 multipurpose fighters and two J-10 jets, the ministry’s official Web site showed. Taiwan’s armed forces monitored the situation and tasked combat air patrol aircraft, navy vessels and land-based missile systems to respond to China’s actions, the ministry said. The sorties occurred following the US and the EU expressing their concern on Friday in Washington over what they said were China’s “provocations” in the Taiwan Strait. The two sides after bilateral meetings “expressed concern about China’s provocations that increase the risk of crisis in the [Taiwan] Strait.” It was unclear whether Beijing was trying to send a message to the US and the EU. China’s government sees such statements and warnings as interference in its “internal affairs.” The number of sorties over Saturday and Sunday were more than usual. The defense ministry has been posting information about Chinese warplane and naval vessel activities since Sept. 17, 2020, amid a growing frequency of incursions by Chinese military aircraft into Taiwan’s ADIZ. An ADIZ is an area declared by a country to allow it to identify, locate and control approaching foreign aircraft, but it is not part of territorial airspace as defined by international law.
‘TIP OF THE ICEBERG’: Academics are unlikely to blow the whistle on misconduct by politicians studying for degrees, and advisers must not be compromised, an expert said The Ministry of Education should take steps to ensure that university dissertation plagiarism is prevented, the head of an education group said on Saturday, one day after Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) had his master’s degree revoked by National Taiwan University (NTU). Union of Private School Educators president Yu Jung-hui (尤榮輝) said the cases involving Cheng and former Hsinchu mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) in August were among the largest scandals to affect NTU. The two incidents are likely the tip of the iceberg, Yu said, given that few academics and faculty members would be willing to act as whistle-blowers, and school administrators often hope that public reports of plagiarism fade from attention so they can “sweep them under the rug.” Yu’s appeal came after Cheng confirmed on Friday that NTU had determined that he had plagiarized parts of his master’s thesis at the NTU Graduate Institute of National Development. The school began investigating the thesis after a complaint was filed with NTU against Cheng in October. Lin abandoned his campaign for Taoyuan mayor ahead of the Nov. 26 elections when an investigation determined that he had plagiarized parts of his master’s thesis. Lin and Cheng had the same thesis advisor — Chen Ming-tong (陳明通), who is now the National Security Bureau director-general. All three are members of the Democratic Progressive Party. Yu said politicians who want to study for degrees should put in the required effort rather than resorting to influence peddling. Thesis advisers should be gatekeepers of academic ethics and must not be compromised by possible favors from politicians, he said. NTU should also be held accountable over seemingly lax standards for checking the originality of academic papers, Yu said. Separately, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) on Saturday was asked at an event in Taipei if his ministry would hold NTU responsible for administrative oversight. Pan said only
Idaho Governor Brad Little arrived in Taiwan with his wife, Teresa, and a trade delegation yesterday for a four-day visit, during which he is scheduled to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Little is also to meet with Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and attend a banquet with Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), the ministry said in a statement yesterday. Little is also scheduled to attend the signing of a commercial memorandum between Taiwan and Idaho, and lead the delegation on visits to the Taichung City Government, the Imports and Exports Association of Taipei and the Taiwan Flour Mills Association. The ministry said Little’s ties with the nation extend back to when he led a state legislature delegation to Taiwan in 2011 as the Idaho lieutenant governor. “As governor and a businessman, I understand the importance of building relationships and making personal visits with some of our best customers,” he said at the time, adding that Idaho had a “decades-long friendship” with Taiwan. Little won a second term as governor last month. Taiwan topped Idaho’s list of importers last year, and has been the state’s second-largest trade partner for three straight years, the ministry said. Little’s visit will bolster Taiwan’s already solid ties with the state, it added.
Tseng Sheng-kuang (曾聖光), a Taiwanese volunteer soldier who died in November while fighting for Ukraine, was honored by the Council of Indigenous Peoples at a memorial service in Hualien yesterday. Tseng was honored with the highest award of the Contribution to Indigenous Peoples for his sacrifice in resisting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as for democracy, freedom and justice, council Minister Icyang Parod said at the ceremony. Hualien County Commissioner Hsu Chen-wei (徐榛蔚), who also attended the event, expressed her condolences over Tseng’s death, and expressed sympathy for Tseng’s mother and wife given the “pain and loss” they must have felt when collecting Tseng’s ashes in Ukraine. Hsu said at the ceremony that Tseng’s father-in-law also died in the past few weeks, adding to the family’s sadness. She said that as a mother, she hoped there would be no more unnecessary sacrifices in the war, and wished that the family finds peace of mind. Tseng, 25, was an Indigenous Amis from Hualien County. He joined the International Legion of Ukraine’s territorial defense forces and died in battle in Lyman, part of the contested Luhansk region, making him the first Taiwanese volunteer soldier to die in the Ukraine war. Tseng had served in the Republic of China Army from 2017 to last year. Tseng’s family went to Ukraine last month to identify his body and deal with matters related to his death. A ceremony was held in Kyiv in his honor.
