Wed, Aug 05, 2020
The military last week sent “no small number” of Marine Corps officers to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) following reports of a Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) drill targeting the islands scheduled for this month. In an interview with Hong Kong’s Bauhinia Magazine published on Saturday last week, PLA National Defense University professor Li Daguang (李大光) confirmed that the Chinese army was planning to stage a simulated invasion of the Pratas Islands in the South China Sea this month. The islands comprise three atolls, with Pratas Island, at 1.74km2, being the largest. They lie southwest of Taiwan proper in the South China Sea about 444km from the Kaohsiung Harbor. In response, the Ministry of National Defense has stationed a large number of Marine Corps officers on Pratas Island, a source said yesterday. A contingent of coast guard officers has also been stationed on the island as part of the ministry’s response, the source said, adding that all of the officers were dispatched from Taiwan proper. The ministry would not comment on the deployment of officers to the island, saying only that it would “respond accordingly to changes in the situation,” while urging the public to remain calm. Japan’s Kyodo news agency in May first reported about the PLA’s plan to stage a simulated invasion of the islands this month, but China had not confirmed the speculation until Li’s interview. However, Li did not specify the time or specific location of the planned drill. The islands initially had a permanently stationed contingent of marines, but the job of protecting them was given to the Coast Guard Administration in 2000. The Marine Corps’ 99th brigade would now protect the islands jointly with the coast guard in response to the renewed PLA threat, the source said. The stationing of officers on the island would also serve to relieve coast
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday announced that it would on Aug. 26 host the “5G Policy Forum: Announcement of 5G Joint Statement,” where AIT Director Brent Christensen, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and National Communications Commission (NCC) Chairman Chen Yaw-shyang (陳耀祥), among others, would witness and jointly declare the determination of the US and Taiwan to work together to safeguard Internet security. Executive Yuan Department of Cyber Security Director Jyan Hong-wei (簡宏偉); NCC Commissioner Yeali Sun (孫雅麗); Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳), head of the legislature’s Yuan’s Digital Information and Governance Innovation Association; and Industrial Technology Research Institute Information and Communications Research Laboratories general director Chiueh Tzi-cker (闕志克) would also attend the event, the AIT and the American Innovation Center said. Other guests would include representatives from Taiwanese companies such as Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) and Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), they said. The AIT said that 5G technology is to become the backbone of the economy and public services, touching upon every aspect of life. Important services and technologies, such as mobile connectivity, autonomous driving, power grids and water supply systems would all rely on 5G networks, it said, emphasizing the importance of ensuring the security of these important networks. As various nations build 5G network infrastructure, they should consider factors such as national security, and economic and commercial development, as well as the management of security, to avoid potential risks posed by equipment suppliers influenced by third countries, it said. The AIT said it invites people to participate in and witness the event, to understand how the US and Taiwan are to work together to safeguard a secure future. In the past few years, Taiwan and the US have strengthened their cooperation on the digital economy. The Taiwan-US Digital Economy Forum was held in Taipei and Washington in 2015, 2016
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the largest disruption of education in history, with schools closed in more than 160 countries in the middle of last month, affecting more than 1 billion students, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said yesterday. In addition, at least 40 million children worldwide have missed out on education “in their critical preschool year,” he said. As a result, the world faces “a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities,” he said. Even before the pandemic, the world faced “a learning crisis,” with more than 250 million children out of school, and only a quarter of secondary school youngsters in developing countries leaving school “with basic skills,” he said. According to a global projection covering 180 countries by the UN education agency UNESCO and partner organizations, about 23.8 million additional children and youths from pre-primary school to university level are at risk of dropping out or not having access to school next year due to the pandemic’s economic impact. “We are at a defining moment for the world’s children and young people,” Guterres said in a video message and a 26-page policy briefing. “The decisions that governments and partners take now will have lasting impact on hundreds of millions of young people, and on the development prospects of countries for decades to come.” “The unparalleled education disruption” from the pandemic is far from over and as many as 100 countries have not yet announced a date for schools to reopen,” the policy briefing said. Guterres called for action in four key areas, the first being reopening schools. “Once local transmission of COVID-19 is under control, getting students back into schools and learning institutions as safely as possible must be a top priority,” he said. UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education Stefania Giannini told reporters the Paris-based agency
WHERE’S JUAN CARLOS? The former king, the target of official financial probes in Spain and Switzerland, has the nation speculating where he was headed Speculation over the whereabouts of former Spanish monarch Juan Carlos gripped the nation yesterday, a day after the man who served as king for almost four decades announced he was leaving the country for an unspecified destination amid a growing financial scandal. In a letter published on the royal family’s Web site on Monday, Juan Carlos told his son King Felipe VI he was moving outside Spain due to the “public repercussions of certain episodes of my past private life.” Juan Carlos is the target of official investigations in Spain and Switzerland, which are looking into possible financial wrongdoing. His bombshell announcement took most Spaniards by surprise. Neither the royal family nor the government disclosed where the former king was going. Daily newspaper ABC yesterday reported that Juan Carlos left Spain on Sunday and flew via Porto, in neighboring Portugal, to the Dominican Republic. The daily La Vanguardia also said he was in the Caribbean country, but only temporarily. However, El Confidencial newspaper reported that Juan Carlos could still be in Portugal, where he spent part of his childhood, or in France or Italy, where he has family and friends. He assumed the throne in November 1975 as King Juan Carlos I, and is credited with helping Spain peacefully restore democracy after the death of dictator Francisco Franco that year. However, marred by scandals in the later years of his reign, Juan Carlos in 2014 abdicated in favor of Felipe, losing the immunity from prosecution the Spanish Constitution grants to the head of state. Spain’s king is the head of state, which is a mostly ceremonial role. Executive power lies with the elected parliamentary government. In the wake of Juan Carlos’ announcement, some people called for the monarchy to be abolished. The leftist political party Unidas Podemos, the junior member of Spain’s coalition government, wants a public debate
