Thu, May 06, 2021
US President Joe Biden wants 70 percent of US adults to have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine by the July 4 holiday, and has made vaccinating adolescents a key part of the next phase of the country’s immunization campaign. However, targeting US teens is a controversial move among many experts, who say that it is a serious mistake to use the world’s limited supply of doses on a low-risk population while the COVID-19 pandemic surges in countries such as India and Brazil. Pfizer and its partner BioNTech in March said that their two-dose regimen was shown to be safe and highly effective in a trial of 2,260 12-to-15-year-olds. An emergency use authorization is expected in the coming days, and Biden on Tuesday told White House reporters that “if that announcement comes, we are ready to move immediately.” The president’s address comes as the nation’s immunization campaign is stalling after hitting a peak early last month. More than 56 percent of US adults have received one or more shots, but as the rate of uptake falls, officials are devising new ways to reach vaccine holdouts. These include discounts to shoppers who get vaccinated at grocery stores, promotions for fans at sports stadiums and more vaccines at rural health clinics, Biden said. The federal government is also working on a program with pharmacies and pediatricians nationwide to reach the country’s estimated 17 million 12-to-15-year-olds ahead of school reopening in the fall. However, many experts have voiced concern whether now is the right moment to reach this group as the global situation deteriorates. The issue of vaccine disparity has been brought into sharp focus by India, which on Tuesday reported more than 350,000 new cases and recorded nearly 3,500 deaths — more than anywhere in the world. “The overwhelming majority of 15-year-olds, we know are not at high
FINDING SOLUTIONS: United Auto Workers legislative director Josh Nassar said that the chip shortage has been responsible for layoffs of ‘tens of thousands of workers’ The US Department of Commerce is pressing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and other Taiwanese firms to prioritize the needs of US automakers to ease chip shortages in the near term, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said on Tuesday. Raimondo told a Council of the Americas event that longer term, increased investment was needed to produce more semiconductors in the US, and that other critical supply chains needed reshoring, including to allied countries. “We’re working hard to see if we can get the Taiwanese and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, which is a big company there, to, you know, prioritize the needs of our auto companies since there’s so many American jobs on the line,” Raimondo said in response to a question from a General Motors Co (GM) executive. “As I said, there’s not a day goes by that we don’t push on that,” she said, adding that the medium and long-term solution would be “simply making more chips in America.” TSMC yesterday said that tackling the shortage remained its top priority. “TSMC has been working with all parties to alleviate the automotive chip supply shortage. We understand it is a shared concern of the worldwide automotive industry,” it said in a statement. Last month, TSMC chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said the company had been working with customers since January to reallocate more capacity to support the auto industry, but the shortage worsened due to a snowstorm in Texas and fab manufacturing disruption in Japan. Wei expected the shortage for the firm’s auto clients to be greatly reduced from next quarter. Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) told lawmakers in Taipei that many countries had sought help from the government and TSMC. “However, TSMC has a commercial mechanism and must comply with commercial norms,” she said yesterday. The US Department of Commerce plans to meet with automakers
The joint statement to be issued after the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting is expected to include strong support for Taiwan’s participation in the WHO and other international organizations, a senior US Department of State official told Japanese media on Tuesday. The Asahi Shimbun in a report yesterday quoted the unnamed official as saying that Taiwan’s participation would help other nations fight the COVID-19 pandemic. “Not only does Taiwan have the right to participate, but it has a lot of experience that can help all of us in the fight against COVID-19,” the official said. “It would be self-defeating to exclude them.” The report also quoted the official as saying that China dominated discussions during the second day of meetings on Tuesday. “The China issue was the most important of the many important issues we had to discuss,” they said. Ministers in attendance expressed strong concerns about China’s human rights abuses, the official said. Human rights “are not a domestic issue; it is an issue that should be acted upon in accordance with the international obligations that China has signed,” they said, citing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international covenants. Attendees also discussed China’s economic coercion and increasing military activity in the South China Sea, the report said. The G7 foreign ministers’ meeting was held in London from Monday to yesterday ahead of the main summit, which is to be held in Cornwall, England, from June 11 to 13. It was the first in-person meeting of the G7 to be held since August 2019 in Biarritz, France.
The Philippines has rejected an annual summer fishing ban imposed by China in the disputed South China Sea and encouraged its boats to keep fishing in the country’s territorial waters. The fishing moratorium imposed by China since 1999 runs from May 1 to Aug. 16 and covers areas of the South China Sea — which the Philippines refers to as the West Philippine Sea (WPS) — as well as other waters off China. “This fishing ban does not apply to our fishermen,” the Philippine National Task Force on the West Philippine Sea said in a statement late on Tuesday. “Our fisher folk are encouraged to go out and fish in our waters in the WPS,” the task force said, as it voiced its opposition to China’s ban imposed over areas within the territory and jurisdiction of the Philippines. The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Manila has for years been embroiled in a dispute over Beijing’s sweeping claims of sovereignty over the South China Sea, most of which is also claimed by Taiwan. An international tribunal in 2016 invalidated China’s claims, but Beijing has rejected the ruling. Tensions between the two countries recently escalated after Manila accused China of territorial incursions by hundreds of its vessels in the resource-rich waterway. The Philippines has filed diplomatic protests against China over what it calls the “illegal” presence of the Chinese vessels, which it has said are crewed by militia. Chinese diplomats have said that the boats are just sheltering from rough seas and have no militia aboard. The task force said that it had spotted seven “Chinese Maritime Militia” at the Sabina shoal in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) on Tuesday last week, which dispersed after being challenged by the Philippine Coast Guard. Five returned two days later, but left after the coast guard returned,
VIRUS CURBS: Visiting people staying at healthcare and long-term care facilities in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan is banned until May 17, the CECC announced The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday banned visits to patients or residents at healthcare and long-term care facilities in three cities until May 17. It also reported six imported cases of COVID-19 and two cases with unclear infection sources. As the number of locally transmitted cases rises, some of whom have visited many places in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, enhanced disease prevention measures have to be implemented in the three cities, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center. “Visiting people staying at healthcare and long-term care facilities in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan is banned from today until May 17, with few exceptions allowed,” he said, adding that only one person would be allowed to accompany a hospitalized patient or a care facility resident. Exceptions to the rule include when a patient has to undergo surgery or invasive therapy and has to be accompanied by a family member, or if the law requires a family member to sign a consent form or other documents. Another is when the patient is in an emergency room, intensive care unit or hospice unit, and the family has to be told about their condition, or when the patient’s condition has worsened and they need medical treatment or extended hospitalization, and the hospital considers a visit necessary and approves it. For long-term care facilities, visitors would be allowed if the resident is suffering from symptoms of serious physical and mental discomfort, such as insomnia, unstable blood pressure and irritability, and the facility cannot appease the resident, or other situations in which the facility considers a visit necessary. People are advised to avoid unnecessary visits to healthcare and long-term care facilities, and are encouraged to call and talk to patients instead, Chen said. If they have to pay a visit, they should wear