Taiwan and the US on Friday celebrated the second anniversary of a language education initiative that aims to encourage more Americans to learn Mandarin at Taiwanese study centers as China’s language and cultural centers close across the US. “Over the past two years, we have significantly increased Mandarin and English language learning and exchange opportunities. Here’s to the future!” the US Department of State’ Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs wrote on Twitter. Attached to the post was a graphic that showed that the number of US students in the bureau’s exchange programs in Taiwan has increased to about 130 from 90 over the two years since the initiative was launched on Dec. 3, 2020. The number of students attending the US-sponsored Mandarin programs is expected to rise to nearly 190 by the end of next year, the graphic showed. “Taiwan-US Education Initiative is growing from strength to strength and we hope to tell more stories about Taiwan in the years to come,” the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the US wrote in response. The office, Taiwan’s de facto embassy in the US, followed that with a short video to introduce the Learn and Study in Taiwan Web site, which provides information on how to access to Mandarin learning courses in Taiwan and the US. The US-Taiwan Education Initiative aims to expand collaboration in the area of language education and to safeguard academic freedom. “The initiative will highlight and enhance Taiwan’s role in providing Chinese language instruction to Americans and to people around the world,” then-American Institute in Taiwan director Brent Christensen said at its launch. The initiative grew as the US began to close Beijing-supported Confucius Institutes, which were Chinese language and cultural learning centers that some governments have said are intended to extend China’s influence abroad. As of June 21, there were “104 Confucius
Atomic Energy Council (AEC) Minister Hsieh Shou-shing (謝曉星) has taken leave while sexual harassment allegations are investigated, the council said in a statement on Saturday. Hsieh on Saturday morning asked the Executive Yuan for temporary leave until the investigation is completed, the council said in a statement later that day. His request came after several lawmakers issued a joint statement earlier in the day asking Hsieh to step aside during the investigation. Mirror Media in October was the first to report allegations that Hsieh had sexually harassed several of his female secretaries. Female subordinates using pseudonyms were cited accusing Hsieh of verbal harassment and of deliberately brushing his body against them in the workplace, adding that it seemed the minister only hired young female secretaries based on their appearance. Hsieh has rejected the allegations. Following the reports, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said the Cabinet would establish a special task force to investigate the allegations. Eight Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers, including Lin Yi-chin (林宜瑾) and Fan Yun (范雲), signed the statement asking Hsieh to step aside. New Power Party Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) also added her signature. The legislators referred to the Act of Gender Equality in Employment (性別工作平等法), which states that immediate action must be taken when employers become aware of harassment in the workplace. Hsieh’s presence in his position would influence the investigation if he did not step aside, the lawmakers said.
CLARIFIED: Most of the changes involved expanding definitions that had previously only referred to people of one gender, such as those for ‘lust’ and ‘voluptuous’ The Ministry of Education on Wednesday said that it has revised 301 entries in its online Chinese dictionary following criticism that they contained outdated or sexist language. Lawmakers, including New Power Party Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭), have repeatedly called on the ministry to revise two online dictionaries — the Revised Mandarin Chinese Dictionary for adults and the Concise Mandarin Chinese Dictionary for children — to address sexually discriminatory language. The ministry said that its National Academy for Educational Research, which maintains the dictionaries, has made gradual changes to both directories. In the concise dictionary, it had previously revised the entry for a traditional term for maternal grandparents — literally “outside grandparents,” based on the old notion that a wife marries “into” a family — to note that they are now only called “grandparents,” the ministry said. The latest update to the definitions of 301 words involves the revised dictionary, it said, adding that the amendments followed a gender equality-based review. One of the changes is the entry for the word “hymen,” which now uses more “medical” and “neutral” language to define it as: “a circular soft tissue (rather than “thin membrane”) on a female’s (rather than “woman’s”) external vaginal opening,” the ministry said. Meanwhile, the idiom shui xing yang hua (水性楊花), which means “fickle” but which connotes sexual promiscuity, kept the explanation stating that it is “mainly used in reference to women” but tagged it as a “pejorative term.” Ye cha po (夜叉婆), originally defined as a “fierce woman or wife,” was revised to say that it was “formerly used to describe a fierce woman, or to jokingly refer to one’s wife.” In many cases, the changes involved expanding definitions that had previously only referred to people of one gender. For example, the entry for se (色, “lust”) was revised to not specifically refer to “a man’s” strong sexual
A draft amendment that would allow priority seats on public transportation to be given to “people with actual need” instead of only elderly people, women and children passed a legislative committee on Thursday. The legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee passed the draft amendment proposed by the Executive Yuan to the People With Disabilities Rights Protection Act (身心障礙者權益保障法). The amended version removes the words “elderly, women and children” to allow “people with actual need” to use priority seats, said Chien Hui-chuan (簡慧娟), director of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Social and Family Affairs Administration. A similar proposal has also been put forward by Democratic Progressive Party legislators Wu Yu-chin (吳玉琴), Lin Yi-chin (林宜瑾) and Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) along with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chang Yu-mei (張育美). Article 58, Paragraph 2 of the act stipulates that people with disabilities and one of their necessary companions may also use priority seats. The