‘PUBLIC TRUST’: President Tsai Ing-wen thanked David Lee for accepting the new post at such short notice and expressed confidence in his ability to adjust to his new role President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday appointed Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman David Lee (李大維) as the new Presidential Office secretary-general, as she warned the Cabinet against damaging the public’s trust in the government. Lee replaces Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全), who resigned on Sunday, after his nephew, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Su Chen-ching (蘇震清), was implicated in a bribery case. Su Jia-chyuan said that he was worried it could negatively affect Tsai’s presidency. Su Chen-ching is accused of taking bribes from businessman Lee Heng-lung (李恆隆) to lobby for a legal amendment. Lee Heng-lung has been engaged in a legal fight with Far Eastern Group (遠東集團) chairman Douglas Hsu (徐旭東) over ownership of the Pacific Sogo Department Store (太平洋崇光百貨) chain since the early 2000s. Prosecutors suspect that Su Chen-ching and others had been accepting bribes since 2013 to lobby for a retroactive amendment to the Company Act (公司法) clauses on capital increases, which would give Lee Heng-lung’s company legal grounds to regain control of Pacific Sogo. David Lee, who was the National Security Council secretary-general until he was appointed to head the SEF in May, is an “important partner” in the nation’s politics, Tsai said. The president thanked Lee for accepting the reassignment on such short notice and expressed confidence in his ability to adjust to the new position. Tsai warned legislators across party lines against taking bribes, saying that “the goal of engaging in politics is not to seek personal gain, but to work for the betterment of Taiwan.” Tsai said she understood Su Jia-chyuan’s decision to resign and that she respected it. The DPP would discuss with the Executive Yuan the best way to proceed with penalties for the legislators implicated in the case, she said. Despite pressure on the party over the case, it would handle the issue with professionalism, she
People in the nation’s south and southeast should be alert to possible damage caused by heavy precipitation as Typhoon Hagupit moves away from the nation and heads toward China, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday. Although Hagupit did not make landfall, it disrupted domestic flights and shipping. As of 6pm yesterday, 30 domestic flights were canceled and 45 were delayed, Civil Aeronautics Administration data showed. International flight services were not affected by the typhoon, the data showed. The Port and Maritime Bureau said that 43 ferry services were canceled, including those between Keelung and Lienchiang County, and Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Taitung. Hagupit was upgraded from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 5pm yesterday, but it is moving away from Taiwan and heading toward China, bureau weather forecaster Hsieh Pei-yun (謝佩芸) said. As of 8:30pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 200km north of Keelung, moving northwest at 22kph, the bureau’s data showed. The maximum wind speed reached 119kph near the center, with the radius expanding to 100km, the data showed. Wind speeds at Pengjia Islet (彭佳嶼) and Green Island (綠島) reached Level 11 on the Beaufort scale, and Level 10 at Orchid Island and New Taipei City’s Bitoujiao (鼻頭角), Hsieh said, adding that sea waves could surge to 2m to 4m high today. The bureau was expected to lift the sea warning at 11:30pm yesterday if the typhoon stayed on course. Between 12am and 5pm yesterday, Taoyuan’s Dayuan District (大園) had the highest accumulated precipitation at 250mm, the bureau’s data showed. It was followed by Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑) at Yangmingshan National Park and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), with accumulated rainfall reaching 220mm and 162.5mm respectively. The hourly rainfall in Tamsui and Taipei’s Shilin (士林) and Beitou (北投) districts also exceeded 90mm, the data showed. Although the typhoon is moving away, Hsieh said that a
LIMITS OF TESTING: The CECC said mass testing for COVID-19 may not be particularly beneficial, as blanket testing of travelers from the Philippines missed cases The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported a new case of COVID-19, a Taiwanese woman who returned from the Philippines, while the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) urged people to avoid mosquito bites, as the risk of indigenous dengue fever is rising. CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC’s spokesman, said that the new case is in her 50s and lives permanently in the Philippines. The last record of her leaving Taiwan is in January and she returned to Taiwan alone on Sunday, Chuang said. On arrival in Taiwan, the woman reported having a fever since Thursday last week, but did not consult a doctor, he said, adding that she had a slightly high body temperature of 37.7°C, coughing, phlegm and sore muscles, he said. The woman was taken to a centralized quarantine facility after receiving a COVID-19 test at the airport and yesterday was transferred to a hospital for treatment after a positive test result, Chuang said. Health authorities are identifying the passengers who sat close to her on the flight to Taiwan, he said. Asked about comments by National Taiwan University College of Public Health vice dean Tony Chen (陳秀熙), who said that a Belgian in Taiwan confirmed to have COVID-19 last week likely contracted the disease in Taipei in late June, Chuang said that real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction tests had been conducted on 441 people who had close contact with the Belgian, with 366 people testing negative and 75 results not yet available. Antibody tests were also conducted on the 441 people, with 382 returning negative results, he said. “We have not determined whether the case is imported or domestic, but we will collect all the information we can and bring it to the CECC’s advisory specialists’ panel for discussion,” Chuang said. Asked whether the CECC would consider requiring all visitors to
A Belgian man who tested positive for COVID-19 in Taiwan last week is likely to have contracted the disease in Taipei in late June, National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Public Health vice dean Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Saturday reported that the man, who is in his 20s, came to Taiwan for work on May 3 and tested positive on Wednesday last week as he was about to depart. The man in March reported loss of taste and smell, the center said, adding that he worked in Changhua County, but visited Taipei several times, and traveled to Yilan County and Taichung this month. Although the center has not listed the case as imported or locally acquired, health experts have said that the man might have contracted the disease in Taiwan. There are four possible scenarios for how the man was infected: He contracted it in Belgium, he had close contact with an infected traveler on his way to Taiwan, he was exposed to an infected person in a local community, or he contracted the disease twice — in Belgium and in Taiwan, Chen said. Among the four scenarios, contracting the disease in Belgium or being infected twice are the least likely, he said. The viral load should have significantly reduced after so many weeks if he was infected in Belgium, while genome sequencing of the virus would need to be conducted to determine if he contracted it twice, Chen said. Based on the cycle threshold value of a real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test that the man had, he might have been exposed to COVID-19 from June 20 to 26, which includes time that he was in Taipei, Chen said. “It is impossible that Taiwan has no domestic cases,” he said. “We are only testing people who have symptoms, so
GENDER INEQUALITY: The Childcare Policy Alliance said that while female participation in the labor force is increasing, male participation in parenting has not The government should amend parental leave regulations to encourage fathers to take time off in the four weeks following a child’s birth, advocacy groups told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Representatives from groups including the Childcare Policy Alliance, the Birth Empowerment Alliance of Taiwan and the Awakening Foundation urged the government to allow fathers to receive 90 percent of their usual pay for time they take off work in the first month following a child’s birth. Since 2002, the Act of Gender Equality in Employment (性別工作平等法) has allowed workers to take parental leave up until the child reaches the age of three, the Childcare Policy Alliance said, adding that in 2009, provisions were added to give employees who take unpaid parental leave an allowance equal to 60 percent of their usual pay for the first six months. However, citing the 2020 Gender at a Glance report published by the Executive Yuan’s Department of Gender Equality, the Childcare Policy Alliance said that women still accounted for most of those who take parental leave. In 2018, about 88,000 people were approved for their first period of parental leave allowance. Of those, more than 72,000, or about 82.3 percent, were women, the report showed. While female participation in the labor force is increasing every year, male participation in parenting has not, Childcare Policy Alliance spokesman Wang Chao-ching (王兆慶) said. This trend discourages women from having children, which in turn affects the birthrate, Wang said. However, with policy intervention — such as policies for shorter, but better-paid parental leave — more men would be encouraged to apply for time off, he said. The Childcare Policy Alliance said that the number of newborns in the nation this year could fall below 160,000. A-tse (阿澤), a father who spoke at the news conference, said he used annual leave and unpaid personal leave to spend