India’s COVID-19 caseload yesterday topped 20 million, in stark contrast to gradual reopenings in the US and Europe, where mass vaccinations have allowed the easing of many restrictions. More than 350,000 new cases were reported in India yesterday, a drop from the peak of 402,000 last week, giving some cause for optimism that the worst of the devastating wave might have passed. “If daily cases and deaths are analyzed, there is a very early signal of movement in the positive direction,” senior Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare official Lav Aggarwal told reporters. “But these are very early signals. There is a need to further analyze it,” he added. India’s healthcare infrastructure has struggled to cope with the huge number of cases, with deep shortages of medicines, hospital beds and medical oxygen. The wave in India — spurred by huge gatherings, including the Hindu festival Kumbh Mela — has highlighted the danger of COVID-19, which has claimed more than 3.2 million lives worldwide. Religious events are a threat in Pakistan, too, where authorities are battling a third wave of infections and urging Muslims to observe precautions during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Despite the warnings, thousands of Shiite Muslims — many not wearing masks — yesterday gathered in Lahore for an annual religious procession. Pakistani authorities have largely avoided clamping down on such religious activities in the past few months even as markets and schools have been closed. Meanwhile, leaders in Europe were looking to take further steps toward recovery with a proposal to revive international travel and tourism as early as next month. The European Commission on Monday proposed that travelers who are fully vaccinated with EU-approved shots or those coming from countries where COVID-19 is under control should be allowed to enter the bloc. The EU has so far approved the Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson
QUARANTINE BLUNDER: The government should be responsible for a cluster infection at a hotel, as the cases have caused panic, DPP Legislator Chen Ming-wen said The Ministry of Transportation and Communications should make it mandatory for pilots and flight attendants, as well as their family members, to be vaccinated in view of a cluster of COVID-19 cases at the Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport hotel, lawmakers said at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday. The cluster infection at the hotel had led to 28 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday, including hotel workers, as well as China Airlines flight and cabin crew, and their family members. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday tightened quarantine requirements for pilots and flight attendants, who must quarantine for five days and observe self-health management guidelines for another nine days. Prior to the announcement, flight and cabin crew were required to quarantine for three days and follow self-health management guidelines for another 11 days. The outbreak at the hotel was the focus of the committee, which had met to unfreeze part of the ministry’s budget. Many countries have required flight and cabin crew, border control workers, as well as their family members, to be vaccinated, because they are more likely to be exposed to people infected with COVID-19 than doctors at hospitals, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said. “Now we have a loophole in the disease prevention system. The government should make vaccination mandatory for airline employees and border control workers. Those working in transit hotels and quarantine hotels should also be vaccinated,” he said. The ministry should make the recommendation when meeting with CECC officials, particularly now that vaccines are available, Lin added. Wang said that he agreed with the proposal and would ask the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) to study it, but added that the center would have the final say on the matter. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) said the government should take responsibility
An additional bonus is to be offered to primary healthcare facilities if they refer a patient to a designated COVID-19 hospital for testing and the result comes back positive, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. As several locally transmitted COVID-19 cases associated with staff at an airline and hotel have been reported, and as most of them experienced common symptoms, including a fever or respiratory problems, a reward mechanism has been launched to encourage more proactive testing, the CECC said. As of yesterday, 28 confirmed cases, including 14 local infections, linked to Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport and China Airlines had been reported since the middle of last month. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said primary healthcare facilities are advised to refer any suspected COVID-19 patient to a designated COVID-19 hospital for testing. When people seek medical attention at a primary healthcare facility, the physician should consider their symptoms and their self-reported “TOCC” — travel history, occupation, contact history and clusters — and decide whether they should be referred to a designated hospital for COVID-19 testing, the CECC said. The healthcare facility that makes the referral is to be offered a bonus of NT$10,000 if the person tests positive for COVID-19 and the testing hospital is to receive a bonus of NT$5,000, Chen said. A bonus of NT$10,000 is already being offered to healthcare professional for reporting a confirmed COVID-19 case, according to the Communicable Disease Control Reward Regulations (傳染病防治獎勵辦法), the center said. Healthcare facilities are an important first line of defense against COVID-19, so the center hopes that healthcare professionals would remain vigilant and report any suspected cases, and the bonus is being offered to reward them for their hard work under high infection risk, Chen said. Regarding the infections at China Airlines and the Novotel Taipei Taoyuan
BRIBERY PROBE: The latest indictments brought the number of accused police officers to eight in a case that has also embroiled several nightclubs in Taipei Taipei prosecutors yesterday indicted six police officers as well as five executives and staff from nightclubs in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) in a probe into alleged corruption, where the officers are accused of taking bribes to protect a sex trade business. The officers were charged with “taking bribes in breach of official duties” and related offenses, as well as contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), the prosecutors said. Superiors and officers at Taipei’s Zhongshan Police Precinct had allegedly been taking regular bribes from the area’s nightclubs and entertainment businesses from 2013 to 2018, when reports began to surface, prompting an investigation. The prosecutors have said that the bribes totaled NT$5.56 million (US$198,856 at the current exchange rate). They were allegedly collected from Tseng Hsiao-chi (曾小琪), the owner of Jialibao Group (嘉麗寶集團), and other proprietors. Tseng, along with her sister, allegedly ran the Fair Lady, Charming and Givenchy nightclubs under the Jalibao Group in Taipei’s late-night entertainment area around Linsen N Road and Zhongshan N Road, which falls under the precinct’s jurisdiction. Among the indicted officers is Tu Wei-lien (涂維廉), who was serving as deputy chief of Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) Police Station earlier this year when judicial investigators questioned him in connection with the case. The other police officers who were charged were posted at the precinct when the alleged crime took place: Wu Yi-ming (吳翊銘), Chang Ning (張寧), Chen Yen-nan (陳彥安), Hsu Chun-ming (許峻銘) and Chen Chin-nan (陳錦男). The remaining five indicted were nightclub operator Chiu Hsin-wei (邱信瑋), KTV parlor proprietor Hsiang Tong-yun (相同雲), nightclub accountant Wu Li-cheng (巫麗貞), and two other staff surnamed Chu (朱) and Chang (張). They have been accused of conducting the bribery scheme and acting as go-betweens, handing over the envelopes containing the bribe money to police. Prosecutors had in February indicted two Taipei police officers, Lee Kung-hua (李功華) and Chen Chun-an (陳俊安),
