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US orders Chinese state-owned media to slash staff

‘BULLY’:The move exposes the ‘hypocrisy’ of the US’ so-called freedom of the press, a Chinese spokesman said, adding that Beiing reserves the right to take further actions
A photo taken on Aug. 1, 2011, shows a new electronic billboard leased by China’s Xinhua news agency in New York City’s Times Square.Photo: AFP
US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered four Chinese state-owned news outlets to slash the number of staff they have working in the US, part of a broader response to Beijing’s restrictions on US journalists, including its expulsion of three Wall Street Journal reporters last month.

The move risks further tit-for-tat measures from Beijing, as the world’s biggest economies continue a broader battle for global influence.

From Friday next week, the four outlets will be allowed to employ a combined total of 100 Chinese citizens in the US, down about 40 percent from now, two US Department of State officials told reporters on Monday on condition of anonymity.

The officials said the reductions were not expulsions, although about 60 employees would almost certainly need to leave the country.

“Unlike foreign media organizations in China, these entities are not independent news organizations,” US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said in a statement after the officials briefed reporters. “As we have done in other areas of the US-China relationship, we seek to establish a long-overdue level playing field.”

The outlets affected by the move are Xinhua news agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International and China Daily Distribution Corp. A fifth, Hai Tian Development USA, is also included under the cap, but will not have to cut staff because it has only two Chinese employees on its payroll in the US.

The restrictions stem from an effort by the Trump administration to restore what officials call reciprocity between the way China and the US treat each other’s journalists.

China currently allows about 100 US citizens in the country and has severely restricted the number of visas it issues to foreign reporters.

More restrictions are likely to come soon.

Another senior US administration official, also briefing reporters ahead of Pompeo’s statement, said that the US plans to limit how long Chinese citizens are allowed to stay in the country on journalist visas.

That would match a Chinese requirement restricting foreign reporters to as little as 30 days before they must seek an extension.

China yesterday condemned the move, saying Chinese journalists have a “universally recognized professional reputation.”

“Out of a Cold War mindset the US is conducting political oppression on Chinese media agencies in the US,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) told reporters in Beijing. “We urge the US to correct its mistake at once and we reserve the right to take further actions.”

He said the move exposes the “hypocrisy of the United States’ so-called freedom of the press as blatant double standard and hegemonic bullying.”

Saying China reserves the right to react and take further action, Zhao added: “It was the US who broke the rules of the game first, China can only follow suit.”

Washington began mulling expulsions in earnest after China last month ordered the departure of the three Wall Street Journalreporters — two Americans and an Australian — after saying the outlet had refused to apologize for a “racially discriminatory” headline on an op-ed piece.

US officials have also said the reporters were expelled because of the Journal’s coverage of a Chinese government crackdown on Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang region.

The Journal has defended its reporters and, like most US outlets, said it operates with a strict separation between its news and opinion staffs. The op-ed piece in question referred to China as “the real sick man of Asia.”

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title: Tourism agency promotes romantic Kaohsiung sites

content_text:
By Ko Yu-hao
and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Kaohsiung’s Shoushan Love Lookout is pictured in an undated photograph.Photo: Ke You-hao, Taipei Time
The Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau is this month promoting romance-themed destinations in the city to boost tourism.

People who post on the bureau’s Facebook page from certain locations in the city and tag two friends would be eligible to enter a contest, the bureau said, adding that it has prepared NT$200,000 in prizes.

As businesses in the city that rely on tourism have taken heavy losses due to COVID-19, the bureau said that it hopes to encourage more Taiwanese to visit Kaohsiung by offering discounts and promotions.

Some facilities are offering 90 ping (297.5m2) suites for about NT$2,000 per night, it said.

The bureau said that it is promoting two tour routes: one takes visitors toward the city’s mountainous areas and the other focuses on sites near the coastline.

The mountain route passes through Siaogangshan Skywalk Park (崗山之眼), Thread of Sky (一線天), Moon World (田寮月世界), Shoushan Love Lookout (壽山情人觀景台), Shou Shan Zoo and Shoushan National Nature Park (壽山國家自然公園), bureau Director Chiu Chun-lung (邱俊龍) said.

The other route takes visitors to sites including the Whale in Love installation on the Love River (愛河), a white shipping container cafe, a light show on the river, the Zone 767 boat ride area on the river and the KW2 Carousel (棧貳庫白色旋轉木馬), he said.

People who post from any of these locations and tag two friends could win a voucher for free accommodations for two, or a voucher for studio wedding photographs, Chiu said, adding that there were a total of 100 room vouchers and three photo packages.

Several vendors at these locations are also offering buy-one-get-one-free discounts on Saturday next week and March 15 for the White Day weekend, he said.

Visitors to the city this month can expect discounted room rates at several hotels, including the Howard Hotel, the Han Hsien International Hotel, the Grand Hi-Lai Hotel, the Fullon Hotel, the Chateau de Chine and Hotel Cozzi, Chiu said.

Five-star, double-occupancy rooms at these hotels would start at NT$2,800 per night and standard rooms at some hotels would start at NT$699 per night, he added.

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Housing transactions in the nation’s major municipalities rose 6 percent in the first two months of this year, with the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak not yet evident due to the time it takes to complete ownership transfer procedures, real-estate brokers said yesterday.

Housing transactions totaled 33,500 units for January and last month in the six special municipalities of Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, representing a modest increase of 6 percent from the same period last year, government figures showed.

Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) said that the data are not yet reflecting the effects of the virus, as it would take at least one month to complete the related paperwork.

“We will have to wait for the March statistics to see how the property market fares amid the virus outbreak,” Sinyi research manager Tseng Ching-der (曾敬德) said.

Taoyuan reported the biggest rise in transactions of 23.8 percent year-on-year, followed by Taipei’s 14.6 percent increase for the two-month period.

Taoyuan has gained popularity as a location for homes, supported by improving infrastructure projects, Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) spokeswoman Charlene Chang (張旭嵐) said yesterday, adding that the trend is obvious in districts through which the Taoyuan Airport MRT railway runs.

On the other hand, Taipei is benefiting from demand linked to companies returning from China to avoid US-China trade tensions, H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) said, adding that this group of buyers is relatively affluent and can afford housing in the capital city.

Kaohsiung and Tainan bucked the upturn by posting transaction declines of 10.4 percent and 1.2 percent in respectively.

Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) said that Kaohsiung had a high comparison base last year.

As the virus is spreading around the world, its effect might prove serious going forward, Evertrust added.

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title: Housing deals increase 6% in first two months


title: US must commit to Taiwan’s defense

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Should Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) be quaking in his boots at the prospect that US Senator Bernie Sanders might become president? Sanders has stated emphatically that he would “absolutely” use military force if China attacks Taiwan.

That is an (almost) unprecedented expression of strategic clarity on the US commitment to Taiwan’s democratic security.

However, Beijing might be forgiven for dismissing it as so much political rhetoric in the midst of a presidential campaign. It has heard such tough talk before, and seen it dissipate once the candidate took office and actually had the power to follow through — but did not.

When Richard Nixon prepared his 1968 run for the presidency, he laid out his strategy to get “Red China” to moderate its harsh domestic policies and aggressive approach in international affairs. He argued against making premature concessions such as “to ply it with trade … which would serve to confirm its rulers in their present course.”

In office, Nixon delegated to his junior partner, then-US national security adviser Henry Kissinger, the immediate task of starting negotiations, but told him to avoid giving away too much just to get a deal: “We cannot be too forthcoming in terms of what America will do. We’ll withdraw from Taiwan, and we’ll do this, and that, and the other thing.”

Yet, in the end, that is exactly what the two consummate realists did, thereby establishing a pattern in US-China relations: strong rhetoric and strategic retreat.

When Bill Clinton ran against then-US president George H.W. Bush in 1992, he justifiably criticized the incumbent for “coddling the butchers of Beijing” — implying that he would act differently.

Just after the Tiananmen Square Massacre, Bush had sent his national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and US deputy secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger to Beijing to clink glasses with Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平), who had ordered the slaughter, and assured him that Washington would conduct business as usual with China.

However, when Clinton became president, he followed the soft Bush approach and doubled down on the coddling.

He visited Beijing and declared “three noes” against Taiwan: “We don’t support independence for Taiwan, or ‘two Chinas,’ or ‘one Taiwan, one China,’ and we don’t believe that Taiwan should be a member in any organization for which statehood is a requirement.”

What were actually four restrictions on Taiwan further crushed its hopes for international dignity and respect, if not outright recognition.

However, it was not only political and diplomatic isolation that Clinton imposed on democratic Taiwan in deference to China’s communist leaders; it also was a diminution of Taiwan’s sense of security.

When Clinton’s assistant secretary of state Joseph Nye was bluntly asked by his Chinese counterparts what the US would do if China attacked Taiwan, he said, speaking for the administration: “We don’t know … it would depend on the circumstances.”