Singapore Airlines yesterday said that it would resume three weekly services to Taiwan next month after air traffic between the two counties was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Tickets for flights to Singapore and other destinations in the airline’s network are available now, it said. Starting on Sept. 2, flights between Taiwan and Singapore would operate on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays using Boeing 787-10s, the airline said. On Wednesdays and Fridays, flights would depart from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5:45pm and arrive in Singapore at 10:15pm, while those departing from Singapore would leave at 11:45am and arrive in Taoyuan at 4:40pm, it said. On Saturdays, flights from Taiwan would depart at 2:20pm and land in Singapore at 6:55pm, while flights from Singapore would leave at 8:20am and arrive in Taiwan at 1:30pm, it said. The airline said it is offering greater flexibility to ensure that people can plan their travel during a challenging time, with those making new bookings after March 5 to get unlimited complimentary rebookings for flights on or before Aug. 31 and a one-time complimentary rebooking for flights after Aug. 31. People are encouraged to visit the COVID-19 Information Center on the airline’s Web site to learn more about precautionary measures against the virus, as well as transit and travel advisories, it said. The airline said that it also has codeshare flights with budget airline Scoot. People with Singapore Airlines tickets for Scoot-operated flights can transit in Singapore for travel to any of Singapore Airlines’ destinations, it said. However, entry into Singapore is not allowed, it said. Cabin baggage is normally limited to 3kg on Scoot flights and must be securely stowed under the front seat, Singapore Airlines said. However, with Singapore Airlines tickets, economy-class passengers are entitled to up to 35kg of checked baggage on flights operated by Scoot and business-class passengers up to 40kg, it
DIPLOMATIC MOVES: Beijing is reportedly pressing the state after reports of forming links with Taiwan, while the ministry is also planning to reopen its office in Guam soon A representative office is set to open in Somaliland at the end of this month, at the earliest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday amid reports that Beijing is sending a diplomatic delegation to the east African country. The ministry on July 1 announced that Taiwan and Somaliland would establish representative offices, following a report by the Somaliland Chronicle Web site. It said at the time that the two nations did not plan to establish formal ties. Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi has instructed close confidants to explore the possibility of “mutual recognition between Taiwan and Somaliland,” the Somaliland Chronicle reported on Monday, citing sources speaking on condition of anonymity. He had also ordered a close examination of the US’ Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act of 2019, which encourages the US government to increase economic, security and diplomatic engagements with nations that have enhanced relations with Taiwan, the Web site said. Bihi has refused to meet Chinese Ambassador to Somalia Qin Jian (覃儉), who has been in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, since Sunday, on his third visit this year, it reported. A delegation of high-ranking diplomatic officials from Beijing was due to arrive in Somaliland, possibly as early as today, the Web site reported. Asked about Somaliland’s plans, as reported by the Web site, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a news briefing in Taipei that the ministry would not comment on opinions of anonymous sources. Taiwan and Somaliland maintain effective communications, and their alliance is built on their shared values of protecting freedom, democracy and human rights, the spokeswoman said. Taiwan’s representative office in Hargeisa is set to be formally established at the end of this month or early next month, although the plan could change due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. While Somaliland is not recognized by most countries, Ou
The family of rookie police officer Yang Ting-hao (楊庭豪), who died after being severely injured in a traffic accident on Sunday, has donated his organs and corneas, family members told a news conference yesterday at Far Eastern Memorial Hospital in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). A 17-year-old unlicensed scooter driver surnamed Chang (張) collided with a police scooter ridden by Yang shortly after midnight on Sunday as Yang and two colleagues were headed to a fight that had been reported in Shulin District (樹林). Yang, 21, had only been a police officer for 10 months. He suffered severe head injuries in the crash and was diagnosed with subarachnoid hemorrhage, Intensive Care Unit director Hung Fang-ming (宏芳明) told reporters. Paramedics had to restart his heart before transporting him to the hospital, and while Yang’s vital signs improved after treatment, he scored 3 on the Glasgow Coma Scale, the lowest possible score, indicating he had suffered severe brain injuries, Hung said. After Yang spent 24 hours on life support, his family was briefed on his prognosis, and agreed to sign the organ donation forms, and doctors pronounced him brain dead. His family said that they believe Yang would have wanted his organs to benefit others. Ten families would benefit from the donations, they added. The hospital said Yang’s heart, lungs, liver, kidney, pancreas and corneas were donated. In related news, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Sandy Yeh (葉毓蘭) said she is considering proposing an amendment to Article 185-3 of the Criminal Code that would include unlicensed driving in the list of offenses and stipulate that parents of offending minors should be punished. The parents of minors or those aged 18 who are found to have driven without a license and caused the death of others should be subject to collateral punishment, as they have failed in their duties as
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) suspended membership privileges for legislators Sufin Siluko (廖國棟) and Chen Chao-ming (陳超明) after they were detained by the Taipei District Court yesterday, KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) announced, while Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesperson Yen Juo-fang (顏若芳) said the party had suspended Legislator Su Chen-ching’s (蘇震清) membership privileges after he was detained in the same corruption probe. All three lawmakers have been questioned by prosecutors a bribery case linked to former Pacific Distribution Investment Co chairman Lee Heng-lun’s (李恆隆) 2013 legal battle with Far Eastern Group for control of Pacific Sogo Department Store. The KMT Disciplinary Committee is launching investigations into Sufin and Chen, and the result of those probes would determine if the pair lose their KMT membership, Chiang said. He also called on the judiciary to be just and fair when reviewing the legal cases against them. Under the KMT’s party charter, members have their privileges suspended if a court finds them guilty of corruption in the first trial, and their membership is revoked if they are found guilty again in the second trial, Chiang said. “We have already fast-tracked the punitive measures,” he said. The decision to take punitive measures if Sufin and Chen were detained had been made on Saturday, he said. The KMT has conducted internal reviews after several incidents of its members being convicted of corruption and the Disciplinary Committee has been asked to look into measures to deter such acts, he said. All party members should endeavor to refrain from such acts, Chiang said. In related news, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday said that Cabinet members and other officials should not treat a government job as a fast-track path to riches. “To be voted into power is not to work for our own benefit, but to benefit Taiwan as a whole,” Tsai said.