Passengers of Taipei MRT System’s Wenhu Line (Brown Line) can check how crowded the carriages are using the Taipei MRT app, as well as displays in the stations, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The company has made the service available on the busiest MRT Line after testing it for one year on the Bannan Line (Blue Line). It is also offering it at a time when the nation has seen a rise in local COVID-19 cases. A survey conducted by TRTC in 2016 identified the 10 most crowded sections of MRT lines during peak hours, nine of which were on the Brown Line. The most busy section on the list was between Zhongxiao Fuxing and Nanjing Fuxing stations. From 8am to 9am, an average of 4.07 people stood within 1m2 on trains from Zhongxiao Fuxing to Nanjing Fuxing, the survey showed. Between 6pm and 7pm, trains from Nanjing Fuxing to Zhongxiao Fuxing stations had an average of 3.96 people standing in 1m2, the survey showed. The company said that its self-developed alert system uses four levels to indicate how crowded carriages are: green means passengers can move inside carriages without any trouble; yellow means passengers can move easily inside carriages; orange means carriages are slightly crowded and passengers need to turn sideways to pass each other; and red means carriages are very crowded and it is difficult for passengers to move around. By next year, the service would also be available for passengers on Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line), Songshan-Xindian Line (Green Line) and the Zhonghe-Xinlu Line (Orange Line), TRTC said. In other news, people at Zhongxiao Fuxing Station can now wait for a train at “Metro Corner,” where they can watch updates of MRT services, weather reports and breaking news, the company said. The corner also has an automatic coffee machine and a vending machine,
‘KILLER BOMBS’: Witnesses said that a man who allegedly hit the elderly woman drove to a store, and purchased and drank beer in an apparent bid to beat charges Journalist Huang Wei-han’s (黃暐瀚) mother was killed in an alleged driving under the influence (DUI) incident, with a 30-year-old man in custody, Taichung police said yesterday after witnesses told officers that the suspect had driven to a store immediately after the crash, where he purchased and drank beer. Police said that the man, surnamed Fang (方), had submitted to a breath-alcohol test, which showed a reading of 0.4 milligrams per liter (mg/L), exceeding the 0.15mg/L maximum. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), was hit while crossing a street at an intersection in Taichung City at about 3am yesterday morning, police said. A black Mercedes sedan hit her and she was dragged for about 70m, a police report said. Chen, who was in her 70s, was rushed to a hospital, but died shortly afterward from trauma, internal injuries and loss of blood, the report said. Witnesses told police that the vehicle drove on after the crash to a convenience store, where police detained the driver, who was drinking beer, the report said. Fang, a hairdresser, told officers that he had not been drinking prior to the crash, it said. Witnesses said that Fang bought the beer to drink in a bid to evade a drunk driving charge by claiming that the alcohol test result was due to his drinking after the incident. One witness said that Fang bought four cans of beer and had finished three by the time police arrived. A plastic bottle containing an unknown liquid was found in a search of the vehicle, police said. A preliminary test indicated that the bottle might have contained illegal drugs, they said. Fang denied having taken drugs, investigators said. A urine sample was sent to a laboratory to be tested, which would take about three weeks, they said. Police said that preliminary investigations indicated that Fang had been with friends at a KTV parlor until
ENGLISH-LANGUAGE PLATFORM: CNA said that the video platform would boost the nation’s international visibility through politics, business, history and culture A proposal by the Central News Agency (CNA) to run a global video-streaming platform aimed at allowing the nation’s voice to be heard in the international community has been approved, the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. CNA had been tasked with executing the pilot phase of the project and was invited to submit a proposal for how the platform would be run in a limited tender, after a proposal by the Public Television Service failed to pass a review earlier this year, the ministry said in a statement. CNA’s proposal was passed in a 6-1 vote at a meeting of the review committee on Tuesday, the ministry said. The committee believes that the plan proposed by CNA meets the basic needs of the platform, including having a dedicated organization, and dedicated spaces for administrative and production purposes, as well as a dedicated fund, the ministry said. CNA also plans to integrate resources from public and private media firms in its production of different types of content, “in the spirit of a national team,” the ministry said. Despite the approval of CNA’s proposal, members of the review committee still had recommendations for the platform, the ministry said, adding that it would discuss those recommendations with CNA as soon as possible. The platform is to be run by an independent team that would be given professional autonomy, CNA said yesterday following the announcement of the decision. The video platform would be the first of its type in Taiwan to be conducted fully in English, CNA said, adding that it would strive to increase the nation’s international visibility. Through topics from politics, business and technology, to history, culture, food, travel and the environment, the platform would seek to present the freedom, openness and diversity of Taiwanese society, it said. It would also strive to increase international understanding and trust in the nation,
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) elections for its chairperson and delegates of its National Congress are to be held on July 24, the party announced yesterday. Those seeking to contest the elections must pick up registration forms on June 3 or 4 and submit them on June 7 or 8, the KMT said in a statement. Vote counting would begin the same day as the elections, it said, adding that a list of the elected candidates would be announced by July 27. The dates were announced after the KMT’s Central Standing Committee approved them at a meeting in Taipei. The committee also approved a requirement that candidates for KMT chairperson pay a registration fee of NT$200,000 (US$7,153) when they pick up their registration forms, and a NT$3 million processing fee and NT$10 million deposit when they register, the KMT said. The deposit would be credited to the winning candidate’s annual fundraising obligations as chairperson and returned to unsuccessful candidates, the party said. To encourage the participation of young people, the committee approved a rule allowing the chairperson to select up to 30 student delegates to join the 1,550-seat National Congress, the KMT said. “Party elections are not a head-to-head battle, much less a zero-sum game,” KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said at the beginning of the committee meeting, before it was closed to reporters. Rather, they are an exercise of democracy that decide how work is to be assigned in the party for the following few years, said Chiang, who is seeking re-election. “We hope that the KMT, united under a fair system, can win back the confidence of a majority of Taiwanese and gain more opportunities to serve the nation, regardless of who is leading it,” he said. Referendums to be held on Aug. 28 are “not only the party’s most important political task this year, but also a