committee agreed to remove the word “may” from the paragraph following a suggestion by Wu. Wu and others also proposed a draft that would require city and county governments to integrate local transportation methods, including taxis, Rehabus — a government-sponsored bus service for transporting people with disabilities — and other accessible transportation services to meet the needs of disabled people. Local governments have made efforts to provide more convenient transportation services to people with disabilities, but the proposal was made as there is room for improvement, Chien said. The proposal was passed by the committee. Article 59 of the act stipulates that people with disabilities may be exempted from admittance fees when entering public scenic areas, entertainment venues, or cultural and educational areas, and would only pay half the price at private ones. Wu proposed to include sports and exercise facilities to the article. Chien said that public sports venues already provide discounts to disabled people,
A school journal dating back to 1944 and 1945, donated by an antiques collector on Friday, has given a glimpse into daily life at Chiayi County’s Shuishang Elementary School near the end of World War II, when Taiwan was under Japanese control. Sun Ching-hung (孫慶鴻) on Friday donated the journal to the school it originated from, ahead of the school’s 120th anniversary celebration. The teacher who held the journal recorded class content and daily schools activities in the beginning, Sun said. “However, as the war progressed there were increasingly more days when classes were suspended,” he said. “Later on, the teacher began holding air-raid drills with the students, and eventually the school was temporarily closed due to US bombing raids on southern Taiwan,” he added. The journal gives a rare first-hand look at the period’s changes from a grassroots perspective, he said. The school was established in 1903 as Minakami Elementary School and was renamed Minakami Public School in 1921. In 1941, under a decree from Tokyo, all Japanese public schools and elementary schools were renamed “national schools” (kokumin gakkou, 國民學校). Following Japan’s defeat in WWII and the arrival of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government to Taiwan, the school underwent several name changes before it was given its current name, Shuishang Elementary School, in 1968. Sun said he came upon the journal four years ago when an old house near the school belonging to a late doctor was being demolished. The doctor’s family contacted Sun saying they were preparing to demolish the house, and asked him to look inside first to see if there was anything worth preserving, he said. The journal also provided an insight into what classes students took in school during the late Japanese colonial era, he said. The journal’s first entry on April 17, 1944, mentions reading, arithmetic, history, gymnastics, traditional Chinese painting and
GLOBAL EXPANSION: The manufacturer said it increased its stake in the Chinese unit to 1.5 billion yuan and started rolling out electric Lordstown trucks at its Ohio plant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) has increased its investments in the Czech Republic and China by more than NT$6 billion (US$196 million) as part of its global expansion. The company, known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, has also begun shipping electric pickup trucks produced for US brand Lordstown Motors Corp. In a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing on Friday, Hon Hai said it has raised investments in its Czech subsidiary Foxteq CZ by US$58.98 million through its PCE Paragon Solutions Kft unit. In the Czech Republic, Hon Hai has a research-and-development center and a product design center, and it assembles monitors, cellphones, wireless communication devices and cloud servers. The iPhone assembler has also invested 1 billion yuan (US$142.4 million) in a subsidiary in Taiyuan, China, which produces electronic components, mobile communications devices and cell phones. The latest fund injection increases Hon Hai’s investment in the Taiyuan subsidiary to 1.5 billion yuan, the company said. Hon Hai has in the past few years boosted its efforts to develop electric vehicles (EVs) as it seeks to broaden its product portfolio and boost its profit margin. Lordstown last week announced that shipments of its Endurance electric pickup trucks made by Hon Hai on a contract manufacturing basis had started. Lordstown said Hon Hai would ship the first batch of 500 trucks direct to customers after the model has received the needed certificates from the US Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board. Hon Hai makes the trucks at a factory in Ohio that the manufacturer acquired earlier this year from the US company for US$230 million. The plant is Hon Hai’s first EV manufacturing hub in the US. It is equipped to produce 500,000 to 600,000 vehicles per year. In addition to the pickups, Hon Hai is planning to produce electric agriculture tractors at the plant from the first quarter
SUSTAINABILITY FOCUS: More than 250 volunteers helped conserve the wetlands and protect their biodiversity as part of HSBC Taiwan’s long-term commitment to the park To promote environmental sustainability, HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (滙豐台灣商銀) held a nature conservation activity at Guandu Nature Park (關渡自然公園) on Saturday. HSBC Taiwan CEO Adam Chen (陳志堅) led more than 250 colleagues, together with family and friends, to help conserve the wetlands, find out about the local ecology, and explore the importance of biodiversity and the relationship between the wetlands’ carbon sequestration function and climate change. HSBC Taiwan corporate sustainability head Janice Hwang said that “the decline of Earth’s biodiversity has become a major topic in global environmental conservation, and wetlands are one of the key areas for biodiversity conservation because of their unique and diverse habitats.” “Guandu Nature Park has a special natural ecology, nurturing diverse wetland organisms, and is classified by BirdLife International as one of the Important Bird Areas,” she said. “HSBC Taiwan is the first private company in Taiwan to sponsor Guandu Nature Park on a long-term basis, and has pro-actively invested in wetland conservation, helping establish the park as a nature education center in this country,” Hwang said, adding that since 2002, more than 17,000 volunteers from HSBC have devoted more than 30,000 hours to the park. “Today, Guandu Nature Park is a rich ecological resource environment and an ecological classroom that both teaches and entertains,” she said. This year’s activity was focused on environmental education and wetland protection. Through fun activities, HSBC volunteers learned about climate change and ecological conservation, and cleaned up the environment to help protect the wetlands through various tasks, including relocating frogs into ditches, removing weeds and trash, clearing areas around saplings and removing invasive species to help indigenous species return. In addition, the HSBC Taiwan management team planted indigenous tree species to help preserve the biodiversity of the park. HSBC has been operating in Taiwan for nearly 40 years and has always