Bed and breakfast (B&B) operators in Penghu County are to be disqualified from receiving government subsidies if they deliberately inflate room prices for the second phase of “disease prevention tours,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Lin told reporters after attending a news conference about an outdoor children’s theater production — a partnership between Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) and the Paper Windmill Theatre (紙風車劇團) — that is to take place near Taichung High Speed Rail Station on Saturday to celebrate Father’s Day. The government’s tourism stimulus package has helped travelers experience high-quality domestic tours, and B&B operators should not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, Lin said. “The Tourism Bureau told Penghu County Government officials that operators found to engage in this kind of behavior a second time should be disqualified from applying for tourism subsidies,” Lin said. “Local government officials must thoroughly enforce the Consumer Protection Act (消費者保護法) and hold offenders accountable.” Subsidies for the second phase of “disease prevention tours” are to be available until the end of October, Lin said. As more people are heading to attractions in Yilan, Hualien, Taitung and the outlying islands, the bureau would step up campaigns to promote travel destinations in northern and central Taiwan to help divert the crowds, he said. Cities and counties seeing a large influx of visitors would be asked to suspend tourism marketing events during the summer, Lin said, adding that the bureau would also be postponing marketing subsidies for those areas. To ease traffic congestion in the Hsuehshan Tunnel during the Mid-Autumn Festival in October, the National Freeway Bureau would implement measures to redirect the traffic, Lin said. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications would reinforce public transport connecting the east and west coasts, Lin said. For example, the Yilan Railway Station would be turned into a
The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) should distribute nearly NT$30 million (US$1.02 million) in overtime pay it owes its workers, cancel a new work schedule set to be implemented next year and start negotiations with the Taiwan Railway Union, the union demanded yesterday morning as it launched a protest in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei. TRA workers have yet to receive overtime pay they are due for May and June, due to a budget shortfall, the union said. “Employees are supposed to receive their salaries for the previous month on the 25th of each month. However, when checking the receipts of our salaries in June and last month, train dispatchers and conductors did not see the overtime pay that was supposed to be in their accounts,” the union said. TRA Transportation Department employees have received an official letter saying that it would implement a new work schedule next year, which the union said would reduce their pay. The agency organized the new schedule without adequate communication with its employees, and it plans to suspend overtime pay and force workers to accept its new schedule, the union said. Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said that the ministry would facilitate negotiations between the agency and the union, and expedite the distribution of overtime pay for TRA workers. “The agency has in recent years recruited 4,000 new workers. We want to make sure that the workload of frontline employees can be eased, and they are paid accordingly. At the beginning of this year, we secured the legal right to distribute employees’ benefits, which include overtime pay,” Lin said. However, the TRA said that it has submitted an analysis of the additional funding needed for overtime pay to the ministry. The Taiwan Railway Labor Union, which is also affiliated
END TO SPECULATION: The hotel’s management contract has been extended, despite reports that it wanted to end its alliance with Hyatt Hotels over a deal with Riant Capital Singapore-based Hong Leong Hotel Development Ltd (豐隆大飯店股份) yesterday said it has extended a management contract to ensure the continued presence of the Grand Hyatt brand in Taipei, ending rumors that the two sides were parting ways. “We are pleased Hyatt is able to come to terms on the extension of the management contract of Grand Hyatt Taipei,” said Kwek Leng Beng (郭令明), executive chairman of City Developments Ltd (城市發展) and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Ltd (千禧國敦酒店). Hong Leong Hotel Development is a subsidiary of Millennium, and both fall under the Hong Leong Group (豐隆集團). The Grand Hyatt Taipei (台北君悅大飯店), owned and built by Hong Leong Hotel Development and affiliates, earlier sought to end cooperation with US hotel chain Hyatt Hotels Corp, which in 2018 inked a pact with private equity fund Riant Capital Ltd (子樂投資) to launch two sister brands nearby — Park Hyatt and Andaz, local media reported. Hong Leong was reportedly worried that there would be excessive competition among similar brands. Riant Capital now favors developing office spaces rather than hotel rooms for its upcoming Taipei Sky Tower (台北天空塔) project, which is where CTBC Financial Holding Co’s (中信金控) headquarters used to be, local media said. Rent rates for office space have increased significantly in Taipei’s prime Xinyi District (信義), as there is no new supply, while there is solid leasing demand from international technology and financial companies, property analysts have said. Grand Hyatt Taipei, which turns 30 next month, was the nation’s first international hotel brand and remains the largest by number of rooms at 850. Hong Leong has committed to the local government and community by investing in the hotel’s staff and its physical assets, as evidenced by its renovation of facilities, Kwek said. “Grand Hyatt Taipei has become an icon and we are confident it will continue to shine and serve local and
FIRST FOR TAIWAN: The company is the 11th shipowner in the world to become a member of the platform, which aims to encourage responsible ship recycling practices Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運) yesterday disclosed its ship recycling policy as it joined the Ship Recycling Transparency Initiative (SRTI), which comprises firms that value its environmental, social and governance objectives. The SRTI, launched in March 2018 and hosted by the Sustainable Shipping Initiative, a UK-based nonprofit organization, aims to accelerate responsible ship recycling practices by asking its members to share their policies on the platform so that the public can view them, Evergreen said. Evergreen is the first Taiwanese shipping company to join the initiative, as well as the 11th shipowner member, following founding members such as China Navigation Co Pte Ltd (太古輪船), A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, D/S Norden A/S, Hapag-Lloyd AG and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics ASA, it said. Evergreen — Taiwan’s largest shipping company by fleet size — last year implemented a ship recycling policy, which adheres to the EU Ship Recycling Regulation and the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, it said in its disclosure on the SRTI platform. Evergreen requires the buyers of its decommissioned vessels to guarantee that the aged vessels are demolished rather than sold to be used second-hand, while vessels can only be recycled at shipyards that are certified by the International Organization for Standardization and are recognized as a “Green Ship Recycling” shipyard by the Hong Kong convention, it said. When a vessel is decommissioned and recycled, not only can valuable and reusable resources such as steel be recycled, but waste and pollutants that could be dangerous to people and the environment must be processed properly, Evergreen said. Evergreen’s pro forma contract contains a liquidated damage clause, which helps deter any ill-disposed buyer from doing anything that would contravene it, the company said. Buyers need to provide reports weekly at least on the vessel’s recycling process to show that their practices are safe and