All forms of violence and racial prejudice are to be condemned, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday following media reports that a Taiwanese woman was attacked for wearing a mask in New York City. The woman, identified as Theresa, 31, was attacked by a woman while walking with a friend in midtown Manhattan at about 8:45pm on Sunday, the Daily Mail US online reported on Tuesday, alongside a surveillance camera video clip that the New York Police Department released. The assailant demanded that Theresa remove her mask and struck her in the head with a hammer, leaving a gash on her forehead, the report said. Police are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime, as the city has seen increasing assaults on Asians since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Daily Mail US reported. Theresa moved to New York in 2019 to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York’s WABC reported. After talking to her parents, Theresa said she would return to Taiwan and go back to New York when it is safe, the WABC report said. At a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee in Taipei yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) asked Ministry of Foreign Affairs personnel if they knew about the incident. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in New York has gathered information about the incident, although the student did not contact the office for help, Department of North American Affairs Deputy Director-General Regine Chen (陳慧蓁) said. “The ministry should express its stance on the matter,” Wang said, asking why it had said nothing. “No matter how good ties with Washington are, we hope that the US government is able to protect our students and expatriates there,” Wang said, adding that the ministry should issue a public statement on its stance. New York police did
A US official on Tuesday appeared to reject calls for Washington to make a clear statement of its willingness to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack, saying there were “significant downsides” to such an approach. US National Security Council Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific Kurt Campbell told a discussion hosted by the Financial Times that it was appropriate to be concerned about the Taiwan situation. However, Campbell said he believed there was appreciation in the US and China that maintenance of some degree of “status quo” was in the best interests of Washington and Beijing. “I believe that there are some significant downsides to the kind of what is called strategic clarity that you lay out,” Campbell said when asked about calls from some US academics and others for Washington to give Taipei a more explicit security guarantee. Campbell said that any conflict between the US and China over Taiwan would not likely be contained to a small area. “I think it would broaden quickly and it would fundamentally trash the global economy in ways that I don’t think anyone can predict,” he said. There was some concern that China assessed it “got away scot-free” after its crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong and “could draw the wrong conclusions from that” when it came to its actions toward Taiwan, Campbell said. The best way to maintain peace and stability was to send a consolidated message to China that combined diplomacy and US defense innovation, Campbell said. He expected in the next couple of months to see “practical diplomatic engagement” with China on North Korea and other issues of the kind engaged in by US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley. The real short and medium-term risks were from “accidents and inadvertence,” given the proximity of US and Chinese
XSEMI: The new venture would consolidate the strengths and resources of the two market leaders to secure chip supply and offer clients total solutions, the partners said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Yageo Corp (國巨) yesterday signed an agreement to form a joint venture called XSemi Corp (國瀚半導體) to develop” small ICs” priced under US$2 per unit, marking the latest effort by Hon Hai to bolster its foothold in the semiconductor market. The collaboration fits into Hon Hai’s plans for expansion by providing a steady supply of small semiconductors, while also serving the global market, the companies said in a joint statement. The new company, to be located in Hsinchu, would “consolidate the strengths and resources of the two market leaders” to provide a “complete semiconductor supply chain and provide customers with total solutions,” the statement said. The time is right to form new strategic alliances in the semiconductor supply chain, said Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉), who was joined by Yageo chairman Pierre Chen (陳泰銘) at the signing ceremony in Taipei. “The semiconductor industry is facing the biggest upheaval in the past three decades, and the industry order will face a serious restructuring,” he said. “Now is undoubtedly the best time to initiate strategic partnerships in various segments,” he said. Liu said the small chips that XSemi plans to produce would be “a critical part of Hon Hai’s developmental roadmap.” Electric vehicles, digital health and robotics are three major sectors that Hon Hai is targeting to increase vertical integration, he said. “XSemi will not only help Hon Hai to secure semiconductor sourcing, but will also serve clients around the world and become a profit driver for the group,” he said. The market for power semiconductors is forecast to reach US$40 billion by 2025, while analogue semiconductors would reach US$25 billion. About 90 percent of the semiconductor components used in an electric vehicle fall under the “small chip” category. The collaboration could bring “tremendous growth” to Yageo by allowing it
CAUTION: While demand for its networking chips is robust, an industrywide capacity shortage could affect shipments, with no relief in sight, the chip designer said Networking chip designer Realtek Semiconductor Corp (瑞昱半導體) yesterday said it is positive about market demand for the rest of this year, but an industrywide supply chain capacity shortages could cap shipments. Demand for the company’s chips, which are used in Ethernet routers, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and switches, has shown strong growth momentum, RealTek said. Those networking chips are used in PCs, access point routers, broadband, wireless earbuds and other applications, as work-from-home and distance-learning trends due to the COVID-19 pandemic are stimulating a broadband infrastructure upgrade, Huang said. “PCs have become a necessity. The company has seen robust demand for chips used in notebooks, desktops and computer peripherals in the first quarter,” Realtek spokesman Huang Yee-wei (黃依瑋) told a virtual investors’ conference. “Capacity supply is the key,” Huang said. Some customers have opted for lower-spec components to be able to put products on the market, Huang said. Government agencies have also slowed the purchase of networking devices, such as routers, due to tight supply of key components, he said. The company expects no quick relief to the industrywide supply constraints until the first half of next year. “Despite capacity constraints, we continue to see strong customer demand in the second quarter. We are cautious and yet positive about market demand,” Huang said. “The strength will carry on to the first half of next year.” The only weakness is TV chips, which showed lukewarm growth, as demand has been curbed by a by persistent uptick in TV set prices and a severe supply crunch of key components, including driver ICs and panel displays, Huang said. Realtek reported net profit of NT$3.06 billion (US$109.44 million) for last quarter, up 87.3 percent from NT$1.63 billion a year earlier and 11.9 percent from NT$2.63 billion in the fourth quarter of last year. Gross margin improved to 44.8 percent from 42.2 percent a year earlier and
HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) plans to adopt several approaches to build a happy workplace for its employees, chief executive officer Adam Chen (陳志堅) said yesterday. Chen’s comment came after the bank ranked first among all domestic companies to win Chinese-language Global Views Monthly magazine’s Happy Enterprise Award on Monday. “We can only be cheerful about winning the prize for a short moment, as creating a pleasant work environment is an ongoing journey and we cannot relax and stop,” Chen told the Taipei Times in a telephone interview yesterday. The magazine said that HSBC Bank Taiwan’s flexible working arrangements was one of the reasons it was a happy enterprise. Chen said that the bank would continue its flexible working arrangement even after the COVID-19 pandemic ends. FLEXIBILITY “We allow employees great flexibility on where and when they want to do their jobs; they can start working early to get off early or choose to work from home. It is the quality of output that we focus on, not the process,” Chen said. Although some entrepreneurs think flexitime reduces productivity, Chen disagreed, saying it is important to believe in the good of human nature. “We have demands about the quality of their work, but we also offer business tools such as a computer for each employee so that they can reach each other using computer software, not phones. The staff has no problem in maintaining their productivity,” Chen said. Another approach to creating a happy workplace is to make improvements based on staff proposals, so the bank has a staff engagement club and Chen routinely meets with employees to listen to their voices, he said. Staff proposals range from the light-hearted ones, such as birthday celebrations for colleagues and snack choices for Friday afternoon, to serious ones, such as the need for office computer updates, Chen said. To ensure that employees