Based on that response — which became the apotheosis of strategic ambiguity religiously followed by subsequent administrations — China set about creating “the circumstances” that would dissuade a future US president from even thinking about coming to Taiwan’s defense. It became known as the strategy of anti-access and area-denial, and consisted of a fleet of attack submarines and anti-ship ballistic missiles intended to deter the US Seventh Fleet from entering the Taiwan Strait or other close regional waters.

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title: World News Quick Take

content_text:
MEXICO

Senior official quits

A senior official in charge of one of the government’s signature social programs on Monday resigned in a sharply worded letter that marked the latest bust-up within President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s administration. Javier May was the deputy welfare minister in charge of “Sembrando Vida,” an ambitious forestation program focused on Mexico’s poorer south intended to provide jobs and support agriculture. The scheme has also been exported to Central America in a bid to help contain migration from the region. “Once the welfare minister had unilaterally revoked the faculties required to run the said program, the conditions to remain in charge of it no longer existed,” May said in a resignation letter seen by reporters.

UNITED STATES

Autopsy set for inmate

A Mississippi prisoner died on Monday, becoming at least the 22nd inmate in just over two months to die in a state prison system that is under Department of Justice investigation because of violence and shoddy living conditions. A state Department of Corrections news release said “no foul play is suspected” in the death of Patricia Wilhite, 68, and an autopsy would be conducted. Wilhite was serving life without parole and had been in nearby Central Mississippi Correctional Facility since shortly after her 1998 murder conviction. She died at Baptist Medical Center in Jackson.

UNITED STATES

Academy fires ousted chief

The Recording Academy on Monday fired Deborah Dugan, its former president who called into question the integrity of the Grammy Awards nominations process. The academy said the decision was reached after “two exhaustive, costly independent investigations” about Dugan and her allegations. It said the reviews found “consistent management deficiencies and failures,” although no specifics were offered. Dugan had been on administrative leave since the middle of January, when she was ousted amid a complaint about her treatment of a long-time Recording Academy employee.

UNITED STATES

MSNBC host retires

Chris Matthews, the long-time MSNBC host, announced his retirement on Monday night during his daily talk show Hardball following accusations of inappropriate workplace conduct. He and the network reached the decision mutually, Matthews, 74, said on the air. He was accused of misbehavior by journalist Laura Bassett, who had written about the incidents in 2017 without naming him. “I’m retiring,” Matthews said. “After conversations with MSNBC, I decided tonight will be my last Hardball.” The decision to step down marked the end of a long career in politics and journalism. Matthews worked in print media for 15 years and was Washington bureau chief for the San Francisco Examiner.

BRAZIL

Eighteen killed as boat sinks

At least 18 people were killed when a riverboat sank in the Amazon Rainforest region, authorities said on Monday as survivors described fleeing the foundering boat in terror. The ferry was taking passengers up the Jari River, a tributary of the Amazon, when it suddenly began to tip over on Saturday at about dawn. Authorities late on Monday said that beyond the 18 fatalities, they had rescued 46 survivors and 30 others were still missing — meaning there were far more people on board than initially believed.

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‘The road [may] kill you’

Health concerns have caused a number of high-profile singers to quit the road but what will it all mean for the industry at large?
Madonna performs at the 2019 Pride Island concert during New York City Pride in New York City, New York. The pop singer has canceled her UK tour due to overwhelming pain.Photo: Reuters

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In a chilling quote from much-loved music documentary The Last Waltz, about The Band’s final concert in 1976, leader Robbie Robertson looks straight into the camera and ominously says: ‘The road will kill you.”

At the time, he was just 34. Yet, over four decades later, musicians of his storied era are still on the road — and facing escalating health issues as a consequence. Since the start of this year, Ozzy Osbourne, 71, had to cancel his 2020 tour to seek treatment for issues related to his recent diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. Elton John, 72, had to ditch dates on what was already advertised as his goodbye tour, after declaring himself “extremely unwell.”

Madonna, 61, was forced to scratch a bunch of shows from her British tour due to “overwhelming pain” from injuries she sustained on the road which already caused her to nix some US dates.

Meanwhile, Aerosmith felt compelled to disinvite drummer Joey Kramer from their Grammy performance, over alleged difficulties the 69-year-old was having keeping the beat, while the group itself has had to scratch dates due to various health issues experienced by Steven Tyler. Then, just this last week, the 56-year-old frontman of Metallica, James Hetfield, needed to cancel shows to, in his words, “look after my mental, physical and spiritual health.”

LAST HURRAH

All this comes hot on the heels of an escalating wave of older stars who’ve either quit the road entirely or begun their last hurrahs, including Paul Simon at 78, Bob Seger at 74, Kiss aged between 68 to 70, Neil Diamond at 79 and Eric Clapton at 74.

“The fact is, it’s really hard to tour,” says Dave Brooks, who covers the concert industry for Billboard. “It’s terribly hard on your body, and mentally difficult too.”

Jem Aswad, senior music editor of the trade publication Variety, says: “People think it’s easy to be a rock star. But try to hold the attention of 18,000 people, and perform really well, for two and a half hours every night. It’s an incredibly tough thing to sustain.”

If all that wear-and-tear takes a toll on older performers, their increasing absence from the road threatens to weaken the concert industry’s bottom line. According to the industry’s most authoritative source, Pollstar, five out of the top 10 worldwide tours of the last year featured band members over the age of 50. Three of those were peopled with players aged 60 to nearly 80. In Pollstar’s list of top 200 North American tours, the top three earners were over 70, including Elton, Bob Seger and the Stones.

When it comes to the highest grossing single shows worldwide, four of the top five positions were occupied by a group with players over age 70, while 16 of the top 20 shows featured the same band. That would be the Rolling Stones, who are about to embark on yet another American jaunt this spring and summer, despite the fact that Mick Jagger had to have heart valve replacement surgery last April.

Small wonder Aswad calls older rock stars “the cornerstone of the concert industry.” He adds: “It’s a very real problem the industry is facing over the next 10 years if more of them go out.”

Especially since the audience who attends shows by older stars has the deepest pockets, raising profits for everyone.

“It’s a demographic that has some of the highest per capita income,” Brooks says. “If the rockers are ageing out, their customers are leaving the marketplace.”

title: ‘The road [may] kill you’


title: Australia newswire to close operations

references: Facebook Twitter

content_text:
Australia newswire to close operations

‘MASSIVE VOID’:Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the end of ‘such an important institution’ is a ‘matter of real concern,’ while opposition lawmakers thanked the agency
Journalists, photographers and staff of Nine Entertainment Co’s Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Financial Review hold up signs in support of Australian Associated Press’ workers outside Nine’s offices in Sydney yesterday.Photo: EPA-EFE
Australia’s only national newswire is to be shuttered after 85 years of operation, with about 180 staff yesterday told that their jobs would end in June.

Staff gathered on the newsroom floor at Australian Associated Press’ (AAP) headquarters in Sydney were told a drop-off in subscribers in the face of free online content meant that the company was “no longer viable.”

“This decision’s been made with very heavy hearts. It’s been made on an economic and financial basis,” CEO Bruce Davidson said following the announcement.

The newswire is to close at the end of June, while its subediting business Pagemasters is set to close at the end of August.

The decision to close the wire needs approval from its owners Nine Entertainment Co, News Corp Australia, the West Australian and Australian Community Media.

The announcement prompted concern about whether there would still be adequate scrutiny of democratic institutions.

“All news outlets have relied on AAP’s network of local and international journalists to provide stories from areas where their own correspondents couldn’t go, from the courts to parliament and everywhere in between,” Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology journalism expert Alexandra Wake said.

People took to social media to express their concern while there were tributes in parliament.

“They have a wonderful history in this place, and when you have such an important institution such as AAP coming to an end that is a matter of real concern,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told journalists sitting in the media gallery in parliament.

Members of the opposition Labor Party held up signs emblazoned with: “Thanks AAP” while party leader Anthony Albanese read out the names of the Canberra team.

“You will leave a massive void,” Albanese said.

Originally founded by media baron Keith Murdoch in 1935, AAP became a central source of news for major outlets in Australia and overseas.

However, speculation about the wire’s future has persisted in the past few years, following several major staff cutbacks and the closure of the company’s New Zealand arm in 2018. A merger between Nine and Fairfax further centralized the country’s media, which is dominated by a handful of companies, including News Corp Australia.

The “unprecedented impact” of digital platforms, such as Facebook and Google, taking content and distributing it for free had forced its closure, AAP said in a statement.

Staff were told between 30 and 50 jobs would be made available at the company’s two major shareholders, Nine and News Corp Australia.

Journalists tweeting after the meeting described the news as shattering.

“Today is a sad day for an industry I love and a career/life that I’ve loved even more,” Sydney journalist Dominica Sanda said on Twitter.

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title: Stressed UN envoy to Libya steps down

content_text:
Stressed UN envoy to Libya steps down

CRUMBLING TRUCE:Ghassan Salame said he had tried to unify Libyans, curb foreign interference and protect the nation’s integrity, but could no longer do so due to health
UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame holds a news briefing ahead of UN-brokered military talks in Geneva, Switzerland, on Feb. 4.Photo: Reuters
UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame on Monday announced his resignation, as a fragile ceasefire in the North African country continued to crumble.

