Mon, Mar 16, 2026
LEGISLATION: Those who advocate, promote or support the initiation of war against the Taiwan would face a NT$1 million fine under the draft amendments The Executive Yuan would prioritize pushing forward 13 national security bills during this legislative session, a government official familiar with the matter said yesterday, adding that these measures are crucial to Taiwan’s security and should receive cross-party support. In December last year, th
To combat fraud, the Ministry of Finance has required eight state-run banks to install artificial intelligence (AI)-powered facial recognition systems in automated teller machines (ATMs), the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) reported yesterday.If people are wearing helmets, face mask
HORMUZ PROBLEM: Trump told NBC that the US would fight on to enforce better terms in future negotiations and that he would bomb Kharg Island ‘just for fun’ Iran yesterday warned more countries against getting involved in its war with the US and Israel, after US President Donald Trump urged world powers to escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint in the Persian Gulf. Energy prices have soared across the world since Iran responded to th
North Korea tested nuclear-capable rocket launchers, state media reported yesterday, a day after Seoul detected the launch of about 10 ballistic missiles. The test comes after South Korean and US forces launched their springtime military drills, due to run until Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jon
‘T-DOME’: The Ministry of National Defense has urged legislators to pass the NT$1.25 trillion special defense budget in a report to the Legislative Yuan The military plans to complete the integration of the first domestically produced regional air defense system by next year, with Tien Kung III, Tieng Kung IV and the land-based variant of the Tien Chien II, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) and the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology
DEFENSE BOOST: Taiwan will use AI to establish a real-time defense system, and the budget would also aim for economic and industrial development, Lai said Taiwan can well afford a NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.16 billion) special defense budget given its booming economy, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, citing US emphasis on collective burden-sharing. Lai’s proposed spending, which he says is needed to better face a rising threat from China, has
RETURN ON INVESTMENT: The CTFA received NT$595.7 million in subsidies from 2022 to 2024, during which the body had budget overruns, the Control Yuan said Taiwan’s governing soccer body has failed to provide adequate support for national squads, despite receiving the largest funding subsidy among all national sports associations, a Control Yuan report released on Saturday showed.The investigation into the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) has
The Kaohsiung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station has developed a device to accurately control when bees enter and exit hives to boost passion fruit production.The station on Friday demonstrated the automatic entrance device that regulates the insects’ “clock-in times” in artificial
Professional pickpockets linked to international criminal groups could be operating in Taipei, police said, after a woman riding on the MRT received alerts of numerous credit card transactions in Saudi Arabia soon after discovering her wallet was missing.A woman, surnamed Kao (高), told police that s
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday.The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy O
The Tainan Caspian tern population has in the past few years surged dramatically, Taijiang National Park has said.The bird, the world’s largest species of tern, used to appear only sporadically in Tainan, but last year more than 1,000 were recorded for the first time at the estuary of the Zengwen Ri
The Taipei City Government has launched a limited-time promotional campaign ahead of K-pop group TWICE’s three-night concert run at the Taipei Dome starting Friday, inviting fans to visit themed attractions and take part in citywide check-in events.The campaign, titled “ONCE CITY MAP,” was anno
The Taipei stage of the 2026 Tour de Taiwan kicked off yesterday with an opening ceremony in front of the Presidential Office, marking the start of Taiwan’s only international professional road cycling race.Speaking at the ceremony, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the Taipei stage is the
Kenyan runners Enock Onchari and Catherine Cherotich won the men’s and women’s races at the New Taipei City WJS Marathon yesterday, while Chou Ting-yin (周庭印) finished first among Taiwanese male runners to secure his sixth career victory at the event and his third consecutive title.Onchari won t
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday.In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinal
DAMAGE REPORT: Global central banks are assessing war-driven inflation risks as the law of unintended consequences careens around the world, spiking oil prices Central banks from Washington to London and from Jakarta to Taipei are about to make their first assessments of economic damage after more than two weeks of conflict between the US and Iran.Decisions this week encompassing every member of the G7 and eight of the world’s 10 most-traded currency juris