California-based start-up OpenAI Inc has released a chatbot capable of answering a variety of questions, but its impressive performance has reopened the debate on the risks linked to artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The conversations with ChatGPT, posted on Twitter by fascinated users, show a kind of omniscient machine, capable of explaining scientific concepts and writing scenes for a play, university dissertations or even functional lines of computer code. “Its answer to the question ‘what to do if someone has a heart attack’ was incredibly clear and relevant,” said Claude de Loupy, head of Syllabs, a French company specialized in automatic text generation. “When you start asking very specific questions, ChatGPT’s response can be off the mark,” but its overall performance remains “really impressive,” with a “high linguistic level,” he said. OpenAI, cofounded in 2015 in San Francisco by Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk, who left the AI business in 2018, received US$1 billion from Microsoft Corp in 2019. The start-up is best known for its automated creation software: GPT-3 for text generation and DALL-E for image generation. ChatGPT is able to ask its interlocutor for details, and has fewer strange responses than GPT-3, which, in spite of its prowess, sometimes spits out absurd results, De Loupy said. “A few years ago chatbots had the vocabulary of a dictionary and the memory of a goldfish,” said Sean McGregor, a researcher who runs a database of AI-related incidents. “Chatbots are getting much better at the ‘history problem,’ where they act in a manner consistent with the history of queries and responses,” McGregor said. “The chatbots have graduated from goldfish status.” Like other programs relying on deep learning, mimicking neural activity, ChatGPT has one major weakness: “It does not have access to meaning,” De Loupy said. The software cannot justify its choices, such as explaining why it picked the words that
Reports that Taiwan’s semiconductor industry could be considering leaving the country amid rising geopolitical tensions, and in light of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC) plans to build factories in the US and Japan, were dismissed last week by Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花). Wang said that Taiwan has an important chip manufacturing cluster, its capabilities are second to none and no other country could displace Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors. Wang also downplayed concerns that a number of TSMC engineers relocating to the US for the company’s new plant in Phoenix, Arizona, would lead to talent shortages or a loss of technology in Taiwan. She said that most advanced chips would still be made in Taiwan despite TSMC’s US and Japanese investments. Similarly, TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) last week at a monthly trade group meeting also denied that Taiwan would experience a brain drain, particularly as the company would still have more than 50,000 engineers in Taiwan after dispatching only about 500 engineers to the Arizona plant, adding that the chipmaker’s global expansion is essential to the nation’s dominance in the industry. While Taiwan has a well-developed semiconductor cluster, the industry still has an opportunity to grow into an indispensable global technology partner, Liu said. The upstream and downstream firms in the supply chain — from integrated circuit design, chip manufacturing, and chip packaging and testing, to semiconductor components and materials production — could enhance a comprehensive industry supply chain, Liu said. Over the past 30 years, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry has focused on domestic research and development, which has created world-leading technologies. However, as the main force of this effort has gradually shifted from students, faculty and research staff returning from abroad in its early years, to those with domestic master’s degrees and doctorates, the nation is facing talent shortages, compounded by
As all are aware by now, United States policy toward Taiwan is guided by three canonical texts: the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances. But the State Department now seems to be working with a fourth document which goes by the bland name of “state telegram number 87604” of June 26, 2007, regarding “UN references to Taiwan.” Long dormant, “07 State 87604” seems to have been rediscovered at State Department headquarters in Foggy Bottom. I doubt it will ever be enshrined with the three holy texts, but it now seems to influence American diplomacy toward Taiwan more than ever before. I expected some sign of “07 State 87604’s” presence over the past month at the Southeast Asian summits, but saw little. It wasn’t apparent at the mid-November Biden-Xi (習近平) summit at the G20 leaders’ meeting in Bali, Indonesia, although there was something else new; Chinese Communist leaders have begun to declare that Taiwan is not simply “a” core interest but, in fact, that “the Taiwan Question is the core of China’s core interests” (台灣問題是中國核心利益中的核心), the reddest of red lines. Over the past decade or so, Washington has become inured to Beijing’s hyperbole over Taiwan. And as such, it is hard to tell what China’s “core interests” really are. Indeed, in December 2022, one can see that “Taiwan” cannot possibly be China’s “hardest-core of core-interests.” No, that title must instead, go to “Covid-19.” Otherwise, China’s leadership wouldn’t be sacrificing trillions and trillions of yuan to keep Covid-19 deaths at 3.0 per 1.4 billion people over six months. Yes, that’s right. The news last month was that there were three Covid-19 fatalities in China from May through October 2022 and a total of 595 deaths year-to-date. And those three unfortunate patients were all over 87 years old. Nonetheless, I was