Flat-panel maker Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said that quarterly losses improved last quarter on the back of increased demand for panels for monitors, laptops and medical devices, as economies reopened in the US and Europe, and the COVID-19 pandemic drove remote learning and telecommuting trends. Innolux’s net loss narrowed to NT$4.78 billion (US$161.82 million) during the April-to-June quarter, compared with a net loss of NT$5.2 billion in the first quarter, the company said in a statement. That was the seventh consecutive quarterly loss reported by the Miaoli-based company. Innolux posted a net loss of NT$2.97 billion a year earlier. However, gross margin last quarter returned to positive territory at 2.8 percent, from minus-1.8 percent a quarter earlier, but was still lower than 3.7 percent a year earlier. “The demand for panels last quarter improved as European and US markets gradually recovered from lockdowns, and the stay-at-home economy helped spur demand,” Innolux said in the statement. Those factors helped boost revenue by 32.7 percent sequentially to NT$66.88 billion last quarter, the company said. Innolux said that economic stimulus measures launched by countries around the world would spur demand for TV panels in the third quarter. TV makers have also been building up inventory ahead of the year-end shopping season, which helps propel panel demand, it said. Robust demand for laptop and monitor panels would extend into this quarter due to work-from-home and remote learning trends, the company said. Overall shipments of TV and PC panels this quarter would rise by a high single-digit percentage from last quarter, Innolux said. This quarter, average selling prices for those panels would climb by a mid-single-digit percentage quarter-on-quarter, while shipments of small and medium panels would grow by a single-digit percentage compared with last quarter, thanks to demand for panels used in vehicles and 5G mobile phones recovering due to new
With schools around the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, child welfare groups have warned about higher rates and increased severity of child abuse, especially in cases where parents are working from home or unemployed. With the virus mostly contained in Taiwan and life largely back to normal, it seems the nation should be free of such problems. However, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital physician Hsin Yi-chen (辛宜臻) said that job losses and furloughs due to the pandemic might increase child abuse rates in Taiwan, citing a study the hospital conducted in 2018. The effects might not be apparent yet, as many people still receive unemployment benefits. However, Hsin urged the government and private sector to allocate more resources to prevent child abuse among high-risk families. The study found that for every 1 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate, the incidence of child abuse increased by seven per 10,000 children in the following year. This means that there might be up to 2,500 more abused children next year if the unemployment rate increases by 1 percentage point. Nearly 30,000 people were on unpaid leave as of the end of June due to the pandemic — most of them in the manufacturing sector, as activity in the industry has slowed due to a decline in foreign demand for Taiwanese exports, Ministry of Labor data showed. The number of furloughed workers last week jumped by 1,877 from the previous week, which shows that the problem is far from over. The international transportation and tourism sectors have also been affected, and their futures remain unclear as the virus continues to ravage the rest of the world. The government and child welfare groups should take action before the situation spirals into a crisis, whether by staging interventions, providing counseling or devoting more resources to helping at-risk
More than five years ago, a university in China made the high-profile claim that it would hire Taiwanese academics with doctoral degrees, offering annual salaries of NT$2 million (US$67,707 at the current exchange rate). An academic surnamed Chen (陳) went to the recruitment event and was subsequently hired by the university. Less than three years later, before his contract ended, he was sacked. After returning to Taiwan, he filed a lawsuit against National Taiwan University and National Taiwan Normal University — the institutions that rented out the venue for the recruitment fair, accusing them of contravening the law and misleading lecturers, causing them to fall into a Chinese trap. The court has ruled against Chen. Chinese firms often poach employees from Taiwan by offering high salaries. Some are sacked once their employer have gotten what they wanted, while others achieve great success. This is how supply, demand and the market mechanism work. However, here are a few reasons that Taiwanese media could be said to have misled Chen and others with their exaggerated reporting. “With salaries lower than elementary-school teachers, which professor would stay in Taiwan?” asked a July 2011 headline in the Chinese-language Global Views Monthly magazine. “China hires finance and economics professors, paying NT$10 million annually,” TVBS News said in March 2015. The reports said that annual salaries offered by Chinese universities ranged from 700,000 yuan to 2 million yuan (US$100,268 to US$286,480), and that the annual salary of a university professor in Taiwan was NT$960,000, compared with NT$3 million in China. This is not correct. On Professional Technology Temple, Taiwan’s biggest online bulletin board system, people quoted the report “Academic Salaries and Contracts: Global Trends and American Realities,” in which professorial salaries in different countries were adjusted using a purchasing power parity index. After the adjustment, salaries in China still remained in
In his speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo effectively declared a new “cold war” with communist China, which has been waging one against the West unchallenged for decades. Pompeo called on free nations to join the US — and Chinese — in changing the behavior of the ruling communist regime, or, failing that, in changing the regime itself. His language invoked the original Cold War struggle against communist tyranny in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. A similar campaign of internal and external pressure against China would be more complex and daunting now, because of the entwining of investments, trade and technology flow. Beijing has learned to apply the old Godfather maxim: “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” China does not really have friends, just business partners, supplicants and victimized debtors. However, it has plenty of enemies, and thanks to its communist ideology, the US and the West are at the top of the list. Yet, intricate economic relationships, cemented over decades of misguided engagement policies, have made China, for some, too close to punish. At least that is what Beijing has been counting on, successfully so far, and it is what the administration of US President Donald Trump has committed to halt. However, as Pompeo acknowledged, getting US allies to go along with the economic distancing strategy would not be easy. He obliquely chastised Germany for its self-defeating “timidity” in challenging China for fear of losing access to its huge markets. Hong Kong is the first test of the Trump administration’s bold new China policy and, if it fails, it could be the last attempt for a long time. Like Germany, the US is reluctant to use all the legal, diplomatic and economic instruments at its disposal and, for the same reason,