Taiwan New Constitution Foundation founder Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏), expressing frustration at what he says is President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) and the government’s reluctance to write a new constitution, on Sunday announced his intention to resign as Presidential Office adviser. For Koo, a new constitution, for democratic Taiwan, is an indispensable step in the nation’s normalization. He is absolutely correct in this, but that does not necessarily mean it is the direction the government should take the nation at this juncture. The Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was not written with Taiwan’s topography, population, political or legal system, size or history in mind. It was written in, and for, another country entirely, maintained in Taiwan originally with the expectation that the exiled Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime would return to China, and later to bolster the fiction that the ROC of the past, under the leadership of the KMT party-state, still bears relevance today. It has been radically changed before to more adequately reflect the reality of the times. Since relocating in exile to Taiwan alone, the KMT regime imposed the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist Rebellion, effective from 1948 to 1991, nullifying the Constitution and establishing martial law, and then implemented the Additional Articles of the Constitution (中華民國憲法增修條文), which were more relevant to Taiwan, in 1991. Koo is completely right from a rational, practical point of view, but only if one agrees to ignore the elephant in the room: the threat of Chinese invasion. For the KMT, the ROC is sacrosanct. The party and the state were separated by the nation’s democratization, but in the eyes of the party faithful the two concepts remain inextricably linked. The ROC is by no means integral to the existence of the KMT, but the party acts as if
On April 19, the US Congress introduced a bipartisan draft Taiwan international solidarity act to decouple Taiwan from UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, emphasizing that the resolution deals with the right to represent China and does not involve Taiwan’s sovereignty. Resolution 2758 does not indicate that Taiwan is part of China, so if the bill is passed by the US House of Representatives and the US Senate, and signed by US President Joe Biden, it would create a good opportunity for Taiwan to seek UN membership under the name “Taiwan.” However, considering that the situation is unfavorable to Taiwan — the US and most other countries follow a “one China” policy, and China controls many UN member states — if it is to succeed in becoming a UN member, Taiwan must seek US support. The new guidelines for government officials’ interactions with their Taiwanese counterparts announced by the US Department of State on April 9 still do not allow US officials to attend Double Ten National Day celebrations and other events that imply sovereignty. In addition, on April 21, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) attended a climate change summit via video link at the invitation of Biden. All this shows that the US-China relationship is cooperative as well as competitive. In other words, although the US’ Taiwan Strait strategy has pro-Taiwan tendencies, it still falls within the framework of the US’ “one China” policy. This is the reason the US government has not yet revised the clause about the US not supporting Taiwan’s participation in international organizations for which statehood is a requirement. To join the UN, Taiwan must first urge the US government to modify this policy so it can gain the US government’s help to join the WHO, the international organization at which Taiwan stands the best chance of being accepted as a
As the US’ mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign continues at a record pace, one question under debate is what the administration of US President Joe Biden should do with its extra doses — and especially where to send them. One country that should be at the top of a donation list is Taiwan, in recognition of the help that it provided to the US at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. After weeks of pressure, the Biden administration announced that it is now “looking at options to share American-made AstraZeneca vaccine doses.” By summer, it is clear that anyone in the US who wants a vaccine would have received one. The US government has purchased 300 million doses each of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines — enough for 300 million people — plus tens of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that are sitting in storage waiting for approval. Taiwan — which set a gold standard for its COVID-19 response with fewer than 1,200 cases — has been slow to receive and administer vaccine doses. While Taiwan has ordered about 20 million doses from suppliers, more than 58,000 people, mostly healthcare workers, have received at least one dose. The slow rate is attributed to doubts over the AstraZeneca vaccine’s safety, potentially leading to their expiration by the end of this month if not used. Considering the danger of the many virus variants surging around the globe, the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should work to bolster public receptiveness to whatever vaccines are available. Taiwan has made it this far in the pandemic; it would a shame for a lapse to occur due to vaccine hesitancy. The slow pace at which Taiwan is receiving COVID-19 vaccines is nothing particularly unique. Countries around the globe are not receiving what they paid for
YEARS OF WORK: Guardiola said he was ‘incredibly proud’ of his team making their first Champions League final, after their past four runs under him ended before the semis Manager Pep Guardiola said that Manchester City’s first ever UEFA Champions League final had been five years in the making after Riyad Mahrez’s double on Tuesday saw off Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) 2-0 to seal a 4-1 semi-final aggregate win. City are looking to set the seal on a third English Premier League title in four seasons in the coming days as they remain on course for a treble, having already lifted the EFL Cup. However, their previous four Champions League campaigns under Guardiola ended in anguish before the semi-final stage. Guardiola has won the competition twice before as a coach during his time at Barcelona. However, the Catalan has also endured a decade of disappointment in Europe’s premier club competition since. “It is for all of us and the club. I’m incredibly proud,” Guardiola said. “Getting to the final now makes sense of what we have done in the past four or five years. Every day these guys have been consistent and this is remarkable.” Mahrez’s goal also decided the first leg and the Algerian, who grew up in the Parisian suburbs, haunted his home town team again with two clinical finishes early in each half. The final in Istanbul on May 29 against Real Madrid or Chelsea is the culmination of City’s rise since an Abu Dhabi takeover in 2008 transformed the club’s fortunes. Meanwhile, four years on from making Neymar and Kylian Mbappe the world’s two most expensive players, PSG’s wait for a first Champions League title goes on. Mbappe could only watch from the stands due to a calf injury as, just like in last week’s first leg, his side imploded after an excellent first-half performance. The visitors were left to rue huge missed chances by Marquinhos and Angel di Maria in between Mahrez’s strikes, before Di Maria lashed out at Fernandinho to leave PSG down to