Anger has spread in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, where protesters blame China’s strict “zero COVID” policy for a deadly blaze that ripped through a residential building, killing 10 people and injuring nine. The residents claim that the pandemic restrictions hampered rescue attempts and prevented people escaping from their apartments. Throngs of residents in Urumqi have taken to the streets, triggering a wave of protests across China. Students and residents rallied in Shanghai and Beijing, chanting “Down with [Chinese President] Xi Jinping (習近平),” “Chinese Communist Party (CCP) step down” and “We want freedom and democracy.” This marks one of the rare occasions where protesters have dared to openly call for Xi’s removal. Those who have been keeping close tabs on the development of China’s political scene are watching warily how things are unfolding. Even though China is viewing Taiwan as a wolf views its prey, the wolf’s cold aggression pales in comparison to the CCP’s ruthlessness. Chinese and Taiwanese students who have studied abroad should encourage other Chinese and Taiwanese students studying overseas to rise and join the “white paper” protests through other means, as college students can play an essential role in a critical moment like this. If the activists can gain a voice and become powerful over the next few weeks, they could inspire other college students and people from other countries to support their cause, which would bring them closer to toppling Xi’s duplicitous regime. The CCP has relied on trying to brainwash the proletariat for the past 73 years, but it is now unmasked by a harsh reality. Smart people have questioned why they are still living under strict lockdowns while the rest of the world is free to watch the FIFA World Cup in Qatar without wearing masks. Professors, political rivals, military personnel and party members who have been oppressed
MAGIC MOMENT: Messi celebrated his 789th goal in his 1,000th career appearance with Argentina fans, who hugely outnumbered those supporting underdogs Australia Lionel Messi produced a moment of trademark quality to score the opener in a 2-1 win over Australia and help send Argentina into the quarter-finals of the FIFA World Cup on Saturday. Messi’s 789th goal in his 1,000th career appearance — but first in the knockout rounds of the World Cup — helped set up a last-eight clash with the unbeaten Netherlands on Friday. Julian Alvarez scored Argentina’s other goal in the 57th minute after some calamitous Australian defending, before Enzo Fernandez’s 77th-minute deflected own-goal set up an unexpectedly nervy finale. Argentina’s players celebrated wildly in front of their massed ranks of fans and man-of-the-match Messi paid tribute to them for dragging the team across the line. “Amazing feelings and I am really happy to share these beautiful and happy moments with them all,” said the 35-year-old, who is trying to win the World Cup for the first time in what is likely his last attempt. “I know the effort they are making to be here with us, and I know how much they enjoyed it.” “There is a bond we have — it is something beautiful, it is what the national team should be,” he added. Messi’s classy first-half goal, bending the ball into the bottom corner, broke the resistance and ultimately the hearts of a gutsy Australian side who defied all expectations in Qatar and went down fighting. Australia’s fans were vastly outnumbered among the packed crowd at the 45,000-capacity Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, and were drowned out by Argentina’s boisterous and bouncing supporters. The Socceroos were huge underdogs, but this has been a World Cup of shocks. Two-time champions Argentina were the victim of arguably the biggest in Qatar when they went down 2-1 to Saudi Arabia in their opening match. Argentina had Australia pinned back, but coach Graham Arnold’s men were resolute and growing
Louis van Gaal’s Netherlands have been repeatedly criticized for being “too boring,” but a clinical counter-attacking display on Saturday saw them pick off the US to reach the quarter-finals of the FIFA World Cup. The veteran coach suggested a reporter should “go home” if he thought the Dutch were not entertaining enough after a 2-0 win over Qatar in the group stage. The Netherlands’ 3-1 victory on Saturday is likely to silence some of the critics, with many of Van Gaal’s big decisions paying off. His side sat back in the first half against the US and cut through them with a wonderful move of 20 passes to score the opening goal through Memphis Depay, exposing the wide spaces left in behind the US defense. “It was a great goal... It was the perfect goal I think,” midfielder Davy Klaassen said. When Daley Blind swept home their second shot on target on the stroke of halftime, the US had a mountain to climb. Haji Wright pulled one back late on, but the Netherlands, who did not qualify in 2018 but have only conceded six goals in 11 World Cup games under Van Gaal, secured progression through Denzel Dumfries. In truth, a comeback was never likely against the well-organized Netherlands, traditionally known for expansive soccer. “Of course we want to [play in a ‘Dutch style’], but in the end you want to win, and this is the most important [thing],” Klaassen said. Van Gaal took over for a third time last year to lead the Netherlands until the end of this tournament and remains unbeaten excluding penalties at World Cups. He earned plenty of praise in 2014 when his team finished third, beating hosts Brazil after losing on penalties to Argentina in the semi-finals. That side kept clean sheets in both those matches, and the quarter-final shootout victory over Costa Rica was
Brazilian soccer legend Pele on Saturday said that he feels “strong, with a lot of hope,” despite medical problems that have kept the 82-year-old sports icon in the hospital with a respiratory infection. Pele, widely regarded as the greatest soccer player of all time, was hospitalized earlier this week amid ongoing colon cancer treatments. “My friends, I want to keep everyone calm and positive,” Pele wrote on Instagram. “I’m strong, with a lot of hope and I follow my treatment as usual.” Doctors treating Pele earlier on Saturday said that the Brazilian legend remained “stable,” with his condition not having deteriorated over the past day. Pele “has had a good response to care without any worsening in the clinical picture in the last 24 hours,” doctors at Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein Hospital said in a statement. Doctors made no reference to media reports earlier on Saturday that the three-time FIFA World Cup winner was receiving end-of-life care. Pele was admitted to hospital earlier this week for what doctors said was a “re-evaluation” of the chemotherapy he has been undergoing since surgery to remove a colon tumor in September last year. At the World Cup in Qatar, players expressed their support for Pele. “Pray for the King,” France striker Kylian Mbappe wrote on Twitter. England captain Harry Kane offered his support for Pele at a news conference. “We send our best wishes to him and obviously all his family as well,” Kane said. “He is an inspiration amongst our game and an incredible footballer and incredible person. We wish him well.”