Salame tweeted he was stepping down as special representative for Libya because of his health.

He was appointed in July 2017 and had recently been mediating three-tiered talks between Libya’s warring sides on economic, political and military tracks. His goal had been to end the violence and troubles that have wracked the oil-rich nation since 2011, when an international military coalition helped rebels overthrow Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.

In his tweet, Salame, 69, said he had tried to “unify the Libyans, curb foreign interference and protect the country’s integrity.”

“My health no longer allows this rate of stress,” he said, adding that he had asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to relieve him of his post.

Guterres praised Salame’s efforts and would discuss “the way to ensure a smooth transition so as not to lose any momentum on the gains that have been made,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Salame resigned amid an escalation in fighting in Libya, and just days after he announced the near breakdown of a shaky truce between the country’s two rival governments.

One administration controls most of Libya’s east and south, while a UN-backed but weak administration holds a shrinking area of the west, including the capital, Tripoli. A patchwork of armed groups and foreign countries support either side.

The Tripoli administration is backed by Turkey, and to a lesser degree, Qatar and Italy. Eastern miltary commander Khalifa Haftar on the other side receives backing from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, as well as France and Russia.

Salame’s stint was affected by relentless bouts of Libyan fighting, said Jelal Harchaoui, a Libya expert at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations.

“Salame is a credible and talented diplomat, but it in the end, the role of UN special envoy cannot and won’t achieve any tangible progress as long as foreign states remain so brazenly disingenuous vis-a-vis the UN as an institution,” he said.

While hosting diplomatic talks in Geneva last week, Salame had exposed a rift within the delegations representing the Tripoli government and the eastern-based government.

Salame on Friday said that delegates to the political negotiations “from both sides” had walked away from the table.

Haftar’s forces have been waging an offensive to wrest control of the capital since April last year. The fighting for Tripoli has ground down to a stalemate while causing hundreds of civilian casualties.

Haftar’s forces on Friday shelled the capital, forcing the city’s only functioning airport to close.

Later that day, Salame said progress in the negotiations was impossible “when the cannon is doing what it is doing right now.”

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content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Iran says cases and death toll climbing

TOP ADVISER:A member of Iran’s Expediency Council that advises the supreme leader died on Monday, while clusters of disease continued to grow in South Korea
Medical personnel in protective gear yesterday prepare to take samples from visitors in their vehicles at a “drive-thru” testing center for COVID-19 at Yeungnam University Medical Center in Daegu, South Korea.Photo: Reuters

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Iran yesterday announced that 11 more people had died from the new coronavirus in the past day, bringing the Islamic republic’s overall death toll to 77.

In all, 2,336 people have been infected with COVID-19 since the outbreak began, including 835 new cases, Iranian Deputy Minister of Health and Medical Education Alireza Raisi said in remarks aired live on state television.

Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a member of the Expediency Council that advises Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei died on Monday from COVID-19, becoming the highest-ranking official in the Shiite theocracy to be killed by the illness.

Mirmohammadi, 71, died at a north Tehran hospital of the virus, state media said. His mother had reportedly died of the coronavirus in recent days as well.

The virus earlier killed Hadi Khosroshahi, Iran’s former ambassador to the Vatican, as well as a recently elected member of parliament.

Mirmohammadi’s death came as authorities said they have plans to potentially mobilize 300,000 soldiers and volunteers to confront the virus.

After China, Iran has the highest death toll from COVID-19, and experts worry its percentage of deaths to infections, now about 4.4 percent, is much higher than other countries, suggesting the number of infections in Iran may be much higher than current figures show.

Khamenei yesterday told all government agencies to put their resources at the disposal of Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education to help combat the virus, and called on the public to follow the authorities’ recommendations to avoid infection.

The WHO flew medical supplies into Iran from the United Arab Emirates and said a team of experts arrived in Tehran on Monday evening to help local health workers respond to the outbreak.

Meanwhile, a shift in the crisis appears to be taking shape: Hundreds of patients have been released from hospitals at the epicenter of the outbreak in China, while the WHO reported that nine times as many new infections were recorded outside of China as inside it over the previous 24 hours.

Alarming clusters of disease continued to swell in South Korea and Italy, and the virus turned up for the first time in New York City, Moscow and Berlin, as well as Latvia, Indonesia, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Jordan and Portugal.

The worldwide death toll has topped 3,000, and the number of those infected rose to about 89,000 in 70 countries.

UN officials said they were postponing a major conference on women that had been expected to bring up to 12,000 people to New York City next week.

Health officials in Washington state, where a particularly troubling cluster of cases surfaced at a nursing home outside Seattle, said four more people had died from the coronavirus, bringing the number of deaths in the state to six.

In Seattle, King County Executive Dow Constantine declared an emergency and said the county is buying a hotel to be used as a hospital for patients who need to be isolated.

New cases were also reported in New Hampshire and New York on Monday, raising the total in the US to more than 100.

China yesterday announced just 125 new cases over the past 24 hours, the lowest number since authorities began publishing nationwide figures on Jan. 21, while another 31 deaths were reported, all of them in Hubei Province. The figures bring China’s total number of cases to 80,151 with 2,943 deaths.

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title: Australia to restrict COVID-19 patients’ movements

content_text:
Mostly empty shelves are pictured at a Coles supermarket in Manuka, Australia, on Monday.Photo: Adam Spence via Reuters
Australia is to use a little-known biosecurity law to restrict the movements of people suspected of having been infected with COVID-19, Australian Attorney General Christian Porter said yesterday.

Australia on Monday confirmed the first community transmission of the coronavirus after a doctor contracted it.

State health officials have said that the doctor had not traveled overseas in months and had not treated any of the other confirmed cases.

Amid fears of a widespread outbreak, Porter said that the government would expand the use of a rarely used law that would either designate some places as out of bounds or place the patient in home detention.

“Under the Biosecurity Act, you could have the prevention of movement from persons in and out of particular places,” Porter told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“You might have a major sporting event where people would be in very, very close proximity to each other and ... it might be determined that the risk of transmission at a venue like that was too high,” he added.

The law, enacted in 2015, has rarely been used outside of Australia’s agricultural sector.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week said that a pandemic was likely, and that Australia has moved to try and prevent the virus from reaching its shores.

Since Feb. 1, Australia has stopped any foreigner from entering directly from China, where the virus originated.

China is Australia’s largest trading partner and the move has prevented thousands of students and tourists from entering Australia.

Some Chinese students have traveled to a third country for two weeks, the presumed incubation period for the coronavirus, which satisfies Australia’s quarantine restrictions.

However, authorities yesterday confirmed that one such student, a 20-year old Chinese man, has been diagnosed with the coronavirus. The unidentified man spent two weeks in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, before traveling to Australia.

Australia now has 38 cases of coronavirus after New South Wales confirmed four more.

Australia has had one death, a 78-year-old man who was a former passenger on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which was quarantined off Japan.

Keen to temper fears, Morrison urged Australians to remain calm as some rushed to shops to stock up on supplies, including canned foods and toilet paper, in case of a pandemic or restrictions on movement.

Morrison said that he has spoken with Australia’s two largest retailers, Coles and Woolworths.

“They would send the same message I am sending you today. It is important that people just go about their business and their normal processes in a calm manner,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.

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title: Arteta gamble leads Arsenal to quarters

content_text:
Arteta gamble leads Arsenal to quarters

INEXPERIENCED:‘They fully deserve the chance and I know it is risky to play them in this competition, but they are worth a risk,’ the Arsenal manager said of his young side
Arsenal’s Reiss Nelson, left, vies against Portsmouth’s Marcus Harness in their FA Cup fifth-round match at Fratton Park in Portsmouth, England, on Monday.Photo: AP
Mikel Arteta admitted that he took a risk by making nine changes for Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Portsmouth in the FA Cup fifth round, but insisted that he had no choice because some of his stars were still shell-shocked after their UEFA Europa League exit.

Arteta’s side on Monday advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals thanks to goals from Sokratis Papastathopoulos in stoppage-time and Eddie Nketiah six minutes after the break at Portsmouth’s Fratton Park.

It was a much-needed boost for Arsenal, who on Thursday last week crashed out of the Europa League in a painful last-gasp defeat against Olympiakos.

Arteta said that fielding such an inexperienced lineup — only David Luiz and Bukayo Saka retained their places — could have put Arsenal’s only chance of silverware this season in jeopardy.

“They fully deserve the chance and I know it is risky to play them in this competition, but they are worth a risk,” Arteta said of his young side.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who was in tears after missing a costly late chance against Olympiakos, and Mesut Ozil were both absent, while Alexandre Lacazette and Nicolas Pepe were on the bench.

“I assessed the team and, physically, some of them were knackered, some of them had issues, some of them mentally were hanging on what happened that day, so I tried to pick the right team, knowing how they were, and I made the most of it. If you win, it is okay, but if we had lost obviously it would have been the wrong decision,” Arteta said.

