content_text:
A survey has found that 37.3 percent of transgender people in the nation have experienced gender-related discrimination or bullying in the workplace, the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights said yesterday.

The alliance’s survey showed that 55.41 percent of transgender people said that they had been afraid to use a public restroom, 18.53 percent had been harassed or attacked in public, while 15.83 percent had been afraid to ask a police officer or other professional for help.

The survey, conducted from March 14 to Wednesday last week, was based on 518 valid responses from transgender people aged 14 to 78, the alliance said.

The results were released yesterday to coincide with International Transgender Day of Visibility, it said.

A transgender woman, who identified herself only as Alice, said at a news conference in Taipei that few people are aware of the challenges transgender people face in society.

Some avoid using public bathrooms to the point of developing health problems, while others, having been forced out by their families, have trouble supporting themselves financially, she said.

“For transgender people, just surviving is a very difficult thing,” she added.

Sexual reassignment surgery is classified as a non-essential, cosmetic procedure in Taiwan, said Lung-er (龍二), a transgender man.

“However, for transgender people, this is a very necessary operation,” he said, urging the government to include sexual reassignment surgery in the National Health Insurance system.

Under an administrative order issued by the Ministry of the Interior in 2008, people who wish to legally change their gender are required to provide proof that they have undergone surgery to remove their reproductive organs, as well as undergoing assessments by two psychiatrists, the alliance said.

The surgery requirement is a contravention of the International Bill of Human Rights, alliance secretary-general Chien Chih-chieh (簡至潔) said.

Within the transgender community, people have different opinions on the necessity of surgery, she said.

While some question its safety, others believe that only by undergoing surgery can their physical characteristics be aligned with their self-identity, she added.

Transgender people should not be considered a homogeneous group, Chien said, adding that doing so would result in policies that are unable to meet all of their individual needs.

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title: Survey highlights challenges facing transgender people


people: 蔡易餘 蘇貞昌

title: Virus Outbreak: ‘Wuhan pneumonia’ accurate term: Su

content_text:
DISTRUST WARRANTED?
 The WHO is under China’s control and has become a useless organization, while data from China cannot be trusted, a Control Yuan member said

By Lin Liang-sheng, Hsieh Chun-lin and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writer

China’s demand that the novel coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, Hubei Province, not be referred to with names like the “Wuhan pneumonia” betrays its lack of confidence in itself, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) told lawmakers yesterday.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) asked Su, during a interpellation at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, for his view on China’s attempts to redeem its national image in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

These included China’s efforts to “bleach” its image, including having WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus publicly praise its handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, and thanking it for buying time for the global community, Tsai said.

Premier Su Tseng-chang speaks during a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan yesterday.
 Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times

Su said the term “Wuhan pneumonia” was used because the outbreak began in Wuhan, just as the way other diseases have become known by area names, such as German measles, Japanese encephalitis and athlete’s foot (known in Taiwan as “Hong Kong foot”).

China has gone to great lengths to demand acclaim for having contained the new virus, but such manipulations always backfire when overdone, Su said.

Given its history with China, Taiwan knew how important it was to be cautious when it comes to viral outbreaks and it successfully deployed early preventive measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, Su said.

Separately yesterday, Control Yuan member Peter Chang (張武修), a public health specialist who is director-general of the Global Taiwan Medical Alliance, told a radio interviewer that the WHO has become a “useless” international organization because it is controlled by China.

Underestimating the seriousness of COVID-19, Tedros on Jan. 23 refused to declare an international public health emergency, but as the number of confirmed cases and deaths rose significantly over the next five days, Canadian netizens launched a petition demanding Tedros’ resignation, Chang said.

The petition organizers hope to get 1 million signatures and have collected more than half of their target so far, he said.

Had China not silenced whistleblower Li Wenliang (李文亮) — one of the doctors who reported COVID-19 and tried to warn the Chinese government about it — the WHO could have responded earlier, Chang said.

The WHO did a great job during the SARS epidemic, because it paid attention to Carlo Urbani, an Italian doctor who gave early warnings of threat posed by the outbreak, bringing it under control within just six months, Chang said.

China has declared Wuhan a safe place, without additional COVID-19 inspections, but that is because tests are no longer being conducted in the city, he said, adding that not following proper public health standards is dangerous.

From a scientific perspective, figures about the number of new COVID-19 cases in Wuhan must be fabricated, as it is impossible that the numbers are dropping as quickly as China claims they are, he said.

Although Taiwan hopes to obtain information from the WHO, the “China-controlled” organization has almost no function at this point, he said.

Taiwan must rely on itself instead, he said.

Many European countries have bought into Beijing’s propaganda and been misled into thinking that China has changed, but it has not and much of its data remains unreliable, he added.

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title: Virus Outbreak: Tourism official demoted over subordinates

content_text:
A Tourism Bureau official who ordered two subordinates stationed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to meet his son was yesterday demoted and given a major demerit, and one of the subordinates was also given a major demerit.

The bureau’s Performance Evaluation Committee decided on the punishments after reviewing the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ investigation into the actions of the official, surnamed Lin (林).

The ministry’s investigation on Monday found that Lin had verbally asked for permission for leave to pick up his son, who was returning from the Philippines on March 20, at the airport, but his request was not recorded in the bureau’s human resources system.

Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung talks to reporters in Taipei yesterday.
 Photo: Hsiao Yu-hsin, Taipei Times

Lin telephoned the Tourist Service Center at the airport and asked staff members stationed there to “have coffee with his son” — a euphemistic way of asking them to meet him — the investigation found.

The two staffers were later identified as a center director surnamed Chang (張) and a junior employee that Chang took with him to meet Lin’s son and have coffee.

Lin’s son and the lower ranking employee tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, and were identified by Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) as Case No. 277 and Case No. 269 respectively.

The employee’s five-year-old son was on Monday confirmed to have contracted COVID-19, making him Case No. 299.