About 1,000 participants, including more than 200 venture capitalists, joined the Taiwan Demo Day in Silicon Valley on Saturday, the largest iteration to date of the event held ahead of Nvidia Corp’s annual GPU Technology Conference which runs from today to Thursday.Taiwan Demo Day, co-organized by
WHISKERY BUSINESS: Businesses are aiming to capture the growing percentage of feline fanatics as cat ownership across the country grows rapidly Sales of cat-related products at major convenience stores have surged over the past few years, as rising cat ownership fuels what retailers call the emerging “cat economy.”Cat food and related products sales at stores such as 7-Eleven, Hi-Life and OK Mart have grown by about 30 percent, outpacing do
After thousands of Taiwanese fans poured into the Tokyo Dome to cheer for Taiwan’s national team in the World Baseball Classic’s (WBC) Pool C games, an image of food and drink waste left at the stadium said to have been left by Taiwanese fans began spreading on social media. The image sparked wide d
On March 22, 2023, at the close of their meeting in Moscow, media microphones were allowed to record Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dictator Xi Jinping (習近平) telling Russia’s dictator Vladimir Putin, “Right now there are changes — the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years — and we are the ones
The global semiconductor industry has sent a clear signal to the international trading system, with the World Semiconductor Council (WSC) calling on the WTO to make a moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions permanent, which would ensure that cross-border digital data flows remain ta
A BREATHLESS BATTLE: France clinched the championship in a vicious back-and-forth match with England, denying Ireland the title by just a few points France won back-to-back Six Nations titles after beating England 48-46 on a last-second penalty-kick by Thomas Ramos in a thriller for the ages on Saturday.England scored their seventh try in the 77th minute and converted for 46-45. If the score held for a few more minutes, Ireland would have been c
Wilyer Abreu watched the ball leave the park and tossed his bat high in the air. His Venezuela teammates streamed out of the dugout in celebration. The comeback was on and the win over the reigning World Baseball Classic (WBC) champion Japan was within reach.Japan, their 11-game WBC winning streak o
Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching (詹 皓晴) teamed up with Japan’s Miyu Kato to win the women’s doubles title at the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 125 Austin tournament, defeating Isabelle Haverlag of the Netherlands and Sabrina Santamaria of the United States 6-2, 6-3 in the final on Saturday (U.S. time).The
Ruthless Japan crushed the Philippines 7-0 yesterday to book a Women’s Asian Cup semi-final with South Korea and close in on a third continental title.The dominant victory at Stadium Australia in Sydney ensures their presence at a 10th consecutive World Cup in Brazil next year.Japan are the only Asi
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued maj
Voters in Vietnam yesterday cast their ballots for members of the National Assembly, the country’s top legislative body that serves mainly to ratify decisions by the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party. The Southeast Asian nation of 100 million is both an economic success story, boasting 8 percent gro
INFLUTENTIAL THEORIST: Habermas was particularly critical of the ‘limited interest’ shown by German politicians in ‘shaping a politically effective Europe Jurgen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96. Habermas’ publisher, Suhrkamp, said he died on Saturday in Starnberg, near Munich. Habermas freq
Last week the government announced that by year’s end Taiwan will have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world. Its inventory could exceed 1,400, or enough for the opening two hours of an invasion from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Snark aside, it sounds impressive. But an imp
March 16 to March 22 Hidden for decades behind junk-filled metal shacks, trees and overgrowth, a small domed structure bearing a Buddhist swastika resurfaced last June in a Taichung alley. It was soon identified as a remnant of the 122-year-old Gokokuzan Taichuu-ji (Taichung Temple, 護國山台中寺),
The race for New Taipei City mayor is being keenly watched, and now with the nomination of former deputy mayor of Taipei Hammer Lee (李四川) as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate, the battle lines are drawn. All polling data on the tight race mentioned in this column is from the March 12 F
Dos & Don’ts — 想想看，這句話英語該怎麼說？1. 她德語說得和她老師一樣流利。ˇ Her German is as fluent as her teacher’s.ˇ She speaks German as fluently as her teacher (does).χ Her German is as fluent as her teacher.註︰這裏所比的是「她的德語」和「她老師的德語」，而不是把她的德語和她的老師這個人相比，所以必須說 her teacher’s，即 her teacher’s German。或把「她說德語」和「她老師說德語」比較。2. 一般認為北部人
Jane Goodall, the pioneering scientist whose groundbreaking research changed our understanding of chimpanzees and reshaped the study of animal behavior, has died at the age of 91. The Jane Goodall Institute confirmed that she passed away from natural causes in California in October 2025 while on a s
