Sat, Apr 20, 2024
Taiwan yesterday said China’s decision to open new air routes that run perilously close to two of its islands was a flight safety risk taken without consultation, adding that it would demand any aircraft using them to turn around.The government in January expressed anger after China unilaterally cha
FORMER ACTIVIST: Minister of labor-designate Ho Pei-shan would strive to ‘become the guardian of workers’ rights and interests,’ premier-designate Cho Jung-tai said Premier-designate Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced another round of new Cabinet ministers, selecting senior Cabinet official Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) and former legislator Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) to lead the labor and health ministries respectively.Meteorologist Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明), who has operated a po
China’s Ministry of Commerce yesterday announced that polycarbonate imported from Taiwan would be subject to anti-dumping duties starting today for a period of five years.In a statement, the ministry confirmed its final determination on anti-dumping measures for imported polycarbonate originating fr
South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc, the world’s second-largest memorychip maker, yesterday said that it would collaborate with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to make the next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) technology.SK Hynix dominates th
Iranian state media yesterday reported explosions in the central province of Isfahan, as US media quoted officials saying Israel had carried out retaliatory strikes against its archrival.Israel had warned it would hit back after Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel almost a week ago,
Daniel Suidani, a prominent Solomon Islands critic of China who was former Malaita Province premier, yesterday was re-elected to the provincial assembly, as counting continued in the key Pacific island nation’s election.The elections are the first since Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogava
‘NEW PAGE’: The magazine’s description of William Lai as the nation’s next president showed international recognition of Taiwan’s achievements, a spokesperson said President-elect William Lai (賴清德), the vice president, has been listed by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world this year.Lai, who is to take office as president next month, is a coal miner’s son who became a Harvard-trained public health expert, and prizes problem sol
TWO READINGS: Text designer Lin Kuo-ching crafted the English word ‘Taipei’ on the suits to look like the Chinese characters for ‘jia you’ when upside down Taiwanese athletes yesterday modeled the uniform the nation’s Olympic team are to wear at the opening ceremony in Paris this summer, with the garments to be displayed at Taipei Fashion Week.The uniforms — designed by Justin Chou (周裕穎) — were debuted at a news conference in Taipei, with Olympic trap
EIGHT-DAY EVENT: Overall, the Han Kuang military exercises are focused on countering cognitive warfare and mobilizing reserve forces, the defense ministry said The computerized war games of this year’s Han Kuang military exercises began yesterday and are to include lessons learned from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Ministry of National Defense said.Special emphasis would also be given to scenarios such as “gray zone” ac
Thailand Week, organized by the de facto Thai embassy in Taiwan, is to be held from Wednesday next week to the end of the month, featuring a concert, a food festival and cultural events, the Southeast Asian country’s top representative said on Thursday.Thailand Week is to be held just after Songkran
The Cabinet is to allocate more than NT$20 billion (US$615.16 million) to support relief efforts in Hualien County following an earthquake on April 3 that measured 7.2 on the Richter scale.The estimate was confirmed on Thursday at a meeting led by Vice Premier Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) and attended by of
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday urged the public not to fall for information spread by “ill-intentioned individuals,” following local media reports earlier in the day that confidential documents were being sold online.The Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times)
TRAILBLAZER: Chang established a company that has taken microchip production to unparalleled levels, developing a ‘sacred mountain’ protecting the country Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) received one of the nation’s highest medals of honor yesterday in recognition of his achievements as the founder of TSMC and envoy to APEC.Known as the “godfather” of the nation’s chip industry, Chang founded TSMC three decades
SUPPORT: The Connecticut House of Representatives bill that was passed said Taiwan is an indispensable US partner in safeguarding peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific The Mississippi legislature and Connecticut House of Representatives this week passed resolutions supporting closer ties with Taiwan.The Mississippi Senate and House of Representatives signed a bill on Wednesday to “encourage further economic ties and friendship” between the state and Taiwan.Taipei