Lin was punished for failing to follow procedure in requesting leave and for contravening the nation’s disease prevention policies by asking subordinates to meet with someone who had just returned from abroad, while Chang was penalized for contravening disease-prevention policies and abusing his authority to access the airport’s restricted area.

Less than an hour after the committee announced its decision, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) wrote on Facebook that he had decided on Monday to remove the official from the office, demote him and give him a major demerit as he should bear the brunt of the blame.

“It was heartbreaking to know that a five-year-old child contracted the virus because of a Tourism Bureau official’s negligence,” the minister wrote.

The airport is the first line of defense to prevent the spread of disease, the minister said.

Chang should not have been attending to the needs of his supervisor’s son, and his action led to the infection of another employee and his five-year-old child, the minister said.

“We have tracked the whereabouts last week of the bureau official and disinfected the places that he had visited. All Tourism Bureau employees have now been asked to wear masks to work and been moved to work in different offices to avoid cluster infections,” he said.

This story has been updated since it was first published.

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content_text:
Virus Outbreak: New Taipei City man fined, taken to quarantine center

REPEAT OFFENDER:
 The man went outside for exercise on Wednesday and then left his home on Saturday with his girlfriend, officials said

A New Taipei City man has been fined NT$400,000 (US$13,221) and ordered into government quarantine after breaking home quarantine for a second time on Saturday.

The 25-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳) returned to Taiwan on Sunday last week and was ordered to home quarantine until Sunday.

He was seen leaving his home on a scooter with his girlfriend on Saturday, three days after he was fined NT$200,000 for going outside to exercise, police said.

A worker from a New Taipei City district office, second left, yesterday delivers a 25-year-old man, surnamed Chen, right, to the city’s quarantine center after he was ordered confined for contravening home quarantine since returning to Taiwan on March 22.
 Photo: Hsu Sheng-lun, Taipei Times

Chen has now been placed in a quarantine center arranged by the district office and health center of the district where he lives, police said.

Police warned the public that breaking home quarantine could help spread COVID-19, and offenders would face heavy fines.

In related news, the Hsinchu Branch of the Ministry of Justice’s Administrative Enforcement Agency said it has established a contact window to expedite the handling and enforcement of home quarantine violation cases in Hsinchu city and county and Miaoli County.

People who fail to pay fines for contravening quarantine regulations within the required timeframe would be reported to the branch, which said it could force payment through compulsory seizure of properties, issuing restrictions on leaving the nation or going out to sea, or filing arrest and custody orders with the courts if necessary.

The branch yesterday said it had received its first case, a Thai woman who has failed to pay a NT$300,000 fine for breaking home quarantine on Sunday last week, and has notified border control authorities that she is not allowed to leave the country.

It would take further action after the woman finishes her quarantine period, the bureau said.

Six fines have been issued in Miaoli County for breaking home quarantines and four, totaling NT$40,000, have been paid so far, it said.

The Thai woman’s fine is one of the two unpaid NT$300,000 ones, it added.

There have been 11 fines imposed in Hsinchu City, and five — with a total value of NT$350,000 — have been paid, while the unpaid ones total NT$750,000, it said.

Hsinchu County has only one fine, a NT$1 million penalty imposed upon Lin Tung-ching (林東京) for “malicious” infractions of the Special Act on COVID-19 Prevention, Relief and Recovery (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例) by changing residences multiple times after his return from China on Feb. 25 and visiting several locations in Taipei and New Taipei City during his home quarantine period.

He has not paid the fine, the bureau said.


title: Virus Outbreak: Masks required for train passengers

people: 蔡英文 賴清德 林佳龍

content_text:
SUBSIDY PROPOSAL:
 The MOTC has drafted a package to help taxi drivers and drivers of tour buses affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, but it has yet to be approved

By Hsiao Yu-hsin and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

All train and intercity bus passengers must wear a mask and have their temperature checked either at a station or aboard, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.

Masks must also be worn at highway rest stops, Lin said.

The Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSR) has installed thermal imaging cameras at the entrances to all its 12 stations, and the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) has installed them at its 239 stations, the THSR and TRA said in separate statements.

Taxis line up in Pingtung County on March 5. The Pingtung County Government plans to form a taxi team to provide delivery services for those who are required to undergo quarantine.
 Photo: Ho Cheng-hsu, Taipei Times

Temperatures are to be checked when entering any Chunghwa Post Co offices and masks must be worn, the company said.

The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) yesterday proposed a relief package for drivers of taxi and tour buses that would allow drivers to apply for a monthly subsidy of NT$10,000 (US$330.50) for up to three months.

The package, intended to provide relief to drivers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, would cost an estimated NT$3.45 billion, the ministry said.

It has the support of the Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan, but would not be finalized until a detailed report is made by the Directorate-General of Highways and approved by the Executive Yuan, the ministry said.

Lin has been communicating with the Presidential Office and Executive Yuan to secure the funding, the ministry said.

There are an estimated 16,000 tour bus drivers and 100,000 taxi drivers nationwide who would be eligible for the subsidies, it said.

A separate subsidy package recently implemented by the ministry provides taxi drivers with a NT$2,000 monthly stipend for fuel for up to six months, and a subsidy of up to NT$74,000 for tour bus drivers to cover fuel costs, reduced licensing fees and interest relief for bus loans.

Bus drivers can also apply for up to NT$110,000 to cover driver training courses under that package.

Vice president-elect William Lai (賴清德), a former premier, wrote on Facebook that he has been in touch with Lin in the past few days, and he thought that taxi drivers should have more than a NT$2,000 monthly fuel stipend, because they have been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has asked the Executive Yuan to discuss the issue, and it was expected to make an announcement soon, he wrote.