ROARING BACK: The Los Angeles Lakers’ Anthony Davis said that it meant a lot to clinch No. 1 after all the team has been through lately, but that they are not done yet Anthony Davis on Monday scored 42 points as the Los Angeles Lakers clinched top seeding in the Western Conference with a 116-108 defeat of the Utah Jazz. Stung by a defeat to the Toronto Raptors on Saturday last week, the Lakers roared back in impressive fashion to overpower a talented Utah lineup. The win sealed top spot in the West for the Lakers for the first time since 2010, when the late Kobe Bryant would go on to lead the team to the NBA Finals crown. Davis on Monday also racked up 12 rebounds, four assists and three steals. LeBron James finished with 22 points and nine assists, as the Lakers finally pulled away from a stubborn Utah side. “All the stuff we’ve been through this season, to clinch No. 1 in the West means a lot, but we’re not finished,” Davis said. “It’s just one of the milestones of many to get to where we want to be.” Davis’ points haul included 23 in the first half alone. It was the 20th time Davis has scored 20 points or more in the first half as a Laker, the first player from the franchise to achieve that feat since Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash in January. “I know he’s looking down on us, cheering us on,” Davis added. In another matchup, Toronto’s Fred VanVleet scored a career-high 36 points as the Raptors dug deep to defeat the Miami Heat 107-103 in their Eastern Conference clash. VanVleet led the scoring for the Raptors with a haul that included seven three-pointers from 12 attempts, as Toronto improved to 48-18 to remain in second place in the East. VanVleet also made a big contribution defensively for the Raptors, later on forcing a deflection of a Jimmy Butler pass that denied Miami an opportunity for a game-tying score. It was an all-round display
The stadium announcer at the Internazionali Femminili di Palermo on Monday wished a warm and welcome return to tennis lovers as the WTA tournament in Italy started five months after the past one, with bottles of hand sanitizer attached to the nets. The event comes just weeks before the US Open and Roland Garros double-header, but lost original top seed Simona Halep to lingering health concerns, while an unnamed player withdrew from qualifying after testing positive for COVID-19. There were about 350 fans allowed into a venue built for 1,500. Sofia Kenin and Elina Svitolina captured titles on March 8, the last day of competitive matches before the circuit was put on hold as the tennis calendar was shaken upside down. The prestigious Indian Wells event in the California desert became the first competition to be axed due to the pandemic. The French Open was then moved to late September, with Wimbledon canceled for the first time since World War II. When Croatia’s Donna Vekic and the Netherlands’ Arantxa Rus took to the clay court late on Monday, about 150 days after the sport’s hiatus started, they were not wearing face masks. After Vekic won, she told reporters via videoconferencing that she was happy to have remembered how to play tennis. “It’s weird, sometimes funny with all the protocols — masks on your face, visors and screens in the transport,” she said. “Of course it’s necessary, but so different from before — it seems unreal.” The line judges and umpire were masked, and the players had to stand behind a social distancing line to approach them. The stands are cleared and disinfected after each match. Players in the second meeting were told to wear their masks during the rest periods and to sanitize their hands from the dispensing bottles attached to the net poles. There were hand gel bottles placed in the
The Braves were dealt a double blow as the Mets’ Jacob deGrom struck out 10 in six innings to help New York snap a five-game skid with a 7-2 victory on Monday, and as Atlanta top pitcher Mike Soroka went down with a torn Achilles tendon in the third inning. “There’s no sugarcoating this night,” Atlanta slugger Freddie Freeman said. “It stinks. It really does.” Soroka crumpled to the ground on a seemingly routine play, breaking toward first to cover the bag on a grounder to Freeman’s right. “When you lose, in my mind, one of the top pitching arms in this entire game for the whole season, it’s pretty tough,” Freeman added. It was also a tough night physically for the Mets. Robinson Cano had three RBIs before leaving the game himself — one of three New York infielders who went down with injuries. None of them were nearly as serious as Soroka’s. Mets manager Luis Rojas said that the balmy weather might have contributed to the injuries to Cano, Amed Rosario and Jeff McNeil. All are day to day. Wilson Ramos added a two-run homer for the Mets, who avoided a four-game sweep and put an end to Atlanta’s five-game winning streak. DeGrom (1-0) turned in another sterling effort. The two-time National League (NL) Cy Young Award winner has allowed just four earned runs in 17 innings over his first three starts of the shortened season. He threw 104 pitches, with his only real problems coming in the fifth inning after being staked to a 7-0 lead. Former teammate Travis d’Arnaud homered off DeGrom. “I wasn’t able to throw my off-speed for strikes or where I wanted,” DeGrom said. “I left a couple of balls over the middle — and that’s how they scored a couple of times. I was just frustrated and was having a hard time gripping the
Andrei Svechnikov on Monday scored the first hat-trick of his NHL career as the Carolina Hurricanes moved to within one win of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 4-1 rout of the New York Rangers. The 20-year-old winger’s superb display of finishing sent the Rangers spinning to defeat in game 2 of the qualifying competition at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Sebastian Aho set up all three of Svechnikov’s goals, while Jordan Martinook was the other Hurricanes scorer. The Hurricanes lead the series 2-0. Svechnikov said afterward that his hat-trick meant more coming against Rangers goalkeeper Henrik Lundqvist, a veteran Swedish international. “I’m excited to score my first hat-trick, especially on a superstar goalie,” Svechnikov said. “I mean, I wouldn’t do that without my partner,” he said of Aho’s contribution. “Thanks for that and I think we played a really good game.” Rangers coach David Quinn credited Carolina’s performance, but lamented his team’s self-inflicted problems. “They’re playing smart hockey, they’re playing experienced playoff hockey,” Quinn said of the Hurricanes, who his team was to face in game 3 yesterday. “Between now and tomorrow night, we have to learn we can’t keep shooting ourselves in the foot,” Quinn added. “Our lack of patience is killing us right now... We need everybody in that room to just be a little bit smarter, a little bit more patient, work a little bit harder, win more wall battles — all these things add up.” In other games on Monday, the Vegas Golden Knights scored four goals in the third period after overturning a 1-3 deficit to defeat the Dallas Stars 5-3 at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta. Chandler Stephenson had fired the Golden Knights into the lead in the opening period before goals from Joe Pavelski, Jamie Oleksiak and Corey Perry left Dallas in control at 3-1 in the second quarter. Mark Stone pulled a goal