Jose Mourinho and AS Roma seem like a good fit, after the Portuguese was surprisingly named as the club’s new coach on Tuesday, but it is unlikely to be an easy return to management for a man with a point to prove. “No break, I am always in football” was the short, sharp response Mourinho gave reporters after his sacking by underperforming English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur 15 days ago. However, few expected him to be back quite so soon. Several Italian newspapers on Tuesday carried stories on former Juventus manager Maurizio Sarri being lined up to replace the under pressure Paulo Fonseca, with no mention of Mourinho. Yet, hours after Roma confirmed that Fonseca would depart at the end of the season, Mourinho’s return to Italy was announced, with the 58-year-old to succeed his fellow countryman from the start of the 2021-2022 campaign. A return to Italy, on the face of it, seems to suit Mourinho. While his last three jobs in England saw him leave Chelsea when they were languishing in 16th place in December 2015, fail to revitalize Manchester United’s fortunes and not live up to the billing at Spurs, Mourinho has only known success in Italy. He steered Inter to an unprecedented treble in 2009-2010 before departing for Real Madrid, and is still held in high regard in Italy after having been so successful in the few seasons he coached in the country. Yet there will be no time for Mourinho to get reacquainted with Italian soccer. Roma fans expect results and quickly. “Roma is a difficult club [to coach],” former Roma manager Fabio Capello told La Presse. “It’s not enough to sign a great coach to win. You also need the players, but he [Mourinho] exceeds in difficult places. I hope for Roma fans that he does as well as he did at
Vulgar and direct, New York Yankees fans cranked up a baleful cacophony for the scandal-tainted Houston Astros — thunderous heckles that belied their COVID-19 pandemic-restricted numbers. “It sounded like a packed house,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. About the only thing louder? Maybe the ball coming off Giancarlo Stanton’s bat. Boos and bad words streamed from the seats in the Astros’ return to the Bronx, and Stanton had a homer and four hits to help New York sate those spiteful fans in a 7-3 victory on Tuesday night. In Houston’s first visit to New York since the Astros’ sign-stealing scam was exposed, an error by third baseman Alex Bregman in the sixth inning let New York blow the game open. “That was intense,” Stanton said. “I wouldn’t want to be on the other side of that. They brought something heavy.” A sellout crowd of 10,850 skipped subtle barbs for salty language, aimed especially at 2017 American League Most Valuable Player Jose Altuve. Several brought signs insulting the Astros, and security confiscated multiple inflatable trash cans. “That was playoff energy, even though we’re not at full capacity,” Stanton said. “That was fun. They brought the noise.” Bregman momentarily hushed the haters when he homered in the first inning off Domingo German, but Bregman’s miscue in the sixth with the game tied 3-3 doomed Houston. He barehanded D.J. LeMahieu’s bases-loaded slow roller, but skipped his throw past first baseman Yuli Gurriel. Three runs scored on the play, the last Rougned Odor, whose left knee slammed into catcher Martin Maldonado’s head as he reached the plate. Odor appeared to be trying to avoid LeMahieu’s bat, which was lying in the right-handed batter’s box. LeMahieu was credited with a single and an RBI, and one of the runs was unearned. Stanton made it 7-3 when he scored LeMahieu with a single. “Looking back
Seattle Seahawks wide receiver D.K. Metcalf, who has earned a reputation as one of the NFL’s fastest players, plans to test his speed against some of the US’ top sprinters on Sunday with a possible eye on the US Olympic trials. Metcalf is to run in the 100m at the USA Track & Field (USATF) Golden Games and Distance Open in Walnut, California. The Pro Bowler’s name appeared on the official entry list for the meet on Monday afternoon, when he appeared to confirm his participation with an enigmatic Twitter post. Others who have entered the race include 2016 Olympian Mike Rodgers and Ronnie Baker, who ranks second in the US this year at 9.94 seconds. The 1.9m, 104kg wide receiver’s flirtation with USATF began in October last year during a nationally televised prime time game against the Buffalo Bills. As Buffalo safety Budda Baker streaked toward an apparent touchdown after intercepting Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson inside the five-yard line, Metcalf sprinted the length of the field before dragging down Baker short of the goal line. Metcalf, who ran a 36.6-dash in 4.33 seconds at the 2019 NFL Combine, clocked a top speed of 36.44kph while covering 104.97m to catch Baker, the NFL’s Next Gen Stats platform showed. The next day, USATF sent a playful online message inviting Metcalf to test himself against “real speed” at the Olympic trials, scheduled for next month at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. That same week, Metcalf’s agent dialed USATF executive Adam Schmenk to inquire about what making the team for the Tokyo Olympics might entail. “DK’s agent told us that he really wants to try to make the Olympics and asked what steps he needs to take,” Schmenk told Yahoo Sports. “We walked him through what the auto qualifying time was that he would have to run in a sanctioned
SPIKE LOOMING: Many scientists believe a lack of testing is resulting in a sharp undercounting of cases, with one model forecasting 1,018,879 deaths by the end of July The COVID-19 wave that plunged India into the world’s biggest health crisis has the potential to worsen in coming weeks, with some research models projecting that the death toll could more than double from present levels. A team at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru used a mathematical model to predict that about 404,000 deaths would occur by June 11 if current trends continue. A model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington forecast 1,018,879 deaths by the end of July. While COVID-19 cases can be hard to predict, particularly in a sprawling nation like India, the forecasts reflect the urgent need for India to step up public health measures such as testing and social distancing. Even if the worst estimates are avoided, India could suffer the world’s biggest COVID-19 death toll. The US has the largest number of fatalities at 592,409. India yesterday reported a record 3,780 deaths for an overall toll of 226,188, along with 382,315 new cases, taking its outbreak past 20.6 million infections. In the past few weeks, the scenes on the ground, with long lines outside crematoriums and hospitals turning away ambulances, have painted a picture of a nation overwhelmed by the crisis. “The next four to six weeks are going to be very, very difficult for India,” said Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University School of Public Health. “The challenge is going to be to do things now that will make sure it is four weeks, not six or eight, and that we minimize how bad things will get, but in no way is India anywhere near out of the woods.” A spokesperson for the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare could not immediately be reached for comment. The ministry on Monday said that in about a dozen states, including
An Australian court yesterday agreed to hear a challenge to the country’s controversial ban on citizens returning home from COVID-19-hit India. A federal court said that it would urgently hear a challenge brought by a 73-year-old man living in Bengaluru who wishes to return to Australia. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week banned arrivals from India, which is recording hundreds of thousands of new COVID-19 infections each day. Under the measures, Australian citizens who return home face jail time and heavy fines. The move has caused widespread outrage, with Morrison’s own allies describing it as racist and an abandonment of vulnerable Australians overseas. The conservative government has argued the ban is necessary to prevent Australia’s quarantine facilities from being overwhelmed by arrivals from India infected with COVID-19. Christopher Ward, the lawyer representing the 73-year-old man, said that “he is a gentleman who wishes to return to Australia, and his return is currently prevented.” The case is challenging the ban on several grounds of constitutionality, “proportionality and reasonableness,” Ward said. Justice Stephen Burley ordered that a further hearing date would be set in the next 24 to 48 hours. Australia has no widespread community transmission of COVID-19, but has seen several outbreaks emerge from hotel quarantine facilities, causing disruptive city lockdowns. There are estimated to be about 9,000 Australian citizens in India, including high-profile cricketers playing the now-suspended Indian Premier League. Morrison on Tuesday refused to amend the ban, but insisted it was “highly unlikely” the punishment would ever be meted out. The ban is scheduled to run until Saturday next week.