Additional reporting by Ho Yu-hua

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content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Practice social distancing, CECC says

KEEP AWAY:
 People should wear a mask in places where they cannot follow social distancing rules, the CECC said, adding that it would publish detailed guidelines today

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced 16 new cases of COVID-19, including two domestic cases, as it urged people to practice social distancing in public spaces by keeping a distance of at least 1m when outdoors and 1.5m indoors.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that seven of the new cases tested positive upon their arrival at the airport, four were under home quarantine, one was under home isolation and two were under self-health management, while the two domestic cases sought treatment on their own.

The domestic cases are a man in his 70s and a man in his 20s who had not traveled abroad recently.

People share a public space in Taipei yesterday after the Central Epidemic Command Center recommended that people stay at least 1m apart outdoors and 1.5m apart indoors due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
 Photo: CNA

The older man, the nation’s 307th case, had a meal with case No. 122, who returned from Turkey on March 13 and tested positive on March 20, he said.

Forty-six people have been identified as having had contact with the 307th case, Chen said.

The man on Wednesday last week sought treatment for chest tightness and muscle pain, and again on Thursday and Saturday for a fever and pneumonia, he said.

The younger man, the nation’s 322nd case, on Thursday last week sought treatment at a clinic for a fever, coughing, vomiting and fatigue, and was hospitalized for pneumonia when he sought treatment again at a hospital on Sunday.

He was mainly at his school campus or dormitory before the onset of symptoms, and a contact investigation has so far found 13 people who had had contact with him, Chen said.

The possible source of infection is being investigated, he added.

The 14 imported cases are seven men and seven women, who returned to Taiwan between March 16 and Sunday, Chen said, adding that seven of them had recently traveled to the UK, three had been to the US, and the remainder had been to Iceland, France, Switzerland, Thailand and the Philippines.

Three of them have been associated with other previously confirmed cases and are considered cluster infections, he said.

As of yesterday, Taiwan had 322 confirmed cases — 276 imported and 46 local — including five deaths and 39 recovered patients, CECC data showed.

“The basic principle for social distancing in public spaces, where people might encounter strangers, is keeping a distance of at least 1m from other people in outdoor settings and at least 1.5m in indoor settings,” Chen said.

“In areas where this minimum distance cannot be kept, people should wear a mask,” the minister added.

Detailed guidelines on social distancing would be discussed at a CECC meeting and published today, he said.

As local Chinese-language media have reported that a student at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei was confirmed to have been infected with COVID-19, reporters asked whether case No. 322 was that student and whether the classes he attends would be suspended.

Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said that as the student tested positive on Monday night, a contact investigation was still being conducted.

Other students sharing the patient’s laboratory and dormitory room would be put under home isolation, while the classes he attends would be suspended for 14 days, Chuang said.

CECC advisory specialist panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said the panel has expanded the criteria for reporting suspected COVID-19 cases to include “all patients with pneumonia” and people who have lost their sense of smell or taste, as 24 of the 306 confirmed cases had reported such symptoms as of Monday.

Asked whether the nation has enough ventilators to meet demand in the event of a local outbreak, Shih said the nation’s 201 designated emergency hospitals have about 10,000 ventilators, or 14,000 if the devices in other healthcare facilities are included.

Taiwan has 61 ventilators per 100,000 people, which is higher than Germany’s 24, the UK’s 12 and Italy’s 5, he said.


content_text:
Instead of hating the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), help change it, KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said, as he urged young people to join efforts to reform the party.

As the nation marked Youth Day on Sunday, Chiang said in a Facebook post that he wanted to remind people that “the KMT used to be very young.”

Now, when people think of the KMT, they equate it with older people, he wrote.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang is dressed as strategist Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms Period in a screen grab from a video posted on Facebook on Sunday.
 Photo: Shih Hsiao-kuang, Taipei Times

“Even if [the KMT] is a 100-year-old party, it must maintain a young mentality, and understand what young people want and what they want the KMT to do,” Chiang wrote. “Hate the KMT? Do not make a decision too quickly. Instead of hating the KMT, help change the KMT.”

“Instead of going home and arguing with your elders, come to the KMT and chat with the chairman,” he wrote.

Chiang said that he would follow through on a proposal he made during his campaign for the party chair earlier this year — to create an advisory group comprised of young KMT members.

He plans to form a “social innovation youth committee,” he said.

Chiang plans to preside over the committee, which would meet regularly and serve as the party’s “catalyst for communication with society,” he said.

The committee would target issues young people care about and “explore areas never touched [by the party] before,” he wrote, adding that the committee would be the source of the party’s “new energy for change.”

Representatives from environmental groups, the education, agriculture and new media sectors, and entrepreneurs, among others, would be invited to join the committee, Chiang wrote.

The party has also reserved five to 10 spots on the committee for members of the public to nominate themselves or other worthy candidates, he wrote.

Those who wish to join the new committee have until Sunday to apply, he added.

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title: Chiang targeting young reformers


content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Lockdown tips for Malaysian women trigger mockery

Malaysian authorities have advised women to wear makeup, not to nag their husbands and speak with a cartoon character’s soothing voice during the virus lockdown, sparking a flood of mockery online.

Like many countries, Malaysia has ordered all citizens to stay at home to stem the spread of COVID-19, which, as of yesterday, had killed at least 39,070 people globally.

In a series of online posters with the hashtag #WomenPreventCOVID19, the Malaysian Ministry of Women and Family Development issued advice on how to avoid domestic conflicts during the partial lockdown, which began on March 18.

A woman passes by a police officer standing guard at an entrance to a market in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, amid a stay-at-home order imposed by the government to control the COVID-19 pandemic.
 Photo: Reuters

One of the campaign posters depicted a man sitting on a sofa, and asked women to refrain from being “sarcastic” if they need help with household chores.

Avoid nagging your husband, another poster said, attempting to inject humor by using a voice similar to the anime character Doraemon — a blue robot cat popular across Asia.

The post was removed yesterday afternoon following a flood of criticism, with many accusing the government of sexism.