Candles were made from animal fats in ancient times. As knowledge and materials improved, people began making them with beeswax and vegetable wax, which burned more cleanly and produced less odor. Before __1__ lighting, candles were considered highly valuable. In many religions, they came to symboli
Two moves show Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) is gunning for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) party chair and the 2028 presidential election. Technically, these are not yet “officially” official, but by the rules of Taiwan politics, she is now on the dance floor. Earlier this month Lu confirmed in an interview in Japan’s Nikkei that she was considering running for KMT chair. This is not new news, but according to reports from her camp she previously was still considering the case for and against running. By choosing a respected, international news outlet, she declared it to the world. While the outside world likely paid little attention, domestically the message was unmistakable: She is moving on to a larger stage. Part of the dance is to leave options open before formally committing, and with the chair race due in late September, she has time. If something goes wrong in the meantime, or if power brokers in the party offer her a deal that provides more benefits than taking on the role of chair, she can pivot accordingly. Earlier this year, I suggested that strategically, she would be better off concentrating on her job as Taichung mayor until she is term-limited out of office in December next year. Taichung mayor is obviously a full-time job, and concurrently running the Taipei-headquartered party runs the risk of doing one or both jobs poorly and making mistakes that could imperil her shot at the presidency in 2028. The situation has changed. Current KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), knowing he is likely to face challengers of a higher caliber than the three relative nobodies already declared, has gone all in on appealing to the base. The base is more likely to turn out to vote in the chair election, so this makes some strategic sense in the short term.
Among Thailand’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) villages, a certain rivalry exists between Arunothai, the largest of these villages, and Mae Salong, which is currently the most prosperous. Historically, the rivalry stems from a split in KMT military factions in the early 1960s, which divided command and opium territories after Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) cut off open support in 1961 due to international pressure (see part two, “The KMT opium lords of the Golden Triangle,” on May 20). But today this rivalry manifests as a different kind of split, with Arunothai leading a pro-China faction and Mae Salong staunchly aligned to Taiwan. Last spring at Arunothai’s Jiaolian School, principal Wang Mingming (王明明) had forewarned me of the division between villages, saying, “We are not like the people in Mae Salong. They are rich. Because of the Taiwanese.” Arunothai has in recent years become split in its loyalties between Taiwan and China (see part one, “A tale of two schools,” on May 15), but in Mae Salong, links to Taiwan remain strong. Taiwan-funded monuments pay homage to the Lost Army, villagers wear T-shirts emblazoned with the Republic of China (ROC) flag and tea plantations grown Taiwan’s most famous tea varieties, including Dong Ding (“frozen peak”) Oolong, Oriental Beauty and Jin Xuan (Golden Daylily or Milk Oolong). Even the numerical classifications of the teas — Oolong No. 12 or No. 17, for example — are the same, and the shops resemble those found on Alishan. At the tomb of General Tuan Hsi-wen (段希文) — perched on a Mae Salong hilltop with a view of his ancestral homeland in China’s Yunnan province — a third generation villager wearing a vintage KMT army uniform, Yan Si-Chung (岩思中), greets visitors with sharp military salutes. “Both my father and my grandfather were soldiers in the KMT army,” the 44-year-old
| New Taipei City | 27-28 | 20% |  |
| Hsinchu County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Hsinchu City | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Taipei City | 27-28 | 20% |  |
| Miaoli County | 24-26 | 10% | |
| Taoyuan City | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Keelung City | 27-28 | 20% | |
| Yunlin County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Taichung City | 26-28 | 10% | |
| Nantou County | 25-26 | 10% | |
| Changhua County | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Chiayi County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Chiayi City | 25-27 | 10% | |
| Tainan City | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Kaohsiung City | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Pingtung County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Yilan County | 25-26 | 30% |  |
| Hualien County | 25-26 | 30% | |
| Taitung County | 25-27 | 30% | |
| Kinmen County | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Penghu County | 27-27 | 20% | |
| Lienchiang County | 27-28 | 20% | |
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