University students yesterday proposed six ways to update the Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法), two decades after its enactment, to better address today’s issues.The legislature passed amendments to the act in July last year.Former National Taiwan University (NTU) Student Association Gender Wor
The Judicial Reform Foundation yesterday urged the judiciary to consider countermeasures against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and announced that it would publish a self-help manual for those victimized for supporting the #MeToo movement.People harassed by the judiciary sh
JITTERS: Taiwan’s market fell 774 points on TSMC’s trimmed global chip demand forecast and heightened worry over broader military conflicts in the Middle East The TAIEX yesterday plunged 3.81 percent, or 774 points, to 19,527.12 after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Thursday trimmed its forecast for global chip demand this year and an apparent Israeli retaliation against Iran added to the jitters.TSMC would keep its capital spending u
AI-DRIVEN: Global demand for artificial intelligence has been stronger than expected and would help local technology firms on the supply chain, a think tank finding showed Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) yesterday raised its forecast for Taiwan’s GDP growth from 3.1 percent to 3.38 percent, as exports could receive a bigger boost from global artificial intelligence (AI) demand.“The nation’s exports would start to set sail from this quarter,
LCD panel maker Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday reported an eight-quarter losing streak due to reduced working days from the Lunar New Year holidays and slack seasonality last quarter.Losses widened to NT$4.1 billion (US$126 million) from NT$3.24 billion in the fourth quarter last year. Compared with th
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, people have been asking if Taiwan is the next Ukraine. At a G7 meeting of national leaders in January, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned that Taiwan “could be the next Ukraine” if Chinese aggression is not checked.NATO Secretary-Gene
About two weeks have elapsed since the tragic earthquake in Hualien County, which as of the time of writing, was known to have killed 12 people with many more still missing.While relatively small, especially compared with the Jiji Earthquake in September 1999 that killed more than 2,400 people, it o
On Saturday last week, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) and other international strategy experts took part in a forum organized by the Formosa Republican Association to mark the 45th anniversary of the US’ Taiwan Relations Act (TR
TROPHY PROSPECT: Italy’s Atalanta, who won against Liverpool on aggregate in the quarter-finals, dream of winning the second silverware in their 116-year history Liverpool crashed out of the UEFA Europa League after a 1-0 win against Atalanta that was not enough to overturn their quarter-final deficit, while Bayer 04 Leverkusen’s 1-1 draw at West Ham United took the German champions into the last four on Thursday.In Juergen Klopp’s last season as Liverpool b
Emiliano Martinez starred in a drama-filled penalty shoot-out as Aston Villa squeezed past Lille OSC and into the UEFA Europa Conference League semi-finals on Thursday following a late Matty Cash goal in normal time.Villa led 2-1 from last week’s first leg, but their quest for a first European troph
Formula 1 returns to China this weekend after a five-year absence. No matter who wins tomorrow, the star locally would be China-born driver Zhou Guanyu.Despite his so-so results, Zhou is being promoted as a celebrity in China. He is the subject of a new film as the first Chinese driver to compete in
Casper Ruud racked up a tour-leading 26th win of the season on Thursday by reaching the Barcelona Open quarter-finals.The world number six from Norway eased past Jordan Thompson of Australia 6-1, 6-4 to move clear of Jannik Sinner for most wins this year.Ruud, the runner-up to Stefanos Tsitsipas at
WORLD’S BIGGEST VOTE: A rare published opinion poll last year found that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was viewed favorably by nearly 80 percent of the public India yesterday began voting in a six-week election with an all but assured victory for Hindu nationalist Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.A total of 968 million people are eligible to take part in the world’s biggest vote — a staggering logistical exercise that critics say follows a concerted ef
AIRPORT ASSASINATION: The suspect had been tasked with gathering and transmitting to Russia information about security at Rzeszow-Jasionka airport A man suspected of aiding a plot by Russian intelligence services to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been arrested in Poland, Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors said on Thursday.The Polish national, named only as Pawel K, is suspected of supplying information to Russian militar
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday.The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science,
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (inc
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth.Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type