It “is extremely condescending both to women and men,” said Nisha Sabanayagam, a manager at Malaysian advocacy group All Women’s Action Society.

“These posters promote the concept of gender inequality and perpetuate the concept of patriarchy,” she said by telephone.

The posters, uploaded on Facebook and Instragram, drew widespread ridicule online, with social media users urging the government to remove them.

“How did we go from preventing baby dumping, fighting domestic violence to some sad variant of the Obedient Wives Club?” Twitter user @yinshaoloong wrote.

“No tips on how to deal with domestic violence?” asked another user, @honeyean.

“This must be a pressing issue,” one Facebook post said. “How will dressing up and putting on makeup at home [prevent] COVID-19? Pray, tell?”

“It’s already 2020, please progress. Focus on more important matters for women,” another said.

There have been fears of a surge in domestic violence worldwide, as the stress caused by confinement and job insecurity increase the likelihood of conflicts.

A government helpline for vulnerable people, including victims of domestic abuse, has seen an increase in calls of more than 50 percent since the start of the lockdown, local media reported.

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references: Twitter Facebook


content_text:
By Chen Wei-tzu and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Senior judges yesterday met to discuss the constitutionality of a law that makes adultery a criminal offense, before being ordered by Judicial Yuan President Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) to set a date for a constitutional interpretation within the next month.

The judges met to discuss Article 239 of the Criminal Code on offenses against marriage and family, after 18 judges had called for a constitutional interpretation of the issue.

Taipei District Court Judge Lin Meng-huang (林孟皇) said that while he had previously tried adultery cases and never questioned the law, his feelings changed when trying a case last year involving baseball star Wang Chuan-jia (王傳家).

The Council of Grand Justices hears arguments on whether the nation’s law on adultery is unconstitutional in Taipei yesterday.
 Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times

During that case evidence was presented showing Wang naked in bed with a female fan surnamed Tu (杜), which later became public, and Lin felt this was a violation of Wang’s personal privacy, he said.

In the case in March last year, Lin ruled that the video evidence presented to the court was insufficient for there to be a prosecution as it did not show penetration. Wang and Tu were found not guilty.

Laws should evolve along with the progress of time, and although most Taiwanese support the law on adultery, such a law erodes personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, Lin said.

“Decriminalizing adultery does not mean encouraging people to have affairs, but you cannot deal with the pain and suffering caused by adultery by using the criminal justice system,” he said. “You must find another way of dealing with those emotions.”

To use the Criminal Code to punish what equates to “immoral behavior” limits a person’s sexual autonomy and personal privacy, and runs contrary to the Constitution, he added.

The justice system should not get involved in people’s intimate relations, Lin said, adding that the happiness of a marriage depends on the conduct of those involved.

Deputy Minister of Justice Tsai Pi-chung (蔡碧仲), who opposes the decriminalization of adultery, said that since marriage is entered into freely, the courts have a duty to protect the institutions of marriage and the family.

With 70 to 80 percent of the public opposed to the decriminalization of adultery, the Council of Grand Justices’ decision on the matter should respect public opinion, he said.

High Court Judge Pong Shing-ming (彭幸鳴) said that times have changed and more people recognize an individual’s sexual autonomy.

There are already sufficient laws to protect the interests of married couples and adultery should be decriminalized, Pong said.

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title: Judicial Yuan orders adultery interpretation


content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Nurses need full protection against pandemic: group

‘HEROIC’:
 A lack of personal protective equipment has led to high infection rates among health workers in places like Spain and Italy, a nurses’ association said

More equipment is needed to protect the world’s nurses working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic to save lives, the head of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) said.

“They are heroic. I think there is no other way to describe what they are doing at this moment,” said Howard Catton, a British nurse who is the council’s CEO.

Infection rates of 9 percent and 12 to 14 percent have been reported among health workers in Italy and Spain respectively, he said, adding that nurses have died in the two nations, as well as Iran and Indonesia.

Nurses at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center hold a vigil in Los Angeles on Monday to celebrate the steps that have been taken at the center to protect nurses’ health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic and call for further action from the federal government.
 Photo: AFP

“We have no doubt that the rate of infections is related in part to the lack of PPE — personal protective equipment,” he said at the ICN offices in Geneva.

“There is a global shortage and nurses obviously are at a higher risk given the people that they are caring for,” he said.

The federation represents 130 national associations and more than 20 million registered nurses.

The WHO has repeatedly called for countries and manufacturers to step up production of masks, gloves, gowns and other equipment for vulnerable health workers amid critical shortages.

As of yesterday, at least 803,704 people had been infected worldwide in the outbreak that began in December in China and had claimed at least 39,070 lives, the WHO said.

Catton said there had been problems with supply chains in hard-hit Italy and Spain, describing their health systems as “very close to being overwhelmed.”

Nurses worldwide take samples from COVID-19 patients, give them medicines and oxygen, and help incubate those in serious condition.

“They are working under intense pressure, often long hours, some working back-to-back shifts for days on end, even sleeping over in the hospital, the facility, in which they work,” Catton said.

Some nurses have been forced to reuse their gear or make their own masks and gowns, he added.

“Wearing personal protective equipment when it is available is not easy either... Simple things like going to the loo and eating are of course much more difficult,” he said.

Nurses across Africa and South Asia could be at greater risk as the virus moves to poorer settings.

“We are very concerned that those countries that have weaker, more fragile healthcare systems could very quickly become overwhelmed by this virus if it takes hold in their countries,” Catton said.

Nurses in Zimbabwe, fearing for their own safety, have been on strike due to a lack of information and protective gear, he said.

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content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Latest group of Hubei evacuees begins quarantine

A planeload of Taiwanese from China’s Hubei Province who returned to Taiwan on Monday night were place in quarantine in northern Taiwan and were to be tested for COVID-19 within 48 hours.