Reigning FIS Alpine Ski World Cup downhill champion Aleksander Aamodt Kilde on Saturday outdueled Marco Odermatt to win the men’s World Cup downhill at Beaver Creek, Colorado, despite feeling the effects of flu. Norway’s Kilde clocked 1 minute, 42.09 seconds on a windy Birds of Prey course, where he won both the downhill and super-G last season. The 30-year-old then watched Odermatt challenge for the top step of the podium only to come up six-hundredths of a second short with 1 minute, 42.15 seconds. In addition to the tough conditions, Kilde was fighting flu-like symptoms this weekend. “It has been a tough week,” he said. “I caught the flu in Lake Louise after a nice weekend. It hit me really hard. I skied in clothes to have no sweat and take down everything a notch. I felt way better yesterday and that was fantastic.” “I still felt it a bit today, but had enough strength for the two minutes I needed,” he said. Meanwhile, Sofia Goggia of Italy won her second women’s World Cup downhill race in as many days at Lake Louise, Canada. Goggia only got stronger on Saturday, finishing with a time of 1 minute, 28.96 seconds. She withstood a late charge by Austria’s Nina Ortlieb, who started way back with bib No. 26 and wound up 0.34 seconds behind. “I skied exactly the way I wanted to in my head,” Goggia said. “I was reading well the terrain.” Thirty-year-old Goggia is dominating the Lake Louise downhill track in a way not seen since the days of Lindsey Vonn. Goggia has now won four straight World Cup downhills on this course, including two last season. Additional reporting by AP
EASING RESTRICTIONS: China has not approved any foreign COVID-19 vaccines and is opting for those produced domestically, the US Director of National Intelligence said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unwilling to accept Western vaccines despite the challenges China is facing with COVID-19, and recent protests could affect his personal standing in the Chinese Communist Party, US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Saturday. Although China’s daily COVID-19 cases are near all-time highs, some cities are taking steps to loosen testing and quarantine rules after Xi’s “zero COVID” policy triggered a sharp economic slowdown and public unrest. Despite the social and economic impact of the virus, Xi “is unwilling to take a better vaccine from the West, and is instead relying on a vaccine in China that’s just not nearly as effective against Omicron,” Haines said at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in California. “Seeing protests and the response to it is countering the narrative that he likes to put forward, which is that China is so much more effective at government,” Haines said. “It’s, again, not something we see as being a threat to stability at this moment, or regime change or anything like that,” she said, adding that “how it develops will be important to Xi’s standing.” China has not approved any foreign COVID-19 vaccines, opting for those produced domestically, which some studies have shown are not as effective as some foreign ones. That means easing virus prevention measures could come with big risks, experts said. China had not asked the US for vaccines, the White House said earlier in the week. One US official said there was “no expectation at present” that China would approve Western vaccines. “It seems fairly far-fetched that China would green-light Western vaccines at this point. It’s a matter of national pride, and they’d have to swallow quite a bit of it if they went this route,” the official said. Haines said that North Korea recognized that China was less likely to hold
SPIRITUAL JOURNEY: A team of 12 are rowing across the Pacific Ocean to raise awareness of gender equality, environmental issues and to support Polynesian unity The causes are worthy, the course is daunting — about 500km across a stretch of the Pacific Ocean in a large canoe. It is the Hoki Mai Challenge, which started on Saturday in Rapa Nui, a territory in the Pacific that is part of Chile and is better known as Easter Island. The event consists of a canoe voyage in which nine Rapanuis, two Chileans and one Hawaiian seek to raise awareness about the importance of women in the world, urge environmental protection and celebrate the union of the islands of Polynesia. The 12 athletes have been training six days a week since mid-September, preparing for a voyage that would take them from Rapa Nui to Motu Motiro Hiva, another island in the mid-Pacific that belongs to Chile. “It won’t be easy,” Hoki Mai coordinator Gilles Bordes said. “Three days and three nights.” Bordes moved to Rapa Nui earlier this year, but he has lived in Polynesia for three decades, devoting much of his time to rowing. “I am very grateful to all the Tahitians for teaching me their culture and how to row,” he said. “I came from France, but they accepted me and allowed me to share this with them.” Hoki Mai pursues three goals. The first is to honor canoeing in Polynesia, which has been practiced for centuries. The second relates to the environment. Motu Motiro Hiva — also called Isla Salas y Gomez — is an uninhabited island, but its land and the surrounding waters have been affected by pollution. The third purpose relates to gender equality. The team is carrying a small female Moai — one of the ancient statues that Easter Island is famous for — to raise awareness about the importance of women in the world. A bigger statue — carved by a local artist for Hoki Mai — is due
Seventy Rohingya people hiding in a truck transporting ginger were arrested north of Yangon after the vehicle crashed into a roadside canal, the junta said yesterday. Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state are widely regarded as illegal immigrants in the Buddhist-majority country and have long faced discrimination, restrictions on travel and been denied citizenship, healthcare and education. The arrests took place a week ago, the Burmese junta said in a statement. The group of mostly men were hiding under ginger bags in the truck when it crashed into the canal, the statement said. A Bangladeshi citizen was also arrested, and authorities were searching for two Myanmar nationals who were driving the truck and riding in the cabin. Rohingya people convicted of violating immigration laws can face two years in prison in Myanmar. Amnesty International likens their living conditions in Rakhine state to “apartheid.” A military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017 forced about 750,000 Rohingya to flee Rakhine state for Bangladesh following widespread accounts of murder, arson and rape. Myanmar is facing genocide accusations at the UN’s top court following a mass exodus. The Southeast Asian nation has been in chaos since Aung San Suu Kyi’s government was toppled in a military coup in February last year, ending its brief period of democracy.