“The energy, the focus and the willingness and desire to play in this competition is really important,” he added.

A sour note for Arsenal came when Lucas Torreira was carried off the pitch on a stretcher just 15 minutes into the game and left the park on crutches.

“He was in a lot of pain. He is in a brace at the moment,” Arteta said. “He will be assessed in the next few days and we will know more. I don’t know if it’s the bone or ligaments — we don’t know yet.”

Portsmouth manager Kenny Jackett said that Arsenal were worthy of their place in the next round after surviving an early barrage from the third-tier promotion chasers.

“I felt that we put quite a lot of pressure on them in the first half,” Jackett said. “We needed one of those moments to go for us, but fair play to them, they got the blocks and we couldn’t make those moments tell.”

“I’m disappointed with the first goal and the timing of it,” he added. “We really needed to go in at halftime 0-0 and build it up for the second half.”

“Fair play to my players, they never gave up and didn’t buckle — Arsenal have deserved to win the game, but we are proud of what we have done in the competition and are still doing well in the league,” Jackett said.

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content_text:
France’s Alexis Pinturault competes in the FIS Ski World Cup men’s giant slalom in Hinterstoder, Austria, on Monday.Photo: AFP
Alexis Pinturault on Monday won a men’s World Cup giant slalom for his second win in two days as the French skier returned to the top of the overall standings.

Pinturault added 250 points to his tally over the three-day event in the Austrian Alps to overtake Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.

The Norwegian finished Monday’s race in sixth and now trails Pinturault by 26 points with six races left on the calendar.

Kilde’s Norwegian teammate, Henrik Kristoffersen, is third — 107 points behind Pinturault.

The intermediate lead in the overall standings could be crucial with the remainder of the World Cup season in doubt, because of possible travel restrictions regarding the spread of COVID-19 in Europe.

The men’s World Cup has additional stops scheduled in Norway and Slovenia ahead of the finals in Italy from March 16 to 22.

“I had to earn as many points as possible this weekend regarding the next races,” said Pinturault, referring to this weekend’s downhill and super-G, which would typically better suit speed specialist Kilde.

“We will see what happens with the virus, but I have done my best,” said Pinturault, who considered a rare start in the downhill on Saturday to protect his overall lead.

On Saturday, Pinturault finished fourth in a super-G and dominated an Alpine combined event the following day.

Having carved out a lead of 0.90 seconds over Philip Zubcic in the opening run, Pinturault lost half of his advantage over his Croatian competitor after posting only the 21st-fastest time in the final run.

Zubcic got his second podium result in 10 days after becoming the first male skier from Croatia to win a grand slalom in Naeba, Japan, last weekend.

Kristoffersen improved from sixth place to third after the opening run, 0.72 behind Pinturault, and took the lead in the giant slalom standings, six points ahead of his French rival.

Zan Kranjec — leader of the discipline standings going into the race — was third after the opening run, but the Slovenian dropped to 13th for his results in grand slalom this season, his worst.

“A lot can still happen,” Kristoffersen said. “There are two grand slalom races and two slaloms left — that’s 400 points.”

Unlike Pinturault, Kristoffersen is to sit out the upcoming speed weekend in Norway.

“It’s better to take the time and prepare well, and get the chance to win both races in Kranjska Gora the following week than to finish 25th in Kvitfjell,” the Norwegian said.

Monday’s race replaced a grand slalom canceled in Val d’Isere, France, in December last year.

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title: Pinturault takes World Cup lead


title: Australia and Malaysia cut rates

content_text:
Australia and Malaysia cut rates

‘SIGNIFICANT’ HIT:The Australian tourism, transport, hospitality and retail sectors have been jolted by a travel ban on China imposed due to the COVID-19 outbreak
Australia’s central bank yesterday cut its interest rates to record lows in what is expected to be the first in a spate of policy stimulus around the world to fight the economic fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak.

It was the fourth reduction by the Reserve Bank of Australia in less than a year, bringing the cash rate to 0.5 percent amid mounting evidence momentum in the A$2 trillion (US$1.31 trillion) economy has stalled.

The coronavirus epidemic is having a “significant” hit on Australia’s economy and it is difficult to predict how large and long-lasting the effects would be, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe said a short post-meeting statement.

The board “will continue to monitor developments closely and assess the implications of the coronavirus for the economy. The board is prepared to ease monetary policy further to support the Australian economy,” Lowe added.

The Australian tourism, transport, hospitality and retail sectors have been jolted by a travel ban on China since the start of last month.

Earlier, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government was working closely with the central bank on a response to the coronavirus outbreak, adding that both were “highly aligned” in their understanding of the challenges before them.

Morrison also urged the nation’s biggest banks to lower their lending rates.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac Banking Corp were quick to respond, reducing their variable home loan rates by 25 basis points.

Malaysia’s central bank yesterday also cut its benchmark interest rate.

Bank Negara Malaysia reduced the overnight policy rate for a second time this year, lowering it by 25 basis points to 2.5 percent, as forecast by 15 of 24 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

The rate cut “is intended to provide a more accommodative monetary environment to support the projected improvement in economic growth amid price stability,” the central bank said in a statement.

Malaysia’s effort to shore up the economy amid fresh threats to growth takes the key interest rate to its lowest level since July 2010.

The policy easing follows a 20 billion ringgit (US$4.75 billion) fiscal stimulus package last week to counter the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

The central bank said first-quarter economic growth would be negatively affected by the outbreak, especially the tourism and manufacturing sectors.

“Although domestic growth is expected to gradually improve in the second half of the year, there are key downside risks, mainly stemming from the evolving nature and prolonged impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, and continued weakness in commodity-related sectors,” it said.

The Malaysian government last week revised its economic forecast for this year to 3.2 percent to 4.2 percent, down from 4.8 percent previously.

It also widened the fiscal deficit target to 3.4 percent of GDP, from 3.2 percent.

The COVID-19 outbreak is plunging the world economy into its worst downturn since the global financial crisis more than 10 years ago, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned on Monday, urging governments and central banks to implement measures to avoid an even steeper slump.

Additional reporting by Bloomberg

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content_text:
Philippines probes dollar smuggling, corruption claims

DIRTY COPS?Money is allegedly brought in by Chinese couriers who are met by military and police officers, enabling them
to skip customs checks
The Philippine government is investigating cases of US dollar smuggling after a lawmaker sounded the alarm on the large amounts of cash brought in by Chinese nationals assisted by local authorities.

The Bureau of Customs has identified two syndicates — known as “Rodriguez” and “Chinese” — which it says has brought in US$200 million and US$168 million respectively since June last year, a Department of Finance statement on Monday said.

The money is brought in by couriers traveling two to three times a week and paid between 12,000 pesos and 50,000 pesos (US$237 and US$986) per flight, the department said.

Military and police officers escort them upon their arrival at an airport in Metro Manila, enabling them to skip checks.

The department statement came days after Philippine Senator Richard Gordon, who heads the chamber’s blue ribbon committee, called for an investigation on the influx of Chinese nationals and the “inordinate amount of money” they bring.

About US$180 million in cash was transported from China from December to last month, Gordon said on Friday.

Travelers can carry up to US$10,000 or its equivalent in any foreign currency into or out of the Philippines.

In August last year, the Chinese embassy in Manila said a huge amount of gambling-related funds were flowing illegally out of China and into the Philippines, pushing back on the Philippine online gaming sector that targets gamblers in mainland China and employs hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers.

Last month, opposition Philippine Senator Risa Hontiveros said that some immigration officials allow Chinese nationals without credentials to enter so they can work in online casinos.

That prompted Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to order a revamp in airport immigration.

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title: Voice of the unknown woman: Afghan filmmaker Sadat

content_text:
Afghan filmmaker Roya Sadat checks a film in an editing room at the Roya Film House in Kabul on Feb. 10.Photo: AFP
For a generation, Roya Sadat has been a voice for Afghan women in one of the world’s worst places to be one. One of the first female filmmakers to make her name after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, she has won plaudits at home and abroad for works such as A Letter to the President, Three Dots and Playing the Taar.

She has lived through the Soviet occupation — fleeing with her family for their lives at times — endured the brutality of civil war, and then the violent oppression of Taliban rule, where women existed only in the shadows and basic freedoms were lost.

Her great fear is a return to that kind of fundamentalism: The US-Taliban deal, signed on Sunday, might be a first step for peace in a nation that for decades has only known war, but it offers no guarantees the few women’s rights set out in the constitution will be upheld.

“I feel concerned when I remember how we had simply been forgotten during the five-year Taliban rule until 9/11 happened,” the 37-year-old. “If the international community approaches [Afghanistan] as an open and shut scenario and abandons us again, there will undoubtedly be grave consequences.”

Almost 39 percent of girls go to secondary school according to World Bank figures for 2017, while the US Agency for International Development (USAID) said that of the 300,000 students in universities, about one-third are female, citing figures from the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education.

These figures are predominantly for urban areas, but 20 years ago, it would have been all but impossible everywhere.