The passengers were taken by about a dozen tour buses to an undisclosed quarantine venue at about 1am yesterday after being screened at the airport, and would be quarantined for 14 days.

Military personnel disinfected the buses after they dropped off their passengers.

An official holds a “Welcome Home” sign at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Monday night as a group of 214 Taiwanese who had been stranded in Wuhan, China, after that city was locked down returned home on a specially arranged flight, in a handoutout photograph from the Ministry of National Defense.
 Photo: EPA-EFE / Ministry of National Defense

The 214 Taiwanese, who found themselves stuck in Hubei after it went into lockdown in late January, were on a list of people who require special permission to return to Taiwan, unlike those returning from Europe and the US.

Those on the list are required to return on specially arranged flights, and are then put in quarantine in government-run facilities after arriving in Taiwan.

People arriving from other parts of China or other parts of the world can take regular commercial flights and self-quarantine at home for 14 days after arrival.

Soldiers in protective gear disinfect the luggage of Taiwanese who returned from Wuhan, China, at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Monday night, in a handoutout photograph from the Ministry of National Defense.
 Photo: EPA-EFE / Ministry of National Defense

The group that left on Monday night had to make their own way from Hubei to Shanghai Pudong International Airport to catch a special flight operated by China Airlines that left at 8:02pm and arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 9:38pm.

It was the second of two special flights contracted by the Straits Exchange Foundation to bring home Taiwanese stuck in Hubei; the first flight on Sunday brought back 153 Taiwanese.

Many more Taiwanese are still in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, but should be able to leave if restrictions there are lifted on Wednesday next week as scheduled.


content_text:
FOSSIL CLUES:
 The bushfires resulted from a positive Indian Ocean dipole event, when the region east of the ocean becomes drier, professor Shen Chuan-chou said

The bushfires that swept through Australia last year were connected to a phenomenon known as the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD), which is expected to become more frequent due to climate change, a geologist studying coral fossils said yesterday.

National Taiwan University Department of Geosciences professor Shen Chuan-chou (沈川洲) since 2001 has been working with Australian and US researchers to study climate systems in the Indian Ocean.

Led by Australian National University Research School of Earth Sciences professor Nerilie Abram, the team published a paper on IOD in the journal Nature on March 9.

The bushfires resulted from a positive IOD event, when the region east of the Indian Ocean becomes drier and there is a reduced chance of rainfall in Australia, Shen told an online news conference held at the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taipei.

To understand the change in climate over the past centuries, the team drilled the cores of live and fossil coral off Sumatra, Indonesia, as coral can be viewed as a thermometer of ocean temperature, Shen said.

Shen’s laboratory used radiometric uranium-thorium dating techniques to identify the ages of the coral samples.

The most important finding was that the climate systems in the Indian and Pacific oceans are “interconnected,” which previously had been a disputed hypothesis, he said.

While similar dating techniques used by other laboratories might have a margin of error of one to two years, Shen said that his laboratory had reduced the margin of error to as little as three months.

The team found that positive IOD events often occur in conjunction with El Nino in the central Pacific Ocean, he said.

Models show that strong IOD events have been increasing and they might become more extreme due to global warming, he added.

Nonetheless, an IOD event in 1675 was estimated to be 42 percent stronger than one documented in 1997, showing that such events are also possible without human-caused global warming, Shen said.

Referring to previous studies of El Nino, Shen said that climate oscillations in the Indian Ocean also affect the climate of Taiwan.

If the temperature in the central Pacific is rising, more typhoons form in the summer and more strike Taiwan in the fall, while rainfall in spring decreases, causing droughts in southern Taiwan, he said.

The government should formulate more policies to mitigate the effects of climate change, Shen said.

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title: Coral studies find link to bushfires


title: Taipei 101 to cut business hours as demand declines

content_text:
Taipei 101, one of the nation’s leading shopping centers, is planning to reduce its business hours due to decreased demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taipei 101 is to open daily at noon and close at 9pm from April 6, building management said in a statement on Monday.

The shopping center has been opening at 11am and closing at 9:30pm from Sunday to Thursday, while closing at 10pm on Friday and Saturday.

People pose for a selfie in front of Taipei 101 in Taipei on Jan. 6.
 Photo: Bloomberg

The restaurants in the food court — on the basement level — would adjust their business hours as necessary, but the supermarket would continue to open at 9am daily, management said.

The shopping mall is the nation’s first to cut back operations due to the pandemic, which has heavily affected business in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義).

Taipei 101 has since February implemented measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, such as checking the temperature of shoppers and denying entry to those with a reading of 37.5°C or higher.

Management said that it has improved the building’s ventilation system and more frequently disinfects elevators, escalators and restrooms.

The new business hours would allow mall enterprises and brand stores to spread out employee shifts to lower the risk of COVID-19 infection, management said.

Meanwhile, other major shopping centers, such as the Far Eastern Sogo Department Store (遠東Sogo百貨) chain, the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store (新光三越百貨) chain and the Breeze Group (微風集團), said that they have no plans to reduce their business hours.

Separately, 17 Michelin-starred restaurants in Taipei that earlier this year were found to have breached sanitary regulations have all passed a second inspection, the city’s Department of Health said on Monday.

The department inspected 51 Michelin-starred restaurants in Taipei from January to March, and found that 17 of the restaurants had contravened sanitary regulations, the department said in a statement.

Inspectors found dirty equipment or ingredients on the floor, while some restaurants failed to provide the results of employee health examinations, the department said.

A second inspection showed that the offending conditions had been corrected, it said.

The restaurants with offenses were Golden Formosa (金蓬萊遵古台菜), The Restaurant, Indulge Bistro, Leputing (樂埔町), RAW, Nihonryori RyuGin (祥雲龍吟), Le Palais (頤宮), Chi Chia Chuang (雞家莊), Tainan Tan Tsu Mien Seafood Restaurant (台南擔仔麵海鮮餐廳), Sushi Ryu (隆鮨), JE Kitchen, Sushi Amamoto (鮨天本), Shing Peng Lai (興蓬萊), Tairroir (態芮), Tien Yuan Seafood (田園海鮮), Yu Kapo (彧割烹) and Peng Lai (蓬萊), the statement said.