Taiwan Plus (@taiwanplusnews), the excellent English-language media outlet, reported last week that water levels were down in Taiwan’s largest reservoir as the nation’s dry season looms. The northern reservoirs may be brimming, but the rains have neglected the south, forcing the nation’s water bureaucracy to scramble to maintain supplies without rationing. Almost a metaphor for the nation’s political geography. There’s no little irony in this happening on the heels of a business-as-usual election in which all incumbents were re-elected. That construct we misleadingly label “mother nature” is sending us another tranche of signals telling us that business as usual is on a collision course with the future. We won’t listen, of course. After two decades of repeated water shortages, and annual flirtation with dry reservoirs, business as usual remains the dominant mode of institutional governance. Water and electricity prices are far too low. Roads are still being built at a frenetic pace. Renewable energy implementation limps along. Land development remains the sacralized practice of Taiwan’s developmentalist religion, mediated through the priestly class of construction firms, and missionized to the public by the acolytes of the real estate industry. The answer to economic problems? More land development, of course: the government last month announced another round of high-tech industrial districts focused on key future technologies. Just business as usual. No current city leader will challenge the construction-industrial state. They all know what happened to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) of Taichung when he angered political factions over land on the west side of town, and to his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) successor, Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), when he made a few tepid moves on the illegal factory issue. Look past the mayor and magistrate elections at the towns and townships. A longtime journalist here noted in a private communication that, for
Dec 5 to Dec 11 Recent visitors to Taipei’s Guangzhou Street Night Market (廣州街) may have noticed that the old concrete building with traditional tiled roofs at No. 200, which spans an entire block, is undergoing renovation. Jen Chi Hospital (仁濟醫院) maintains that it was just doing “emergency maintenance” when it partially demolished the building’s second floor walls in September, but the city stopped them and declared last week the 71-year-old structure a historic building. Since it still housed the hospital’s rehabilitation and dentistry departments, the hospital said that the structure was suffering from severe water damage and repairs were needed for the safety of the patients and staff. The hospital argued that the building was not its original site, and has little historic connection to the people involved in the institution. The Taipei City Government, on the other hand, says that it has been on their culture heritage watch list for years. According to the hospital’s Web site, they expanded their facilities to this site in 1922. They first built a wooden, one-story structure that served as a 16-bed clinic with an x-ray room and operation center. The marble plaque in front of the building indicates that the current structure was built in 1951, and the city finds historic value in the pebble terrazzo walls and classic window grills typical of hospital designs of that era. Hospital officials, however, say that it lacks any unique technique or design, and is made from ordinary material. “Jen Chi Hospital has been an important landowner during Wanhua [District’s, 萬華] history and it has been closely tied to the area’s development,” the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs states. “This building has played a role in local healthcare for many decades.” Not much additional information can be found about
The world’s largest volcano oozed rivers of glowing lava Wednesday, drawing thousands of awestruck viewers who jammed a Hawaii highway that could soon be covered by the flow. Mauna Loa awoke from its 38-year slumber Sunday, causing volcanic ash and debris to drift down from the sky. A main highway linking towns on the east and west coasts of the Big Island became an impromptu viewing point, with thousands of cars jamming the highway near Volcanoes National Park. Anne Andersen left her overnight shift as a nurse to see the spectacle Wednesday, afraid that the road would soon be closed. “It’s Mother Nature showing us her face,” she said, as the volcano belched gas on the horizon. “It’s pretty exciting.” Gordon Brown, a visitor from Loomis, California, could see the bright orange lava from the bedroom of his rental house. So he headed out for a close-up view with his wife. “We just wanted … to come see this as close as we could get. And it is so bright, it just blows my mind,” Brown said. The lava was tumbling slowly down the slope and was about 10km from the highway known as Saddle Road. It was not clear when, or if, it would cover the road, which runs through old lava flows. The road bisects the island and connects the cities of Hilo and Kailua-Kona. People traveling between them would need to take a longer coastal road if Saddle Road becomes impassable, adding several hours of drive time. Ken Hon, scientist in charge at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said at current flow rate, the soonest the lava would get to the road is two days, but it will likely take longer. “As the lava flow spreads out, it will probably interfere with its own progress,” Hon said. Kathryn Tarananda, 66, of Waimea set two alarms to make sure
The Taipei Times bilingual pages are having a makeover, with professionally curated content for both English and Chinese learners of all levels. With our new partners Ivy English, English OK and others, Taipei Times readers can improve their language studies while keeping abreast of important issues in Taiwan and abroad. A new departure for us is the addition of a Chinese-language learning module, with content provided by the National Taiwan Normal University “Mandarin Training Center.” 《台北時報》雙語版最優質的中英文內容，多年來一向受到讀者們的喜愛。近日起版面全新升級！每週和《常春藤解析英語》、《English OK中學英閱誌》……等專業英語機構合作，提供豐富多元且實用的英語學習內容，不但適合各種程度學生及上班族自修，老師、家長用它當教材也超便利。原先頗受歡迎的雙語新聞則予以保留，持續帶領大家了解國內外之重要議題。 而此次改版除了英語學習以外，本報特別和台灣師範大學「國語教學中心」聯手，為外國讀者們推出華語學習單元，打造最強全方位中英文雙語版，精彩內容在網站上也看的到唷！