‘WE WILL ARREST YOU’: Infected people must quarantine at home and can no longer exercise outside, and repeat offenders risk a A$20,000 fine, the premier of Victoria said Police in Victoria were yesterday given “extraordinary powers” to enforce limitations on people’s movement and to issue individuals on-the-spot fines of up to A$5,000 (US$3,569), as the state recorded 11 more COVID-19 deaths and 439 additional cases of the virus overnight. The A$4,957 penalty, which can be issued for breaching quarantine and isolation orders, is the largest on-the-spot fine on the statute books in Victoria. “If there were repeat breaches, if there were particularly selfish behavior, like for instance, going to work when you had the virus, then there is the alternative pathway and that is, of course, taking you to the magistrates’ court, where the maximum penalty that can be applied to you is A$20,000,” Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said. There are 1,750 police on the streets enforcing restrictions, which include a curfew from 8pm to 5am except for urgent medical care. An additional 500 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel would be sent to Melbourne in the coming days, and more than 300 additional authorized officers from the Victoria Department of Health would be deployed to door-knock people with COVID-19 to ensure they were home and isolating, Andrews said. People with COVID-19 are no longer allowed to exercise outside and would need to accept door-knocks from authorities multiple times a day at random, he said. Until yesterday, exercise was a legitimate reason for those with the virus not to be at home. “You will need to stay in your home or on your property,” Andrews said. “Fresh air at the front door. Fresh air in your front yard or backyard or opening a window. That’s what you’re going to have to do. Anyone not found to be where they should be, that matter will be referred to Victoria police. Despite the scale of the challenge, despite the numbers, Victoria police will get to each
Pipe by precious pipe, the organ that once thundered through Notre Dame Cathedral is being taken apart after last year’s devastating fire. The mammoth task of dismantling, cleaning and reassembling France’s largest musical instrument started on Monday and is expected to last nearly four years. Once restored, it would take six months just to tune the organ, according to the state agency overseeing Notre Dame’s restoration. Its music is not expected to resound again through the medieval Paris monument until 2024, to the dismay of the cathedral’s dedicated organists. “It’s a very powerful organ, but with also a lot of poetry,” said Johann Vexo, who was playing the organ during an evening Mass when the fire alarm sounded on April 15 last year. “It’s just probably the most beautiful organ in the world.” Amazingly, the 8,000-pipe organ survived the fire, which consumed the cathedral’s roof and toppled its spire. However, the blaze coated the instrument in toxic lead dust that must now be painstakingly removed. While the organ did not burn, it did suffer damage from a record heat wave last summer and has been affected by other temperature variations it has been exposed to since the 12th-century cathedral lost its roof, the agency said. Notre Dame remains closed to the public. Experts started removing the organ’s keyboards on Monday and would then take out its pipes in a dismantling process that would last through the end of this year, the reconstruction agency said. The pieces would be placed in special containers inside the huge cathedral, where the cleaning and restoration would take place. The general who leads the agency said that the organ, which dates from 1733, would next play again on April 16, 2024, marking five years since the fire. Vexo was already dreaming of that day. “Like all my colleagues, we are very sad, and we
LIFELONG LOSS: Jiro Hamasumi, who was not quite born when an atomic bomb hit Hiroshima, lost his father and other relatives, but said he thinks about his father daily As Japan marks 75 years since the devastating attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the last generation of nuclear bomb survivors is working to ensure their message lives on after them. The “hibakusha” — literally “person affected by the bomb” — have for decades been a powerful voice calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. There are an estimated 136,700 left, many of whom were infants or soon to be born at the time of the attacks. The average age of a survivor now is a little over 83, according to the Japanese Ministry of Health, lending an urgency as they share their testimonies and call for a ban on nuclear weapons. “What we hibakusha are saying is we can’t repeat” a nuclear attack, 88-year-old Terumi Tanaka, who survived the Nagasaki bombing, told reporters ahead of the anniversaries. “To this end, we have to let people know what we experienced, for them to hear the facts.” Tanaka was 13 when the bomb hit his hometown. The attack on Nagasaki killed 74,000 people and came three days after a first bomb devastated the city of Hiroshima, killing 140,000. He has spent much of his life sharing his experience, hoping that explaining the horrors of nuclear weapons will convince people to support a ban. However, he recognizes that the community of those who lived through the attacks is shrinking and their message will have to be passed on by others. “We will all pass away, eventually,” Tanaka said. “We set up a group called the No More Hibakusha Project, which works on preserving records as archives, including what we’ve written ... so that [the next generation] can use them in their campaigns.” Tanaka said he worries at times that interest is fading, acknowledging that speeches by hibakusha often attract no more than a handful of people. “We do our best, but if no
Scott Saulters wasn’t sure if his film had just taken one of the two top prizes at a recent film competition. Although Saulters has been in Taiwan for 15 years and is proficient in Mandarin, the award ceremony for the inaugural “Bi Tian Iann” (眯電影) short film contest was conducted entirely in Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese), a language he can’t speak. “I thought I heard it, but I didn’t want to look too excited,” he says. Despite his limited command of the tongue, Saulter’s entry, Wu Yu Tzu (烏魚子, mullet roe), took first place in the amateur category of the competition, which called for three-minute submissions with at least 80 percent of the dialogue in Hoklo. The contest was organized by PTS Taigi — the PTS’ Hoklo-language channel launched in July last year, along with the Taipei Film Commission and the Taipei Culture Foundation. “I wasn’t really too concerned about making a film in a language I cannot speak, as I can speak Mandarin, which is close enough to not make it a completely foreign experience,” Saulters says. It helps that Saulters’ partner, Patty Zhu (朱宥琳), is a Taiwanese stage actress whose mother tongue is Hoklo. Zhu, who stars in Wu Yu Tzu, says the two began writing and shooting shorts after the COVID-19 pandemic put her out of work. Saulters, who works for a gaming graphics company, returned from a business trip to the US right before the 14-day mandatory quarantine was imposed. Believing that they would be permanently stuck at home, the two started setting up the scenes for Wu Yu Tzu. “The [Centers of Disease Control] told me two days later that they had made a mistake,” Saulters says. “But we had already made the plans.” RHYTHMS OF HOKLO They looked up film competitions and found that “Bi Tian Iann” fit