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content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Taipei to cover the cost of quarantine stays in hotels

Taipei residents who stay at hotels in the city during their 14-day mandatory quarantine period are eligible to apply for the city’s NT$7,000 subsidy, with online applications to be launched next week.

Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) on Monday said Taipei residents who have COVID-19 Health Declaration and Home Quarantine Notice dated after March 19 and a quarantine hotel receipt for the dates covered by the quarantine period, would be eligible for the subsidy.

The Taipei City Government on Sunday told the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) that so many city residents are under home quarantine that about 90 percent of the city’s quarantine hotels are full, she said.

Some residents have reported being rejected by other hotels after informing them that they have been ordered into quarantine, she said, she said.

“The city government hopes these quarantined city residents would inform the [non-quarantine] hotels about their situation, so that such hotels can take enhanced precautionary measures,” Huang said.

The hotels can also contact the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism or the Department of Health for assistance if they have guests under quarantine.

As of Monday, there were more than 10,900 people under home quarantine in Taipei after returning from abroad, and people are worried about the increased risk of infection, as well as the heavy burden on borough heads, police officers and officials responsible for monitoring those in quarantine, she said.

If city government thinks that the nation has sufficient testing capacity, more Taiwanese returning from Europe and the US should be tested, she said.

Returning Taiwanese should also be asked to return home in groups every 14 days to avoid putting a strain on the city’s quarantine capacity, Huang said.

Huang was asked yesterday if the city government would require all passengers to wear masks when taking the bus or the mass rapid transport system, following the CECC’s suggestion that the public practice social distancing, but she said it depended on the supply of masks.

It would be more reasonable to enforce a mandatory mask-wearing regulation if there was a sufficient supply of masks, but the decision was up to the center, she said.

However, if the center does announce such a policy, the city would enforce it, she added.

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content_text:
ALL ABOUT STRATEGY:
 The company is optimistic, saying that its gross margin should increase year-on-year, but it is scaling back on its plans to expand capacity

Quang Viet Enterprise Co (QVE, 廣越), which makes down jackets and garments for sportswear and outdoor brands including Adidas AG, yesterday said that revenue might drop 5 to 10 percent annually this year as some customers trimmed orders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That would mark its first revenue decline since 2016.

Quang Viet posted record-high revenue of NT$16.26 billion (US$537.45 million) last year, up 22 percent from 2018. Down jackets made up 40 percent of it revenue last year.

North Face Inc and Patagonia Inc are this year likely to reduce orders by 20 to 30 percent from a year earlier, Quang Viet president Charles Wu (吳朝筆) told a teleconference.

Orders from Nike Inc have not been affected by the pandemic, he said.

Outdoor clothing brand Patagonia is Quang Viet’s second-biggest client after Adidas, contributing 23 percent to the company’s total revenue last year.

However, Adidas would continue to show strong momentum this year by placing 20 percent more orders than last year, Wu said.

Adidas contributed 26 percent to the company’s total sales last year, Quang Viet data showed.

Under Armour Inc would increase orders by 50 percent this year from last year as the sportswear brand is tapping into the down jacket segment, Quang Viet said.

To cope with slackening customer demand, Quang Viet plans to scale back its capacity expansion in Vietnam and Romania, Wu said.

The company now plans to build 14 new production lines this year, rather than the 50 lines it had planned in December last year, he said.

However, Quang Viet plans to speed up its expansion of capacity next year by adding 28 new production lines mainly in Vietnam to support customer demand, Wu said.

The company remains optimistic about its gross margin this year, which is projected to improve from 15.65 percent last year, he said.

The 15-day national lockdown in Vietnam from today is expected to have a minor effect on the company’s production, as the industry’s peak season falls in the third quarter rather than the first half of the year, the company said.

Separately, polyester and textile maker Far Eastern New Century Corp (FENC, 遠東新世紀) posted a 10.8 percent decline in net profit to NT$10.73 billion last year from NT$12.03 billion in 2018, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed.

Earnings per share fell to NT$2.15, down from NT$2.4 a year earlier, while gross margin shrank to 17.88 percent, compared with 19.41 percent in 2018.

FENC’s board of directors approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$1.5 per share, representing a payout ratio of 69.77 percent, the company said.

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title: Quang Viet forecasts drop in revenue


content_text:
ELECTRONICS

Lite-On delays sale of unit

Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) yesterday said it would postpone the sale of its solid-state drives (SSD) business to Kioxia Holdings Corp, formerly known as Toshiba Memory Holdings Corp, due to disruptions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, the Taiwan-based electronics components supplier struck the deal with the Japanese firm, agreeing to sell the unit for US$165 million. Citing unfinished integration work due to the pandemic, Lite-On has deferred today’s closing date until further notice, adding that the delay would not have a negative effect on the unit’s operations.

AUTO PARTS

Hiroca approves dividend

Automotive interior parts supplier Hiroca Holdings Ltd’s (廣華控股) board of directors yesterday approved a proposal to pay a cash dividend of NT$3.5 per share after posting a net profit of NT$400.53 million (US$13.24 million) for last year, or earnings per share of NT$4.78, a company statement said. The earnings results were lower than the company’s net profit of NT$546.11 million, or NT$6.51 per share, in 2018. Hiroca attributed the 26.6 percent decline to a drop in sales of new vehicles in China and foreign-exchange losses. Revenue last year dropped 7.87 percent to NT$7.43 billion, it said. Despite the pandemic, which disrupted operations at its factories in the first quarter, Hiroca said that it still expects an increase in orders from customers throughout the rest of this year.