On a cloudy spring day, hundreds lined up in their vehicles on the Canadian side of the border crossing that separates Alberta and Montana. They had driven for hours and camped out in their vehicles in hopes of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine from a Native American tribe that was giving out its excess doses. The Blackfeet tribe in northern Montana last month provided about 1,000 surplus vaccines to its First Nations relatives and others from across the border, in an illustration of the disparity in speed at which the US and Canada are distributing doses. While more than 30 percent of adults in the US are fully vaccinated, in Canada that figure is about 3 percent, as Canada lacks the ability to manufacture the vaccine. Among those who received the vaccine at the Piegan-Carway border crossing were Sherry Cross Child and Shane Little Bear, of Stand Off, about 50km north of the border. Cross Child and her husband have family and friends in Montana, but have not been able to visit them since the border closed last spring to all but essential travel. “It’s been stressful because we had some deaths in the family, and they couldn’t come,” she said. “Just for the support, they rely on us, and we rely on them. It’s been tough.” More than 95 percent of the Blackfeet reservation’s roughly 10,000 residents who are eligible for the vaccine are fully immunized, after the state prioritized Native American communities — among the most vulnerable US populations — in the early stages of its COVID-19 vaccination campaign. The tribe received vaccine allotments from the federal Indian Health Service and the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, leaving some doses unused. With an expiration date fast approaching, it turned to other nations in the Blackfoot Confederacy, which includes the Blackfeet, and three
Chu Mu-kun (朱木崑) carefully inspects a large boulder hauled from further up the Daniuci OId Trail (打牛崎古道). “This might work,” he says, rotating and repositioning it against the slope until it fits snugly. It takes two hours to manually make three steps using simple tools on the ancient trail, which has been rendered inaccessible due to the collapse of a wooden elevated walkway. “You have to transport goods up here to repair this walkway, which looks jarring against its surroundings to begin with,” Chu says. “Hand-built trails using readily available materials are easier to maintain and are better for the environment. We consider the comfort and safety of the user with each step.” More than 20 people, most of them first-timers including a few children, are participating in the trail-building workshop organized by the Nanshan Community (南山社區) in Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), and led by six instructors from the Thousand Miles Trail Association (千里步道協會). When complete, the Daniucih Old Trail will be part of the Raknus Selu (樟之細路), a roughly 400km-long network of historic paths connecting mostly Hakka villages from southern Taoyuan to northern Taichung. The association began promoting the trail in 2018, but it is still very much a work in progress. I was a bit disappointed when I tried to traverse portions of it last month, as little of it was marked and there was scant information along the way. Of course, I could have carefully mapped out the route beforehand, but I completely missed the two main historic paths in the Guansi area and ended up on a paved road for the entire first day. It wasn’t until the next day that I spotted the bright yellow Raknus Selu markers and its hand-built trails on the secluded Shihyingzih Trail (石硬子) near Beipu Township (北埔). When Hsu Ming-chien (徐銘謙),
Unwinding for the evening in her Washington, DC flat, Uighur activist Jewher Ilham often has two thoughts as she turns on her laptop: What should I watch tonight? And will I be interrupted by Chinese hackers again? From her Web cam switching on by itself to her laptop’s cursor moving around as she watches Netflix, it is a bugbear Ilham has learned to live with since she started criticizing the Chinese government for detaining her father, a Uighur academic, nearly a decade ago. “When I’m bored, I talk to my laptop and I wave and say, ‘Hi, are you watching me? Actually, you shouldn’t waste your time on me because I have really nothing important or interesting for you to dig into,’” the 26-year-old labor activist said. Ilham is part of a growing chorus of young Uighurs living overseas who are mobilizing online and using social media to campaign against forced labor in China’s northwestern Xinjiang province, home to the Uighur Muslim minority. Despite living abroad, many believe expanding their digital footprint through their online activism has made them — and their families — more of a target. “I do feel conflicted every single day. If I speak up about my dad, would they torture my dad? Is it going to cause more harm?” said Ilham, who left China for the US in 2013 and now works at the global Worker Rights Consortium. China for months has pushed back against global criticism of its Xinjiang policies, with officials in China’s Foreign Ministry and the Xinjiang government saying the efforts are necessary to counter “lies and slander” by a network of “anti-China forces” abroad. “There are some people hired by Western anti-China forces acting out made-up stories to smear Xinjiang and China abroad and make a living out of it,” the Chinese embassy in Washington said in an