“There are many good changes happening, coming from the heart of society,” Sadat said, but conceded there is a huge amount to be done.

Afghanistan ranks last in the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security index, which measures well-being and self-reliance.

In rural areas, female literacy can be less than 2 percent and rights are often even more constrained by conservative tradition.

She is not alone in fearing that the small inroads made in women’s rights might disappear — in urban centers young people have grown up listening to music, watching television, and more recently accessing the Internet and social media. Many have only seen the Taliban on the news.

Sadat, who has been writing stories, poems and plays since she was a little girl, recalls how her life ground to a halt in 1996 as the Taliban rolled in. Schools closed, women were confined to their homes, the televisions and radios stopped playing.

A precocious teenager, she continued to write indoors and read books on directing from her father’s collection. She was allowed to work as a nurse as women could only get female medical help, and even set up clandestine cultural performances of her plays in the hospital, even though the head of it was linked to the Taliban.

“It was very dangerous. I still find it hard to believe that we were able to,” she said.

Her first work, Three Dots, which tells the tale of a single mother who is forced to marry a warlord and become a drug smuggler, was penned during this period, but only made — using simple equipment — once the regime changed and she could channel all the knowledge accrued from surreptitious reading into real world creativity.

This determination and persistence have defined her career, and she feels strongly that film has a social purpose.

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title: Runners shrug off Siberian blizzard in Ice Marathon

content_text:
The frozen Siberian lake had been hit by a blizzard and blustery winds, and there was thick snow underfoot, but these were relatively benign conditions for the extreme marathon runners competing there on Sunday.

Temperatures have in the past have plunged as low as minus-30°C at the Ice Marathon over Russia’s Lake Baikal, the world’s largest freshwater lake and where runners converge annually to run a full marathon (42.195km) or a half marathon (21.0975km).

On a few occasions, cracks on the route’s icy surface have opened up in the middle of the race.

“The weather was really good today,” Denis Merenkov, 45, said after completing the half marathon. “Two years ago, it was much worse.”

Spaced out over long distances in poor visibility, competitors are sometimes only able to see the white snow underfoot and the white falling from the sky.

Weather conditions can change quickly and organizers cap the number of competitors at 132 so that they can ensure everyone’s safety.

Runners travel from across the world to take part and the temperature this year hovered between minus-10°C and minus-12°C.

“I love running, I love nature and I love extreme conditions — and it’s perfect,” said Andrea Dablander from Austria, who won the women’s marathon. “It was the perfect race, really.”

However, not everyone was so chipper at the finish line and one man lay in the snow, as someone tried to help him to his feet.

Despite the surreal spectacle and adverse weather, organizers seemed more surprised that the competitors had made it to the start line, with flight and travel restrictions in place to halt the spread of COVID-19.

“Despite the coronavirus, they all made it here — from 31 countries,” Alexei Nikiforov said.

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taiwan-subdivisions: 南港 湖口

title: Taiwan Business Quick Take

content_text:
RETAIL

Bossini to shut local stores

Bossini International Holdings Ltd (堡獅龍國際集團) has decided to wind down its local retail operation and close all 51 stores before July 31, due to slowing sales over the past two decades. The Hong Kong-based clothing chain operator has had losses in Taiwan since 2006 due to sluggish consumer demand and it is not optimistic about the market in the near term, a company regulatory filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange said. The company said that it would soon begin talks with local landlords to arrange early exit terms for the store leases. Bossini said that the closures are estimated to cost the company about HK$20 million (US$2.57 million), but it does not expect the move to significantly affect its overall business.

RETAIL

Mirada to close all stores

Mirada (美華泰), the local operator of a cosmetics and beauty products chain, is going out of business and plans to close its 15 stores across the nation, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday. In a notice sent to suppliers, Mirada said that COVID-19 has caused business to wane, leading to unbearable losses and a decision to end operations, the newspaper reported. Mirada is considering closing the stores as their leases expire, with seven stores closing by the end of next month and the other eight stores closing by the end of June, it reported.

ELECTRONICS

Coretronic scraps plant sale

Coretronic Corp (中強光電), which makes backlight modules for flat panels, yesterday scrapped a plan to sell a plant in Hsinchu County to Nano Precision Taiwan Ltd (台灣揚昕) after facing opposition from the Ministry of the Interior. The company’s board of directors on Oct. 28 last year approved the sale of the plant in Hukou Township (湖口) to Nano, a wholly owned subsidiary, in an effort to improve its operational efficiency. However, the ministry yesterday rejected Nano’s application to acquire the plant, so the transaction has been canceled, Coretronic said.

REAL ESTATE

Taiwan Fertilizer sells plot

State-run Taiwan Fertilizer Co (台肥), which develops real estate and manufactures and sells fertilizers and chemical products, yesterday said that it sold a plot of land in Taipei’s Nangang District (南港) for NT$1.28 billion (US$42.54 million). Sale of the land — 869.385 ping (2,874m2) at NT$1.47 million per ping — is expected to generate pre-tax income of NT$959 million, a company press release said. The transaction is an effort to revitalize idle assets, Taiwan Fertilizer said, adding that the deal would contribute earnings per share of NT$0.97 for the company’s 980 million outstanding shares.

EQUITIES

TAIEX follows US rally

Taiwanese shares closed more than 1 percent higher yesterday, led by the bellwether electronics sector, after US markets rallied overnight on expectations of an interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve. The TAIEX ended up 157.26 points, or 1.41 percent, at 11,327.72 on turnover of NT$161.624 billion. Despite the gain in share prices, foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$13.56 billion in shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The New Taiwan dollar continued trading stronger against the US dollar, rising 0.12 percent to close at NT$30.087 in Taipei trading.

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content_text:
As coronavirus slams Italy, paralysis and anxiety spread

No one has been able to pinpoint who ‘patient one’ caught the disease from, while a lockdown of Italy’s ‘red zone’ has sent economic shock waves
across the country, affecting businesses of all sizes
At the epicenter of Europe’s worst outbreak of coronavirus to date, daily life has taken on an eerie, aimless calm. It is at night that the worry takes over.

“You can hear the ambulances coming and going, and maybe they’re going to sick people who have nothing to do with the coronavirus, but it worries you just the same,” said Davide Benelli from his home in Casalpusterlengo, a town of about 15,000 in Italy’s quarantined “red zone” where the disease broke out more than a week ago.

People in the zone wake up to closed cafes, restaurants and schools; farmers worry that planting should be starting around now. Parents try to keep their children amused with games or jobs around the house, or go on bike rides or drives to break the boredom.

As the economic shocks triggered by this paralysis in the country’s northern industrial heartland reverberate across Europe, Italians are still trying to come to grips with how a seemingly isolated case could balloon within days, to bring the eurozone’s third-largest economy to the brink of recession.

More than 2,000 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed. Authorities have put part of Italy’s most productive region into lockdown, shut the Venice carnival, one of its main tourist events, and postponed Milan’s showpiece design fair.

Lombardy, the region around Italy’s financial capital, Milan, sits on the border with Switzerland and is one of the richest and most productive in Europe. Along with neighboring Veneto, the other main area hit by the outbreak, it generates about one-third of Italy’s economic output.

Economists expect the crisis to tip Italy’s already struggling economy into recession by the end of the first quarter, with knock-on effects likely to last for months.

“In Veneto, we have 600,000 businesses and we make 150 billion euros [US$167 billion] of GDP per year, if we go into recession, Italy will fail,” Veneto Governor Luca Zaia said.

The lockdown, which started on Feb. 23, affects 10 towns in Lombardy and one in Veneto and isolates about 50,000 people from the outside world. Trucks can get in and out with bare essentials, but police roadblocks keep everyone else in.

Italy’s case reveals how vulnerable a Western economy can be to unexpected outside events. The red zone and the region around it is a microcosm of the Italian economy. The area contains everything from warehouses and logistics centers for companies to cheese and dairy processing centers.

Local engineering unions say about 6,000 manufacturing workers, mainly those living in the red zone, have been sent home or put on short hours.

“We are very worried. We’ll have to wait a couple of months for a reliable estimate of the effects on employment ... but the initial signals are alarming,” said Andrea Donega, secretary-general of the regional branch of the FIM-CISL union.

Banks are taking steps to ensure people can access cash. Banco BPM SpA, one of the region’s main banks, has temporarily stopped charging customers from other banks who use its ATMs.

It is hurting areas of Italy barely touched by the virus.

Italy’s tourism federation, Assoturismo, said that up to 90 percent of hotel and travel agency bookings had been canceled in Rome for this month and up to 80 percent in Sicily, as school trips and conferences across the country were called off, and foreigners opted for caution.

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title: Sandoz agrees deal to settle drug price-fixing case in US

content_text:
Sandoz, a subsidiary of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG, has agreed to pay US$195 million to avoid trial on charges it conspired to fix the prices of generic drugs, US prosecutors announced on Monday.

The US Department of Justice last year accused Sandoz along with 19 other companies of colluding to artificially inflate the price of about 100 treatments, ranging from non-steroidal anti-inflammatory to drugs for a wide range of diseases.