SHIPPING

Yang Ming losses shrink

Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) yesterday reported net losses per share of NT$1.66 for last year, down from losses per share of NT$2.53 a year earlier, thanks to rising revenue, more operating volume and lower unit costs. Last year, the shipper posted net losses of NT$4.31 billion, but revenue increased 5.18 percent to NT$149.18 billion, while operating volume rose 3.88 percent to 5.4 million twenty-foot equivalent units, a company statement said. Yang Ming said that this year, it aims to optimize its operational strategy and implement cost structure enhancements to improve competitiveness and customer service.

CAMERA LENSES

Genius plans cash payout

Genius Electronic Optical Co (玉晶光), a camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones, plans to pay a cash dividend of NT$9 per share, up from NT$3.5 a year earlier, and spend NT$3.46 billion on capital equipment purchases. Based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$24.79, the dividend represents a payout ratio of 36.3 percent. On Monday, the company reported a record-high net income of NT$2.52 billion for last year, with revenue of NT$12.05 billion — a company record — thanks to robust iPhone 11 sales. The company said its gross margin increased 8.2 percentage points year-on-year to 46.95 percent, thanks to greater efficiency.

UTILITIES

Hu to chair Taiwan Water

Taiwan Water Corp (台灣自來水公司) president Hu Nan-tzer (胡南澤) has succeeded Kuo Chun-ming (郭俊銘) as the company’s new chairman following the Executive Yuan’s approval, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. The 64-year-old Hu, who has a master’s degree in environmental engineering from National Cheng Kung University, has worked at Taiwan Water for about 38 years, the ministry said. Hu has led many construction projects since becoming president in 2013, it said, adding that he would continue to serve as president.

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title: Taiwan Business Quick Take


title: Amex to avoid job cuts as it rides out virus storm

content_text:
American Express Co (Amex) plans to avoid job cuts this year as the credit card issuer “rides out the storm” brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, chief executive officer Steve Squeri said in a video message to employees on LinkedIn.

As the virus outbreak hits business volumes, Amex has moved from a largely brick-and-mortar operation to having more than 60,000 employees equipped to work from home and two-thirds of its customer-care professionals working remotely, Squeri said.

Amex said earlier this month that spending volumes fell at the end of February and well into last month as the pandemic wreaks havoc on consumer spending, leading the company to forecast low-single-digit percentage revenue growth for the first quarter.

The virus has upended the retail industry as shoppers stay at home to avoid catching the highly contagious illness and stores remain shut.

Mastercard Inc, Visa Inc and PayPal Holdings Inc have also warned of slowing revenue growth due to the outbreak.

Amex’s volumes last month declined dramatically and continue to decline, Squeri said on Monday.

“The executive committee and I are going through a planning process right now to determine how we can reduce our expenses in the short term as we ride out this storm,” he said.

“As we go through this process, the one thing I intend to avoid is layoffs in 2020,” he said, adding that with everything that everyone and their families are going through due to the crisis, job cuts were not consistent with the company’s values.

Big US banks have also been postponing decisions about staff cuts, with executives saying they are unsure how long the outbreak would hurt the economy.

Amex would also institute a temporary, company-wide external hiring freeze to help cut costs.

Visa on Monday said that its transaction volumes had been hit, leading it to forecast mid-single-digit percentage revenue growth for the second quarter.

The company said transaction volumes fell in the second half of March and there has been a rapid deterioration in cross-border travel-related spending.

Visa, which reported a 4 percent fall last month to date in US payments volume from a year earlier, said that it expects operating expense growth in the high single digits and earnings per share growth in the high end of low single digits.

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title: Ventilator maker’s merger spurs query from US FTC official

content_text:
BLOCKING COMPETITION?
 US officials contracted a small company to produce inexpensive ventilators, but when it was bought out the buyer had the deal canned

A member of the US Federal Trade Commission says that the agency should review its 2012 decision to approve the acquisition of a small ventilator company by medical device maker Covidien Ltd, a deal that might have stymied a government effort to produce the machines.

FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, a Democrat at the Republican-controlled commission, said on Monday she wants to know more about what the companies disclosed to the agency when the FTC granted antitrust approval of the merger without an in-depth investigation.

The New York Times on Sunday reported that US health officials, worried about a shortage of ventilators more than a decade ago, contracted a small California device maker, Newport Medical Instruments Inc, to produce inexpensive, easy-to-use machines to add to the national stockpile.

Newport planned to sell the devices for about one-third of the price that other companies were charging.

Covidien, which also made ventilators, agreed to buy Newport for US$108 million, and then sought to get out of the contract, the Times reported.

The government agreed to cancel the agreement.

The failure of the project to produce ventilators raises questions about whether Covidien bought Newport to block competition from a rival product and protect its own ventilator business and whether the transaction received the appropriate scrutiny from federal antitrust officials.

Antitrust enforcers are paying increasing attention to whether companies are buying emerging rivals as a way to eliminate emerging threats to their businesses, sometimes by shutting them down.

FTC Chairman Joe Simons in February said that the agency would investigate small acquisitions by the biggest US technology companies to determine if the deals were anticompetitive.

Medtronic PLC, which later bought Covidien in 2014, denies the Newport deal shut down a competitor.

Ben Petok, director of corporate communications at Medtronic, said that Covidien and Newport were not direct competitors, and Medtronic continues to sell Newport ventilators today.

The government canceled the ventilator contract when both parties concluded there were technical issues that prevented Newport from completing the project and obtaining regulatory clearance, Petok said.

Medtronic is now ramping up production of ventilators, including in collaboration with Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc.

While in-depth merger investigations can last a year or longer, the FTC approved Covidien’s purchase of Newport a month after it was announced under a fast-track process known as “early termination.”

FTC spokeswoman Cathy MacFarlane declined to comment.

Slaughter, who is one member of the five-member FTC, said she wants to know what information the agency analyzed when it made that decision.