To the casual observer, 95-year-old Lee Hak-rae could be just another elderly person in Japan. Surrounded by pictures of his family and paintings by his great-grandchildren, Lee potters about his cluttered living room on the outskirts of Tokyo. But Lee is obsessed by brutal events of 75 years ago that have defined his life: his recruitment into the Japanese army from then-occupied Korea in 1942; his role in building the Thai-Burma railway; being designated a World War Two criminal; and how, he says, he was tossed into the dustbin of history by both Japan and South Korea. Since recovering its sovereignty under the San Francisco Peace Treaty signed in 1951, and reviving military pensions in 1953, Japan has given a pension supplement that can add up to about US$41,000 a year to military veterans. That includes war criminals and their families, government officials say. Japanese wartime leaders convicted of war crimes by an Allied tribunal are honored at Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine. The treaty also meant Koreans who fought for Japan lost their Japanese nationality, and with it, entitlement to such assistance. More importantly for Lee, the men have never been afforded the attention and a sense of closure given to their Japanese counterparts. “Listen to me. Why are they treating us differently?” says Lee, switching in a barely audible voice between Korean and Japanese. “It’s unfair and doesn’t make any sense. How can I accept this unbelievable situation?” Lee said as he clutched dog-eared clippings documenting his years of campaigning for recognition and compensation. Lee was among 148 Korean war criminals convicted after the war. Now he is the last survivor. Twenty-three of them were executed and he too was sentenced to death by hanging as Kakurai Hiromura in 1947. His sentence was commuted on appeal to 20 years. He was released on parole from a Tokyo prison in
Since its launch in 2014, the Taiwan Season has increasingly become a “must-see” at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. So, when this year’s three-week Fringe became an early casualty of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Chen Pin-chuan (陳斌全) was determined that the Taiwan Season must continue in some form. Chen, director of the Cultural Division of the Taipei Representative Office in the UK, says that he and Taiwan Season curator and producer Yeh Jih-wen (葉紀紋) had been thinking of ways of growing and adding value to the season anyway. The crisis and the cancellation of the live performances brought those ideas forward as the pair quickly put together a digital program of cultural close encounters. Titled “Connecting with Taiwan” and running from today to Aug. 28, thrice weekly streamings feature artist interviews with each of the leaders of the four dance companies that had been set to present live work in Edinburgh this year, and eight Webinars that look at aspects of the performing arts in Taiwan more generally. It’s a mix that Chen feels “makes us a little bit unique.” The interviews open with Cheng Hao (鄭皓), who will speak about how his background in math gives him a unique perspective on both abstract ideas and live performance, realized in his originally scheduled Touchdown (觸底的形色). Lai Hung-chung (賴翃中) then discusses his intense and sometimes dark work, Boundless (無盡·天空) for Hung Dance (翃舞製作), followed by Yang Nai-hsuan (楊乃璇) talking about her Fighters (五虎將) for Les Petites Choses Production (小事製作), a work that sees five god-like characters spring to life in a fusion of hip hop and contemporary dance. Finally, Lin Hsiu-wei (林秀偉), founder of Tai Gu Tales Dance Theater (太古踏舞團), will discuss The Back of Beyond (無盡胎藏) and the fusion of Eastern cultural traditions and contemporary Western practices that have been the company’s trademark for over
The long wait is finally over, as the Taipei Area reopens for large concerts. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, dozens of shows at the venue were forced to be canceled this year. After the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) relaxed its restrictions across public venues on June 7, applications to hold events at the multipurpose stadium are once again being accepted. Singer Eric Chou will become the first to perform at the Taipei Arena as it reopens, bringing back his Deluxe concert tour with two shows on Saturday and Sunday. On Aug. 15, online retailer PChome Online will stage a concert at the venue to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Those who shop on the platform will have a chance to win tickets to the show, featuring A-lin, 831, MJ116 and many more artists. This year’s Super Slippa summer music festival will also return to the Taipei Arena on Aug. 22 and 23. Held annually by Taiwanese supergroup Mayday, the festival, featuring over a dozen singers and groups, is set to rock the venue again. (Eddy Chang, Taipei Times) 長久的等待終於結束了！台北小巨蛋即將重新開放舉辦大型演唱會。受到武漢肺炎（新冠病毒，COVID-19）爆發影響，今年在該場館有幾十場演出被迫取消。中央流行疫情指揮中心自六月七日起放寬公共場所的限制，這座多功能體育館隨後亦恢復處理活動申請。 歌手周興哲將成為解封後首位攻蛋的藝人，「你，好不好」巡演再次回到小巨蛋，本週六、日一連熱唱兩場。線上零售商網路家庭為了慶祝二十週年，則預計於八月十五日，在此場地舉辦「PChome狂禮88演唱會」，超狂陣容包括A-lin、八三么、頑童MJ116等多組藝人，在該平台消費就有機會抽門票。 而今年的「超犀利趴」夏日音樂節，也將於八月二十二、二十三日再次唱回小巨蛋。這項由台灣天團五月天發起的年度音樂盛會，將有十幾組歌手及樂團輪番上陣，勢必再度嗨爆小巨蛋。 （台北時報張聖恩〉
A: Thank goodness we managed to buy our lottery tickets. B: Yeah, we were the last customers before sales closed. How long until the results are announced? A: Thirty minutes. We can watch the draw live on television. B: Great. Have you thought about what you would spend the money on if you win? A: I’ll quit my job, pay off my mortgage and go on a world tour. I’ll keep the rest of the money in the bank and live off the interest until I pop my clogs. B: Seriously? That’s so boring, no imagination at all. (Edward Jones, Taipei Times) A: 感謝老天，我們成功買到彩券了。 B: 對啊，我們是販售截止前最後的顧客。還有多久結果才會揭曉？ A: 三十分鐘，我們可以觀看電視開獎直播。 B: 太好了。你有想過如果中獎了，要怎麼花這筆錢嗎？ A: 我會辭掉工作，付清貸款，然後環遊世界。剩下的錢就存在銀行，靠著利息過日子直到死為止。 B: 真的嗎？那好無聊喔，完全沒有想像力。 （台北時報張聖恩譯） English 英文: Chinese 中文:
A: We got to the store just in the nick of time. Look at the size of the line. B: How many lottery tickets should we buy? A: Four. Four tickets: four times the luck. B: Um. . . I’m not sure the math checks out, but it’s true the more tickets we buy, the higher the chance we have of winning. A: Come on, come on. What’s the hold up? B: Looks like the person at the front of the line can’t decide on his numbers. Couldn’t he have made up his mind while waiting in line? A: There’re only 10 minutes left until ticket sales close. This is going to be really tight! (Edward Jones, Taipei Times) A: 我們及時趕到彩券行了，你看排隊的人潮有多長。 B: 我們要買幾張彩券？ A: 四張。要買四張︰事事如意。 B: 嗯……我不確定這種說法有沒有道理。不過我們買的越多，中獎機會就越高吧。 A: 快點快點。隊伍怎麼一直不動？ B: 看來隊伍前面的人似乎無法決定該挑哪些號碼。他就不能在排隊時先決定好嗎？ A: 距離彩券截止販售只剩下十分鐘了，時間真的很緊。 （台北時報張聖恩譯） English 英文: Chinese 中文:
| New Taipei City | 26-27 | 20% |  |
| Hsinchu County | 27-27 | 10% |  |
| Hsinchu City | 26-28 | 10% | |
| Taipei City | 25-27 | 20% | |
| Miaoli County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Taoyuan City | 26-27 | 20% | |
| Keelung City | 26-28 | 10% | |
| Yunlin County | 26-27 | 10% | |
| Taichung City | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Nantou County | 25-26 | 10% | |
| Changhua County | 27-28 | 10% | |
| Chiayi County | 26-26 | 10% | |
| Chiayi City | 25-27 | 10% | |
| Tainan City | 27-27 | 20% | |
| Kaohsiung City | 26-27 | 20% | |
| Pingtung County | 25-25 | 10% | |
| Yilan County | 26-28 | 10% | |
| Hualien County | 25-27 | 20% | |
| Taitung County | 26-27 | 30% |  |
| Kinmen County | 27-27 | 70% | |
| Penghu County | 26-27 | 20% | |
| Lienchiang County | 27-27 | 20% | |
RSS