The price of the treatments multiplied by as much as 10 times, according to the complaint filed in federal court in Connecticut.

“The company agreed to pay a US$195 million criminal penalty and admitted that its sales affected by the charged conspiracies exceeded US$500 million,” the department said in a statement, adding that the misconduct occurred between 2013 and 2015.

“Under the deferred prosecution agreement, Sandoz has agreed to cooperate fully” with the ongoing criminal investigation, it said.

Former Sandoz executive Hector Armando Kellum has pleaded guilty to unspecified charges stemming from the investigation, the department said.

Sandoz had rejected the charges at the time, but on Monday issued a statement admitting “misconduct.”

“We take seriously our compliance with antitrust laws, and in reaching today’s resolution we are not only resolving historical issues, but also underscoring our commitment to continually improving our compliance and training programs, and evolving our controls,” Sandoz president Carol Lynch said.

“We are disappointed that this misconduct occurred in the face of our clear antitrust compliance policies and multiple trainings — and in full contravention of the company’s values,” she said. “Individuals implicated in the underlying conduct are no longer employed by the company.”

Sandoz said it was also negotiating with the department’s civil division to resolve “potential related claims,” and has put aside US$185 million for that.

Other companies accused in the complaint were Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and US-based Mylan Laboratories Inc.

The department said that two other unnamed companies charged in the investigation had reached agreements with prosecutors similar to that accorded to Sandoz, in which prosecution was suspended in exchange for cooperation.

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title: HK arrests could be a message from China

content_text:
On Friday, the anniversary of the 228 Massacre, Next Media Group founder Jimmy Lai (黎智英) was arrested by the Hong Kong police for taking part in an illegal assembly during the anti-government protests on Aug. 31 last year and for criminal intimidation at an event in 2017.

Two veteran democracy advocates, former Hong Kong legislators Yeung Sum (楊森) and Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人) — who is also the former chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic and Democratic Movements in China — were also arrested for illegal assembly.

Although Lai posted bail, the arrests sent shock waves through Hong Kong and raised eyebrows in Taiwan.

Especially concerning was the date the Hong Kong police appear to have chosen to make the arrests. Although it is unclear whether they were aware of the significance of that date in Taiwanese history, that they chose to round up well-known democracy figures on the anniversary of the 228 Massacre sends out a clear political signal, and should not be ignored.

Lai’s arrests itself is not so significant; the likelihood that the investigation is in its late stages is quite low. If the reason for the arrest is really, as they say, the Aug. 31 illegal assembly, why conflate it with the alleged intimidation of a reporter?

Perhaps the Hong Kong government wants to maximize the negative impact of Lai’s alleged crimes, and intends to sit on the case until such time as a good opportunity arises to proceed.

Chinese state media’s choice of words in reporting the arrests was very strong, branding the trio as belonging to “a treasonous Gang of Four bent on disrupting Hong Kong” and “agents of the US and the UK in Hong Kong,” using the same kind of language as was used during the peak of the protests last year.

The Chinese state media are acting in unison with Hong Kong police in what is clearly an attempt at intimidation.

The arrests came shortly after China sentenced Swedish national Gui Minhai (桂民海), one of the owners of the Causeway Bay Books bookstore in Hong Kong, to 10 years in prison.

Clearly, Beijing has entered a new stage of intimidation against Hong Kong. This has particularly been the case since Luo Huining (駱惠寧) was appointed head of China’s Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong.

Do people see his hand guiding a string of Hong Kong government initiatives, complying with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “Four Consciousnesses”?

Are they now exploiting the slowdown of the pro-democracy protests amid the COVID-19 crisis to arrest the leaders of the democracy movement in Hong Kong and increase the level of intimidation?

To a certain extent, there is nothing really new about the Hong Kong police working in cahoots with the Chinese Communist Party.

It is just that carrying out these arrests on 228 gives Taiwanese even more reason to reflect on their history and remember the need for vigilance against allowing a return to authoritarianism.

The question is, is this a point that escaped Luo and Xi, or was it their intention to send out a warning of a “Hong Kong 228”?

This is something Hong Kongers and Taiwanese ought to think long and hard about.

Chen Kuan-fu is a graduate law student at National Taipei University.

Translated by Paul Cooper

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title: Acting weak is not a viable option

people: 蔡英文 吳斯懷

content_text:
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷) has described cross-strait relations in terms of “the big should treat the small with kindness, and the small should treat the big with wisdom.” The retired general strongly suggested that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has been intentionally provoking China.

Wu thinks that Taiwan, being in a weak position relative to China, should not make the mistake of casually starting a war.

Wu was referring to the words of philosopher Mencius (孟子) of China’s Warring States Period, who told King Xuan (宣王) of the state of Qi: “It requires a perfectly virtuous prince to be able, with a great country, to serve a small one — as, for instance, King Tang (湯王) served the state of Ge and King Wen (文王) served the Kun barbarians. And it requires a wise prince to be able, with a small country, to serve a large one — as King Dai (大王) served the Xunyu [Huns] and King Gou Jian (勾踐王) served the state of Wu.”

However, Wu’s analogy is clearly false.

First, Mencius’ words belong to the monarchical ideology of the feudal age. They are not applicable to interstate negotiations in 21st-century international relations. Taiwan’s relations with China affect the dynamic equilibrium in the East Asian region.

Moreover, Wu overlooks the key roles played in cross-strait relations by the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy and a US-China trade dispute. Besides, everyone knows that Taiwan has never had any ambitions with regard to China, whereas China never stops verbally and militarily threatening to annex Taiwan.

Second, this idea that big nations will treat smaller ones “kindly” is founded on a false expectation, because the values represented by the word “kindness” have never existed in the Chinese Communist Party’s lexicon.

To say that “the big should treat the small with kindness” means that a big country should treat its smaller neighbors with a kind and loving attitude.

This concept of the superior being benevolent to the inferior is one that permeates Confucius’ (孔子) ideology, as exemplified by his teaching that “There is government when the prince is prince and the minister is minister, and when the father is father and the son is son.”

The ancient Chinese believed that a country could only achieve a harmonious and ideal society if its social structure upheld the principle that “the superior treats the inferior with kindness and the inferior treats the superior with respect.”

However, this ideology cannot stand the test of modern political science, because there is no such thing as a sage king, and interpersonal relations should not be founded upon the inferior’s awe and fear of a superior.

The basic spirit of Western democracy emphasizes equality of power. It asserts that all kinds of relations, from those between individual members of society up to the level of international negotiations, should start out from the standpoint of equality.

It means that a modern nation should be run in a way that seeks to perfect its system of democracy, rather than based on expectations of a sagacious king or leader.

Third, it is true that small nations’ policies toward big ones should be about prevailing through wisdom. However, precisely because small nations need to prevail through wisdom, they cannot make the mistake of acting weak toward big nations that have ambitions toward them.

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content_text:
After the nation’s 32nd case of COVID-19 was last week revealed to be a female Indonesian caregiver working illegally after overstaying her visa, there has been much discussion regarding illegal migrant workers and what the government should do.

There are nearly 50,000 illegal migrant workers in Taiwan, many becoming so only after having fled abusive working conditions, which non-governmental organizations have been highlighting for many years.

Many live in constant fear of being caught, but are in debt due to the various fees they were charged to come to Taiwan, and because they have families to feed back home.

The caregiver’s diagnosis has sparked fear that illegal migrants could create a weak spot in the nation’s epidemic prevention system, and there have been calls for the government to crack down on them.

The situation will undoubtedly affect people’s attitudes toward the 700,000-strong migrant worker community, who are already often subject to discrimination and abuse.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) on Sunday reiterated his opposition to launching a crackdown on illegal migrant workers, saying that it would “only create an acute shortage of people to look after patients and place more strain on healthcare professionals.”

It might further disrupt prevention efforts, as increased scrutiny would only make illegals more afraid to seek medical help if they show symptoms. Instead of their legal status, the focus should be on making sure preventive measures have reached these workers and that those who frequent hospitals know and follow proper safety protocols.

Even more worrying is that government agencies have been issuing contradictory responses.

The New Taipei City Government turned down the Ministry of Labor’s order to investigate the Indonesian caregiver by saying that “prevention is more important,” while the Taipei City Government yesterday said that it was only following the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s directives to check the information of all foreign caregivers in hospitals and report any illegals to the National Immigration Agency.

Chen has said that he would investigate the matter.

Illegal migrants are more ubiquitous than people seem to realize, often taking on tough jobs such as farm labor or caring for severely ill patients. There is an endless supply of work for them to do, which highlights Taiwan’s labor shortage issues.

When the police took away nine illegal construction workers in June last year, their Taiwanese colleagues said: “If you keep arresting them, we will not be able to build any houses.”

Even in the long term, catching all illegal migrants and deporting them is not the solution — if such a feat is even possible. They are products of a broken system and the entire issue regarding the plight of migrant workers — legal or not — needs to be carefully and systematically reviewed, otherwise more will just replace those who are taken away.