Beethoven: Energy-saving music 「貝多芬」讓你開車更省電！ Nowadays, many people are trying to lead more energy-efficient lives to protect the environment. One particularly useful thing people can do is purchase an electric car. Most people are aware that electric cars are far more energy-efficient than traditional fuel-burning cars. However, __1__ they may not realize is that once they have bought an electric car, the music they listen to while driving also affects their energy consumption. An experiment __2__ by a South Korean car manufacturer in 2022 invited a number of drivers to drive their new electric cars. The company asked the drivers, who were all new to electric vehicles, to drive their cars over an 18-mile distance, __3__ a traffic jam moving along at a glacial pace, country roads and expressways with dual lanes. Some of these drivers were instructed to listen to Beethoven while driving. Others were required to listen to a range of pop artists, such as Kanye West and Adele. The results revealed that the relaxing nature of Beethoven’s music resulted in those cars using __4__ than the cars whose drivers listened to pop music. This is because pop music tends to have a higher tempo and heavier beat. So, if you own an electric car but still want to make a greater environmental __5__, you can listen to your favorite piece of classical music. However, if you don’t care about power consumption and want to drive faster, just put on some fast-paced pop tracks! 如今，許多人都在努力過上更節能的生活來保護環境。人們所能做的一件特別有用的事情是購買電動車。大多數人都知道，電動車比傳統的燃油車更加節能。然而，他們可能沒有意識到的是，一旦他們買了電動車，他們開車時所聽的音樂也會影響其能源消耗。 一家韓國汽車製造商在2022年進行了一項實驗，邀請了一些駕駛人來開他們的新款電動車。該公司要求這些剛接觸電動車的駕駛人開他們的車行駛十八英里（編按：約二十九公里）的距離，行駛路段包括以極緩慢速度移動的交通堵塞地區、鄉村道路和雙車道高速公路。 其中一些駕駛人被指示在開車時聽貝多芬的音樂。其他人則被要求聽一連串流行歌手的音樂，像是肯伊威斯特和愛黛兒。結果顯示，貝多芬音樂令人放鬆的特性，讓那些汽車比駕駛人聽流行樂的汽車用掉更少的電池電量。這是因為流行樂往往節奏較快且節拍較重。 因此，如果你擁有一輛電動車，但仍想為環境做出更大的貢獻，你可以聽聽你最喜歡的古典樂作品。然而，如果你不在乎耗電又想開得比較快，就放一些快節奏的流行歌吧！ What Did You Learn? 1. (A) who (B) how (C) when (D) what 2. (A) conducted (B) questioned (C) disciplined (D) retained 3. (A) estimated at (B) depending on (C) inclusive of (D) characteristic of 4. (A) more solar energy (B) less battery power (C) slower vehicle speed (D) faster payment method 5. (A) disaster
2022年的世界盃在卡達開踢了！運動賽事是外國人茶餘飯後的閒談（small talk）話題中常見的主題，若是想和外國友人或是客戶聊世足的話，學會關於世足賽的常見英文用法絕對不會錯，還可以從中掌握TOEIC測驗關鍵字！ 什麼是FIFA？ FIFA就是法語中國際足球聯盟（The Federation Internationale de Football Association）的簡稱，如果不會說法文，也可以用英文International Federation of Association Football來表達，或單純叫做FIFA就好。如果想要和朋友討論今年的FIFA，後方不管有沒有加上英文字World Cup都可以，但最完整的說法就是FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022，也可以直接說FIFA 2022，一般有關注比賽的人都會立刻知道你的意思。 A: Which team are you supporting in the 2022 FIFA World Cup? （2022世界盃，你支持哪一隊？） B: I always support the host nation in every World Cup. （每次世界盃我總是支持主辦國。） 舉辦host、take place？ 舉辦比賽最常聽到兩種動詞用法，那就是host跟take place。若要簡單地區分，就是「人或主辦國」host（主辦）比賽，和「比賽本身」發生（take place）在特定的時間點。 Qatar will be hosting the FIFA 2022 starting from Nov. 20 this year. （卡達將於今年11月20日起，主辦2022年世足賽。） The FIFA 2022 is scheduled to take place from Nov. 20 in Qatar. （2022世足賽預定於11月20日於卡達開打。） 另外，在一般商業的會議中，舉辦也都會使用這兩組字，而且泛用性很廣，請務必學會運用。 The Annual Conference on Innovation is going to take place next week in Taipei. （年度創新會議將於下週在台北舉辦。） It’s an honor for my university to host the convention. （能舉辦大會，是本大學的榮幸。） 談論比賽、勝負 如果你有觀看運動比賽的習慣，相信你也會注意到幾個和比賽相關的英文單字，例如：competition、contest、game、match、tournament。若翻查字典，你會發現這些字其實都被歸類在同義字的範圍，因為這些字的意義大部分是重疊的。雖然這些字都有比賽的意思，但是後面的這三者，卻是在FIFA中最常用到的三個字。game廣義地用於各式各樣的球類運動競賽中，例如：baseball game、basketball game、volleyball game、tennis game等。 A: Did you see the basketball game yesterday? （昨天你有看籃球比賽嗎？） B: Sure, but I don’t quite remember the exact scores. （當然，但我不太記得確切比分了。） match在名詞最常見的意思是火柴，但是在動詞上因為有「對應」的含義，所以就變成了「對手」或是「相對競爭」的比賽名詞，例如football match、karate match。也因為match有這樣的含意，所以後來就衍伸成了「對手」的意思。在這個用法中，最常見的說法是tight match，用很「緊」表示差距甚小，而這種勢均力敵的說法會以下列的方式呈現： Team Alpha lost tight match to Team Delta last Wednesday. （Alpha隊在上週三的比賽中，以些微之差敗給了Delta隊。） 而與tight match相反的英文字則是blowout（贏、勝利）。※此意僅用於運動賽事中 Team Alpha eliminated Team Beta with blowout win in Game 2. （在第二場賽事中，Alpha隊狂勝了Beta隊。） 需要特別注意的，blowout可以用來表達贏，也可以表達輸。例如blowout win、blowout victory、blowout loss、blowout defeat。若配上輸的時候，動詞配上suffer： Team Theta has unfortunately suffered blowout loss in its first match in the season. （Theta隊很不幸地在球季中的第一場賽事就以鎩羽大敗收場。） 但如果要在商業或政治情境中表達大勝或大敗，通常會用landslide（土石流）victory、landslide defeat的方式來表示。 The company suffers a landslide defeat after announcing its financial forecast for the upcoming quarter. （這家公司公布下一季的財務預測後，遭受了大挫敗。） 種子隊、比分 FIFA一共有三十二隊參賽，那麼是如何選出呢？主辦國有例如優先種子隊的權利，稱之為automatically qualified host team（自動合格主辦國，此次是卡達），另外三十一個隊伍都要先經過資格賽（qualifying competitions）。其中有上一屆的衛冕國（defending champion）法國，以及足壇兩大超級巨星梅西和C羅的阿根廷和葡萄牙。 在職場中，qualify是人事情境中非常重要的詞，當要形容一個人是很適合該職務的應聘者，我們會說他是a qualified candidate（合格的、勝任的候選人）。當這個人的資歷遠超過要求時，就是over-qualified（資歷過高的），相反則為under-qualified（資歷不足）。因此，資歷的名詞也以qualification表達。 The qualification summary on the resume has highly impressed the HR officer before the interview. （這份履歷上的經歷摘要在面試前就讓面試官留下了深深的印象。） 【多益模擬試題】 1. The conference will ______ in the capital city next week. (A) hosting (B) take place (C) hosted (D) be taken place 2. The job candidate has an impressive list of _____. (A) quantities (B) qualifications (C) qualifies (D) qualifiers 【解析】 1. 正解為(B) take place。題意為「會議將於下週於首都舉辦。」由於前方有will，所以後方一定要用原型動詞，因此只剩下(B)、(D)可以選擇。(A)與(C)的host都是「由人舉辦」，不是「被人舉辦」，所以(A)是錯誤答案。(C)則只要加上be動詞就可以成為正確答案。(D)的take place若以會議為主詞，要改為主動—be taking place，故唯一能選擇的答案為(B)。 2. 正解為(B) qualifications。題意為「這位求職者有一長串令人印象深刻的資歷清單。」句子前方出現job candidates，要先搜尋與求職有關的用字。(A) quantities為數量、(C) qualify為符合資格的動詞，(D) qualifier則為符合資格者。意思皆不相符。 SOURCE:https://www.englishok.com.tw/toeic/toeic-issue/fifa-2018-russia-learn-sport-english-words 文章由TOEIC Program Taiwan · Chun Shin提供：www.facebook.com/ToeicProgramTaiwan
| New Taipei City | 19-20 | 70% |  |
| Hsinchu County | 18-20 | 20% |  |
| Hsinchu City | 18-20 | 20% | |
| Taipei City | 18-19 | 70% | |
| Miaoli County | 19-21 | 20% | |
| Taoyuan City | 18-19 | 70% | |
| Keelung City | 18-19 | 90% | |
| Yunlin County | 21-26 | 10% |  |
| Taichung City | 21-25 | 10% | |
| Nantou County | 22-25 | 10% |  |
| Changhua County | 20-23 | 10% | |
| Chiayi County | 21-26 | 10% | |
| Chiayi City | 22-27 | 10% | |
| Tainan City | 23-26 | 0% | |
| Kaohsiung City | 26-29 | 0% | |
| Pingtung County | 26-30 | 0% | |
| Yilan County | 19-22 | 20% | |
| Hualien County | 22-25 | 20% | |
| Taitung County | 24-27 | 20% |  |
| Kinmen County | 16-20 | 10% | |
| Penghu County | 20-22 | 10% | |
| Lienchiang County | 13-14 | 30% | |
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