At 21, Kathryn Heyman didn’t have the luxury of “finding herself” in India like her peers. She had no money, no safety net and had learned to never rely upon others. Instead, she hitch-hiked to Darwin with her journals and favorite books — and notions of a Kerouac-style adventure — and bagged a job as a cook on a fishing trawler, a boat called the Ocean Thief. She was later relegated to deckhand when it was discovered she could barely boil an egg. She had a list of names that she’d carried around with her for months, of men who had steeped her in shame. Now she threw it overboard. As she writes in her new memoir, Fury, it was among this feral crew, this dysfunctional family of outcasts out in the Timor Sea, that she felt the safest. “I felt unreasonably grateful for the simple fact of being on a boat with four men who would not hurt me. I was swollen with gratitude because they chose to honor the most basic of human exchanges,” she writes. Fury is Heyman’s first memoir. It’s powerful, masterful and something she never expected to write, being committed to fiction. But while her six novels span centuries and continents, there is this common theme of survival. Growing up, there was no safe harbor for Heyman. By the time she was in her late teens she had experienced a relentless litany of sexual harassment and assault; a war of attrition against a girl with low social currency. The effect was to be siloed from her friends and family. Speaking from her home in Sydney, Heyman is warm and friendly. It’s hard to imagine the “spiky” teenager she describes. “I think it’s a kind of psychopathology, to just keep running,” she reflects. But actually, there was plenty to run from. Raised in a
Which one should we get? (4/5) 不知道該買哪一種才好？（四） A: Look, this smart wristband can measure your heart rate! B: Yes, and it can also measure your stress levels. A: How clever! How does it work? B: Look at my watch, there are green lights flashing on the back. These monitor the blood flow at your wrist, and from this it knows what your heart rate is. A: Is it a problem to have the light on your wrist all the time? B: I think it’s alright, the LED emits low energy, so it won’t irritate your skin, or at least it hasn’t bothered me so far. A: 你看，這個手環還有測量心律的功能耶！ B: 對，還有測量壓力。 A: 好奇妙喔！這是什麼原理啊？ B: 你看我的手錶，背面的LED會發出綠色的光，來偵測通過手腕的血液流量，這樣就可以知道心臟跳動的頻率。 A: 這樣一直有光照著手，不會有問題嗎？ B: 還好吧，LED發出的光能量很低，不會刺激皮膚，至少我到目前都沒事。 (Translated by Paul Cooper, Taipei Times／台北時報林俐凱) English 英文: Chinese 中文:
Which one should we get? (3/5) 不知道該買哪一種才好？（三） A: I checked online for the smartwatch you were talking about, or a smart wristband, and I found there were so many different brands, so many different choices. Which one should we get? B: Think about what kind of functions mom would need. A: Look, this one has GPS, so it can also record the route you jog! B: Mom doesn’t jog! You’re the only one in the family that goes jogging regularly. A: But mom goes walking a lot. B: You’re not wrong. A: 我上網查了一下你說的智慧手錶，或說智慧手環，發現有好多牌子、好多種選擇喔。不知道該買哪一種才好？ B: 就想像一下，媽媽大概會需要哪些功能。 A: 你看這支有GPS功能，所以還可以記錄慢跑的路線耶！ B: 媽媽才不會去路跑咧！我們家大概只有你在跑步。 A: 可是媽常去散步啊。 B: 也對。 (Translated by Paul Cooper, Taipei Times／台北時報林俐凱) English 英文: Chinese 中文:
Which companies in the world are shaping our future? Time magazine released its first ever “Time100 Most Influential Companies” last week, dividing businesses with a global impact into five categories: Pioneers, Leaders, Innovators, Titans and Disruptors. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, known in Taiwan as a “sacred mountain protecting the country,” is listed among the Titans. Several entertainment companies, such as Netflix, Spotify and TikTok, also made it to the list. As Time reported, Netflix’s huge success — 203 million subscribers and still counting — has forced the most powerful studios to launch their own at-home offerings, accelerating Hollywood’s realignment. “But one thing is certain: watching movies (and TV series) for the first time on Netflix has become the rule, not the exception,” the magazine added. Also, the Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine was named one of the Pioneers this year. Founded in 2016, the media group celebrates books about women’s stories through Witherspoon’s book club and then adapts them for the screen on Hello Sunshine Channel. (Eddy Chang, Taipei Times) 全球哪些公司將會改變我們的未來呢？《時代雜誌》上週首度公布「百大最具影響力公司」，將最具全球影響力的企業分成五大類︰包括開拓者、領導者、創新者、巨擘、顛覆者。被稱為是台灣「護國神山」的台積電也榜上有名，擠身巨擘之列。 數家娛樂公司這次亦高居榜上，包括網飛、思播及抖音。《時代雜誌》報導︰由於網飛的巨大成功——訂戶超過兩億多且持續增加中——迫使各大電影公司推出自己的影音平台迎戰，加速好萊塢版圖重組。該雜誌並寫道︰「但有件事則是確定的，在網飛觀賞首輪的電影（或影集），已成為主流而非特例。」 奧斯卡影后瑞絲薇斯朋所創立的Hello Sunshine，今年名列開拓者之一。該媒體集團成立於二○一六年，透過薇斯朋的讀書會來宣揚女性故事的書籍，再將故事翻拍成影片，於Hello Sunshine電視頻道播出。 (台北時報張聖恩)
| New Taipei City | 24-27 | 0% |  |
| Hsinchu County | 23-26 | 0% | |
| Hsinchu City | 23-26 | 0% | |
| Taipei City | 24-25 | 0% | |
| Miaoli County | 22-26 | 0% | |
| Taoyuan City | 23-26 | 0% | |
| Keelung City | 23-24 | 0% | |
| Yunlin County | 23-27 | 0% | |
| Taichung City | 24-29 | 0% | |
| Nantou County | 23-28 | 0% | |
| Changhua County | 23-27 | 0% | |
| Chiayi County | 23-27 | 0% | |
| Chiayi City | 23-29 | 0% | |
| Tainan City | 25-28 | 0% | |
| Kaohsiung City | 26-29 | 0% | |
| Pingtung County | 24-30 | 0% | |
| Yilan County | 23-25 | 0% | |
| Hualien County | 23-25 | 10% |  |
| Taitung County | 24-27 | 10% | |
| Kinmen County | 22-23 | 0% | |
| Penghu County | 23-25 | 0% | |
| Lienchiang County | 19-19 | 10% |  |
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