Hopefully the issue does not get swept under the rug after the outbreak is over, as it needs to be taken care of, just not in a rash and knee-jerk manner.

People are largely able to ignore illegal migrants, occasionally seeing reports of them being arrested on the news. However, now that they have been thrust into the spotlight due to the virus, instead of pointing fingers and calling for an immediate witch hunt, efforts should be made to educate people about the circumstances that led to their situation.

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title: EDITORIAL: Migrant witch hunt not the answer


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Chinese airlines are offering tickets at what are known colloquially as “cabbage” prices as they start restoring seat capacity following drastic capacity cuts enforced by the COVID-19 outbreak.

A one-way direct trip from Shanghai to Chengdu on Juneyao Airlines Co (吉祥航空) on Saturday costs just 90 yuan (US$12.89) plus 50 yuan in taxes.

That is a three-and-a-half-hour journey, about the same as a flight from New York to New Orleans.

Chinese carriers are adding nearly 3 million seats back into scheduled services this week, primarily for domestic routes, OAG Aviation Worldwide reported.

“The dramatic capacity recovery has led to very low fares being made available,” analyst John Grant wrote.

China Southern Airlines Co (中國南方航空) is adding 684,000 seats and China Eastern Airlines Corp (中國東方航空) is increasing capacity by 566,000 seats, Grant said.

China’s overall capacity is still only about half the 16.9 million seats available as of Jan. 20, when there were only hundreds of reported COVID-19 infections.

Chinese airlines posted losses of more than 10 billion yuan last month as revenue fell 37 billion yuan, Sina.com (新浪) reported, citing industry estimates.

While the picture turns more positive for China, the South Korea and Hong Kong markets are still sharply reducing capacity, both by more than 20 percent this week, OAG reported.

Since Jan. 20, Hong Kong’s capacity has slumped 71 percent, with Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (國泰航空) shrinking from more than 400,000 seats to 119,860, OAG said.

The International Air Transport Association on Feb. 20 said that the outbreak could result in a 13 percent drop in passenger demand for airlines in the Asia-Pacific region this year, translating into a revenue loss of US$27.8 billion.

The bulk of that would be borne by carriers registered in China, with US$12.8 billion in losses, it said.

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title: Hard-hit Chinese airlines offering ‘cabbage’ prices


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Virus Outbreak: Outbreak boosts sales of home exercise equipment

Sales of home exercise equipment have soared as people spend more time at home due to the COVID-19 epidemic, industry sources said on Monday.

The self-training trend is becoming popular as people avoid crowded gyms or fitness classes, creating a business opportunity for the home fitness equipment sector, the sources said.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare has been encouraging people to exercise more, as it helps boost the immune system, which has also helped the trend, they said.

Taiwan Rakuten Ichiba said that sales of home exercise equipment on its online sales platform over the past month rose fourfold from a year earlier, adding that popular search keywords for the equipment included “easy-to-use,” “multifunctional” and “all-in-one.”

Yahoo Kimo Super Mall said that female customers mostly purchased items such as yoga mats, treadmills and spinning bikes.

Thicker yoga mats alleviate pain and pressure in the joints and spine, but they also hinder posture stability, it said, adding that mats that are 6mm, 4mm to 5mm and 3mm thick are recommended for beginner, intermediate and advanced users respectively.

Foldable treadmills and spinning bikes that are easy to put away are favored more by customers, it said.

Online retailer PChome said that male customers mostly purchased simple weightlifting equipment, whose sales rose 30 percent from a year earlier, with two-in-one barbells and dumbbells being top sellers, followed by Blades brand dumbbells.

Sales of post-workout tools that relax and massage the muscles have been increasing as well, it added.

The online gaming industry has also benefited from the outbreak, as the number of players rose in January, said Chiang Shun-cheng (江順城), the general manager of International Games System Co.

For example, the mahjong game Celebrities: Three Missing One (明星三缺一) saw its number of online players soar to 2 million in a single day, he said.

Active daily players of the game rose to 600,000, from 500,000 a year earlier, he added.

Food delivery platforms had also fared well, as delivery orders increased 45 percent last month, food delivery company Deliveroo said, while Foodpanda said that grocery orders in January increased fivefold.

Additional reporting by Chen Ping-hung and Chang Hui-wen

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Klobuchar, Buttigieg back Joe Biden

‘BEST POSSIBILITY’:Joe Biden’s campaign reported back-to-back days of US$5 million fundraising hauls as more former and current lawmakers endorsed him
Rivals no more, US Senator Amy Klobuchar and former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg on Monday united behind former US vice president Joe Biden’s presidential bid as the Democratic Party’s moderate wing scrambled to boost him just hours before voting began across a series of high-stakes “Super Tuesday” states.

Klobuchar formally suspended her campaign and endorsed Biden on Monday, a day after Buttigieg announced his formal exit.

Buttigieg planned to announce his support for Biden later on Monday at a rally in Dallas, Texas, that Klobuchar also planned to attend, said two people familiar with the decision who were not authorized to speak publicly.

The fast-moving developments came on the eve of Super Tuesday, when 14 states, one US territory and Democrats abroad cast ballots in the party’s turbulent nomination fight.

Klobuchar and Buttigieg became the second and third Democrats to abandon their presidential bids since Biden scored a resounding victory in South Carolina, his first of the roller-coaster nomination fight.

A shrinking group of other Democrats vowed to press on, potentially toward a contested convention.

The fast-moving developments came at a key crossroads in the Democratic Party’s turbulent primary season. Super Tuesday offers almost 10 times as many delegates in a single day than have been awarded over the first month.

Fiery progressive US Senator Bernie Sanders remained the undisputed front-runner.

However, the rest of the field was decidedly unsettled, even after Biden’s South Carolina blowout and the departures of Klobuchar, Buttigieg and billionaire activist Tom Steyer.

Former New York City mayor billionaire Mike Bloomberg in particular could create problems for Biden’s establishment appeal.

Bloomberg, who was to appear on a 2020 ballot for the first time yesterday, has invested more than US$500 million into his presidential bid and racked up many high-profile endorsements of his own.

Yet Biden appeared to have the momentum on the eve of Super Tuesday after his South Carolina victory.

The Biden campaign reported back-to-back days of US$5 million fundraising hauls, by far the best 48-hour stretch of his campaign.

Biden on Sunday night touted the threshold on a call with donors, one person on the call said.

The campaign highlighted several new endorsements. Perhaps the most powerful endorsement would come from former US president Barack Obama, who has a relationship with most of the candidates and has talked with several in the past few weeks as primary voting has begun.

He spoke with Biden after his South Carolina victory, but still has no plans to endorse in the primary at this point.

Yet a stream of new Biden backers stepped forward in the run-up to yesterday, including former US senator Harry Reid.

“I believe Biden is best able to defeat [US President] Donald Trump and enact the policies we all care about,” the former US Senate majority leader said.

Biden’s growing collection of endorsers also features US Senator Barbara Boxer, US Representative Jennifer Wexton, Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, former US senator Blanche Lincoln and US Representative Gil Cisneros.

US Representative Don Beyer, the first member of the US Congress to endorse Buttigieg, said that he planned to endorse Biden and expected Buttigieg to as well.

“I do think it’s the most logical,” Beyer said of a Biden endorsement, given his echo of his call for civility, a mantra of the Buttigieg campaign. “I think Joe is the next best possibility.”

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title: Klobuchar, Buttigieg back Joe Biden


content_text:
A: Starting with Beethoven, artists generated their primary income from the royalties. This gave artists much more creative freedom.

B: But to earn royalties, they first had to sell their works?

A: Yes, and this is an area where Beethoven was really formidable: his music was infectious enough to attract a wide audience.

B: In what way?

A: 從貝多芬開始，創作者的收入來源轉為以版稅為主，這給藝術家更多的創作自由！

B: 不過想賺版稅，作品要先賣得出去吧？

A: 對啊，這也是貝多芬厲害的地方，因為他的音樂夠吸引大批聽眾。

B: 這又怎麼說呢？

English 英文:

Chinese 中文:

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title: EVERYDAY ENGLISH


content_text:
Chicony reports drop in earnings for last quarter

FAR FROM BAD:Despite having higher operating expenses in the fourth quarter, net income for 2019 increased 67 percent year-on-year to NT$1.72 billion
Chicony Power Technology Co (群光電能), which makes a variety of computer peripherals, on Monday reported that earnings for last quarter declined from a quarter earlier due to higher operating expenses, and said that it expected the COVID-19 epidemic to affect its Chinese operations in the short term.

Net income fell 41.8 percent to NT$389 million (US$12.93 million), from NT$668 million in the previous quarter, while revenue declined 11.1 percent to NT$8.88 billion, the company said on its Web site.

Earnings per share were NT$1.02 last quarter, it said.

However, for last year as a whole, net income rose 67 percent annually to NT$1.72 billion and operating income increased 54.7 percent annually to NT$2.2 billion, with earnings per share rising from NT$2.72 to NT$4.51, Chicony said.