You might call it a cup of Joe, java, mud, brew, mocha or your morning jolt. Coffee undoubtedly is a big part of global culture, and the kind made from the Arabica bean is the most appreciated by coffee drinkers.Researchers now have unlocked the genome of the Arabica species and traced its origins t
It’s no secret that Japanese people have a deep affection for noodles. Like in the rest of East Asia, noodles are an important staple food, second only to rice. Japanese people have enjoyed noodles for over 1,000 years. The first noodles came from China and were introduced around 800 CE. As time pas
A: As generative AI keeps evolving, the use of AI technology to “resurrect” people has become an ethical issue.B: The late singer CoCo Lee’s mother even denounced such AI videos featuring CoCo as causing secondary harm.A: But some seem to have a different view.B: How so?A: Like the late singer Whitn
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest.B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans?A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified.B: And more absurdly,
It’s certainly been a pleasure watching the presidential campaign launch of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Hou You-yi (侯友宜) lurch painfully about like a wounded pachyderm in search of an elephant graveyard. Hou’s fall to third place in some polls last week appears early, and it might still be recoverable. But grumbling in his party about replacing him has already begun. Indeed, all indications are that the party that twice gave us Lien Chan (連戰), the most despised politician in Taiwan, as a presidential candidate and later offered voters Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), is arcing along its normal descending trajectory, the North Korean missile test of electoral politics. A KIND OF POLICY PLATFORM Last week the KMT doubled down on this path with Hou’s calls for nuclear power and more death penalty executions, standard KMT fare for decades (the latter is unnecessary since so many potential criminals are likely to die in traffic accidents long before they harm anyone). Apparently KMT policy institutions are not echo chambers so much as mausoleums where dead ideas are embalmed and then periodically put on display. The lack of public policy imagination is obvious. A less obvious facet of KMT ineptitude: with years of speculation that Hou would be their man in 2024, neither Hou nor the party insisted on interesting or experimental public policies to showcase Hou’s greatness in preparation for the showdown. Of course, that is even more true of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Hou’s slide and the media buzz surrounding it are obscuring the truly urgent problem the pro-Taiwan side faces: DPP presidential candidate William Lai (賴清德) has not expanded his voter support beyond the party base. In most polls he remains below 40 percent. Independent voters are staying away in droves, and for the moment the young are turning to
July 17 to July 23 When Yeh Ken-chuang (葉根壯) came of age, the traditional skills of architecture and carpentry that had been in his family for four generations were disappearing. After helping his uncle Yeh Teh-ling (葉得令) construct ships, residences and temples for more than a decade, Yeh struck out on his own at the age of 28 in 1960 as a damusi (大木司, chief carpenter), earning his lifelong title “Chief Chuang” (壯司). Around this time, builders in his homeland of Penghu were increasingly using reinforced concrete instead of wood, due to the humid climate. The period also saw a frenzy in temple construction as the economy improved, meaning there was plenty of work for Yeh. Adept in non-structural techniques such as doors, windows and furniture, as well as the intricate carvings and detailed decorations that adorned the structures, Yeh was able to adapt his skills, leading the reconstruction of the historic Hsiliao Daitian Temple (西寮代天宮) on Penghu’s main island in 1963. According to the book Crossing Traditions in Yeh Ken-chuang’s Large-scale Carpentry Skills (宮廟巧藝 :跨越傳統的葉根壯大木作技術), it was Penghu’s first temple that used a purely reinforced concrete structure. Before his life was cut short, Yeh created more than 70 temples and related structures across the various islands of Penghu and left behind more than 230 building plans. Although Yeh could have built temples and other structures on Taiwan proper, he only worked on a handful of projects outside of Penghu because he wanted to be close to his family. CLAN OF CARPENTERS The Yeh family’s woodworking tradition began with Yeh Ma-li (葉媽利), who learned the architecture and carpentry trade from an unknown master on Kinmen. The Yehs trace their roots to Kinmen, although this branch had been living in Penghu since the early 1600s. Yeh Ma-li was Penghu’s chief temple builder between 1860 and
New Taipei City | 14-23 | 10% | |
Hsinchu County | 14-22 | 10% | |
Hsinchu City | 14-22 | 10% | |
Taipei City | 14-22 | 10% | |
Miaoli County | 12-22 | 10% | |
Taoyuan City | 14-22 | 10% | |
Keelung City | 15-21 | 10% |
Yunlin County | 14-24 | 0% | |
Taichung City | 14-24 | 0% | |
Nantou County | 14-24 | 0% | |
Changhua County | 14-23 | 0% |
Chiayi County | 13-24 | 0% | |
Chiayi City | 14-25 | 0% | |
Tainan City | 15-22 | 0% | |
Kaohsiung City | 17-23 | 0% | |
Pingtung County | 16-25 | 0% |
Yilan County | 14-22 | 10% | |
Hualien County | 16-22 | 10% | |
Taitung County | 17-23 | 10% |
Kinmen County | 11-18 | 0% | |
Penghu County | 17-20 | 0% | |
Lienchiang County | 10-13 | 10% |