Revenue also increased 10 percent to NT$34.42 billion, from NT$31.29 billion a year earlier, while gross margin was 16.4 percent, an increase of 2.4 percentage points, and operating margin 6.4 percent, up 1.9 percentage points, the company said.

Chicony mainly focuses on manufacturing keyboards, switches, power supplies, smart and green solutions, camera modules and adapters for notebook computers.

The company operates four manufacturing sites in Dongguan, Chongqing, Wujiang and Nanchang in China and is expanding production capacity in Thailand.

In a conference call, Chicony said that it was utilizing factories in other places to fill the gap due to curtailed production in China and that it expected revenue to still grow steadily this year.

Local media cited Chicony president Peter Tseng (曾國華) as telling investors at an earnings conference that the New Taipei City-headquartered company hopes to increase factory production in China to 70 to 80 percent by the end of this month, up from 60 to 65 percent last month, which would help boost shipments above last month’s levels.

Revenue for this quarter would drop by 8 to 10 percent annually and gross margin would decline by 1 to 1.5 percentage points, the company said.

Chicony’s revenue might reach NT$6.59 billion this quarter, down 8.86 percent year-on-year and 25.83 percent quarter-on-quarter, Jih Sun Securities Investment Consulting Co (日盛投顧) said in a note yesterday.

Given the short-term effects of the epidemic, Jih Sun revised down its earnings per share forecast to NT$4.54 for this year, from a previous estimate of NT$5.18.

Chicony’s board of directors has approved plans to distribute a cash dividend of NT$3.2 per share, representing a payout ratio of 70.95 percent, and suggesting a dividend yield of 5.4 percent based on the share’s closing price of NT$59.3 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.

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Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Liu Ting-ping gives an update on the influenza situation at the Centers for Disease Control in Taipei yesterday.Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Although the peak flu season has ended, people should still take protective measures as 12 flu-related deaths were confirmed last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.

CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) also announced that expanded criteria for prescribing government-funded antivirals to treat the flu would be extended until the end of this month, allowing physicians at more than 4,000 contracted clinics and hospitals to prescribe the drugs to people with flu-like symptoms, including foreign nationals with an Alien Resident Certificate.

There were 12,059 emergency room visits for flu-like illness reported last week, down 4.4 percent from a week earlier, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Liu Ting-ping (劉定萍) said, adding that there were 46,433 hospital visits for flu-like illness reported, down 11.6 percent week-on-week.

In the past two weeks, the two gauges have been lower than in the same period over the past four years and the number of serious flu complications has dropped significantly, indicating that the peak flu season has ended, she said.

Six cases of serious flu complications were reported last week, with the patients aged between 36 and 87, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said, adding that 12 flu-related deaths were confirmed last week, with the patients aged between 28 and 94.

The youngest death was a 28-year-old woman who lived in central Taiwan, he said.

She had diabetes and was obese, and died of septic shock and respiratory failure after nearly a month in a hospital, Lin said, adding that she did not get vaccinated against the flu this season.

As of Monday, 965 serious flu complication cases, including 112 deaths, were reported for this flu season, which started in October last year, he said.

About 43 percent were people aged 65 or older, followed by 32 percent aged 50 to 64, Lin said, adding that 98 percent of all cases did not get vaccinated this flu season.

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title: Protection against flu still warranted: CDC


content_text:
Nanya Technology, CHPT buck virus fears, post growth

DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) and wafer testing service provider Chunghwa Precision Test Technology Co (CHPT, 中華精測) yesterday posted single-digit percentage month-on-month revenue growth for last month, indicating that local semiconductor companies have not yet been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.

As all of the plants operated by Nanya Technology and CHPT are in Taiwan, the companies have not faced the severe labor shortages and production disruption experienced by companies operating in China.

Nanya Technology’s revenue last month rose 1.4 percent to NT$4.56 billion (US$151.56 million) from NT$4.5 billion in January, thanks to a mild increase in average selling prices.

Shipments were little changed from the preceding month, the company said.

On an annual basis, revenue soared 34.41 percent from NT$3.39 billion, the company said in a statement.

Last month’s revenue was the highest since September last year.

Nanya Technology yesterday said that it has not suffered any impact from the COVID-19 outbreak — its production lines and subcontractors are all in Taiwan, while supplies of raw materials and equipment remain normal.

“The company’s manufacturing, sales and operations are working normally. First-quarter shipments are expected to be in line with the company’s expectations,” the company said in a statement.

Shipments would grow by a low single-digit percentage this quarter from the final quarter of last year, the company told investors in January.

Average selling prices are to rise slightly quarter-on-quarter due to improving inventories and the adoption of bigger memories in new smartphones and other devices, it said.

The company said it is closely monitoring the development of the coronavirus outbreak and would take the necessary measures to ensure normal operations.

CHPT’s revenue rose 4.36 percent month-on-month to NT$287 million from NT$275 million, and 88.82 percent year-on-year from NT$152 million.

The coronavirus outbreak has not depressed demand as customers expect 5G-related applications to boost sales when the outbreak is under control later this year, the company said in a statement.

CHPT president Scott Huang (黃水可) last month told investors that customers had not canceled orders amid the outbreak and he did not expect it to stall customers’ 5G deployments.

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people: 陳時中 朱澤民 蘇貞昌

content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Lawmaker asks premier to compensate medical workers for travel restriction

From left, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung, Premier Su Tseng-chang and Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Chu Tzer-ming yesterday take part in a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) yesterday asked Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) to offer monetary compensation to medical personnel who have to forgo overseas travel due to a travel ban amid a COVID-19 outbreak.

There has been an increase in the workload of medical personnel since the novel coronavirus reached Taiwan, and they have been asked not to travel to countries and regions affected by the virus, Chen said at a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan.

Medical personnel live in fear of contracting the virus and have come under immense pressure from some members of the public, he said, adding that some couriers refuse to deliver food to hospitals.

Chen asked Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) how many medical personnel have been placed under travel restrictions, how much the government plans to compensate them daily and how the Ministry of Health and Welfare intends to spend its proposed NT$16.9 billion (US$561.7 million) slice of a NT$60 billion special budget for containing the epidemic and bailing out affected sectors.

About 320,000 medical personnel, including physicians, nurses and pharmacists, have been asked not to travel to countries and regions affected by the coronavirus, Chen Shih-chung said, adding that all of them would be compensated.

The ministry has set aside NT$1.8 billion for the research and development of drugs to treat COVID-19, NT$2 billion for compensating medical personnel and NT$4 billion to make up for possible shortfalls in these expenses, he added.

Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民) said that of the personnel treating COVID-19 patients, physicians would receive a daily subsidy of NT$10,000, nurses NT$5,000 per day and administrative workers NT$1,500.

Chen Po-wei said that the outbreak has reaffirmed the nation’s sovereignty, as some Taiwanese entertainers who had been Chinese “lapdogs” have suddenly become “proud Taiwanese,” adding that people who view this as a positive development should thank medical personnel combating the epidemic.

Su said that the government imposed the travel restrictions not because it wants medical personnel to work longer, but because 67 nations have been affected by the coronavirus.

The government would reimburse medical personnel for any losses they incur as a result of the travel restrictions, including any fees that have to be forfeited, he said.

International observers had predicted that Taiwan would be the second-most affected nation from COVID-19 after China, but the epidemic has been brought under control domestically, Su said, thanking all medical personnel who have dedicated themselves to containing the virus.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Finance and other concerned agencies would fine tune subsidy and compensation rules in the interests of medical personnel, he said.

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content_text:
Topco Technologies Corp (崇越電通), a distributor of silicone products that are mainly manufactured by Japan’s Shin-Etsu Chemical Co, yesterday said that its board of directors has approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$3.6 per share, as net profit last year dipped due to weak pricing.

The cash dividend is less than the NT$5.1 per share the company paid last year.

This year’s distribution represents a payout ratio of about 70 percent, down from an average of 80 percent seen over the past few years, Topco said.

The firm said in a statement that it needs to reserve more cash, considering the potential effects of a COVID-19 epidemic on the global economy, which has added uncertainty regarding market conditions.

Net profit last year slumped 18.9 percent to NT$375.8 million (US$12.49 million), from NT$463.24 million in 2018, while earnings per share dropped from NT$7.41 to NT$5.1, Topco said.

Revenue fell 9 percent to NT$7.77 billion, from NT$8.54 billion a year earlier, while gross margin sank from 19.2 percent to 17 percent.

The firm attributed its weak revenue and earnings last year to price declines and a US-China trade spat.

As the effect of the US-China trade dispute on the global economy is diminishing and market demand for silicone products is recovering, which is helping to boost prices and stabilize the supply and demand situation, Topco said.

However, there are downside risks, as the company is concerned that the recovery could be weighed down by the COVID-19 epidemic, it said.

The virus poses a threat to the global economy and China particularly, the company said.

As there is greater uncertainty regarding the global market, the company is closely monitoring the situation and would take steps to cope with any changes, it added.

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title: Topco approves reduced payout