“When we get new information that causes us to question our original analysis, then we should absolutely go back and take a second look to find out whether there’s something we should have done differently or better,” she said.

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title: Wowprime share price up due to vouchers

content_text:
WIN-WIN SITUATION:
 As shareholders would likely spend extra money when using the voucher, it would help the firm pay personnel costs and rent, an analyst said

Restaurant chain operator Wowprime Corp (王品) yesterday saw its share price increase 9.98 percent to NT$63.9, after the company announced that it would provide gift vouchers to those who bought its shares.

The company said that it would reward shareholders attending its annual meeting on June 5 with a voucher for its restaurants worth NT$2,200 (US$72.72).

In the previous two years, the company provided shareholders with a NT$500 voucher and a 25 percent discount coupon.

According to the Company Act (公司法), yesterday was the last day that investors could buy the company’s shares if they wanted to qualify to attend the annual general meeting.

As shareholders are entitled to the voucher even if they only own one of the company’s shares, which were trading at NT$58 at the close of trade on Monday, investors yesterday flooded into the odd-lot trading market, pushing total buy orders to 8.68 million shares, 511 times that of a day earlier, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.

Only 10,315 shares were traded in the odd-lot market, given that there were fewer sellers than buyers, the data showed.

Wowprime shares were also popular in the regular market, with 1.802 million shares traded, compared with the daily average transaction of 368,000 shares this month, the data showed.

The stock had plunged to NT$51 on Thursday last week, the lowest this year, as the dining sector has been severely hit by the COVID-19 outbreak.

“It seems that Wowprime successfully protected its share price with the food voucher. That was a clever strategy, not only attracting investors to buy its shares, but also encouraging consumption at its own stores,” local equity analyst Daniel Sun (孫慶龍) told the Taipei Times by telephone.

“Given that consumers usually spend extra money when using vouchers, it would help the company gain more revenue and pay personnel costs and rent,” Sun said.

Another market watcher, who declined to be named, said that the issuance of a food voucher is similar to the distribution of cash dividend in attracting investors.

However, as Wowprime is to hold the annual meeting in Taichung and shareholders must receive the gift in person, it might not be worthwhile for people who live far from the city, she said.

Given that the company has about 22,000 shareholders, it is expected to issue food vouchers worth NT$48.4 million.

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content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Taiwan does not need China for WHO, ministry says

Taiwan will negotiate with the WHO about its participation without Beijing’s help and intervention as more countries, including Australia and Japan, are partnering with Taiwan to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a telephonic roundtable with reporters on Monday also supported Taiwan’s role in the WHO, saying the US Department of State would do its best to assist Taiwan’s “appropriate role” in the world’s highest health policy setting body, Voice of America reported.

In a Japan Business Press report published on Sunday, Chinese Ambassador to Japan Kong Xuanyou (孔鉉佑) said that Beijing plans to accept Taiwan as a regular observer in the WHO and is initiating related discussions and adjustments.

Australia expresses its willingness to cooperate with Taiwan in the fight against COVID-19 in a post on the Facebook page of the Australian Office in Taipei yesterday.
 Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times

Asked about Kong’s remarks, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said that Taiwan would negotiate for its participation by itself.

As Taiwan is winning wider acclaim for its achievements in containing COVID-19, the government will strive to win support from other countries to join the WHO, as well as other global organizations, she told a news briefing in Taipei.

Ou urged Beijing not to meddle with Taiwan’s negotiations with the WHO and urged the global health body to demonstrate its professionalism, instead of giving in to political considerations.

“The question of Taiwanese membership in WHO is up to WHO Member States, not WHO staff,” the global body said in a statement on Sunday, after a video of a WHO official dodging a Hong Kong reporter’s question about Taiwan’s participation went viral.

In related news, Australia is to exchange medical supplies with Taiwan, after Taiwan and the US earlier this month jointly announced that they would enhance cooperation to contain the disease.

Taiwan is to purchase 1 million liters of alcohol from Australia to produce 4.22 million bottles of sanitizers, while Australia is to purchase 3 tonnes of non-woven fabric from Taiwan to make masks, once the nation’s mask production is sufficient, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Facebook on Monday.

“Thank you, Taiwan. In facing this global COVID-19 pandemic, we are pleased to work with you to keep open the supply of critical inputs to our medical systems, bolstering health outcomes for our people,” the Australian Office in Taipei said on Facebook yesterday.

The foreign ministry helped negotiate the matter and is glad to see Taiwan and Australia boost their bilateral friendship through reciprocal collaboration, Ou said.

In other developments, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India is working with Japanese airlines to fly Taiwanese travelers back home, after India closed its borders on Wednesday last week.

The Japanese government has arranged Delhi-Tokyo flights via Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways from Tuesday last week to Wednesday next week to evacuate its nationals, with Japan Airlines allowing Taiwanese travelers in India to board its flights when seats are available, Ou said.

Japan Airlines said it could help Taiwanese in Tokyo book flights to Taipei, she said.

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title: Virus to hit smartphone, laptop demand: analyst

content_text:
The output of the global smartphone industry this year is to contract by 7.8 percent on an annual basis as the COVID-19 pandemic ushers in a global recession, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report on Monday.

The global production of smartphones is expected to fall to 1.29 billion units, as the pandemic dampens demand for consumer electronics, leading to a decline in shipments across Europe and North America, TrendForce said.

With consumers delaying smartphone purchases and thereby lengthening the device replacement cycle, overall prices would suffer a setback that is expected to negatively affect the profitability of smartphone makers as they also face rising costs across the supply chain, the report said.

As the pandemic grows in scale, fostering uncertainty and triggering a recession that could potentially surpass the 2008 global financial crisis, smartphone demand is likely to weaken further, it added.

TrendForce forecast that global smartphone shipments would decline to 274 million units in the first quarter of this year, down from the 307 million units it had previously estimated.

The researcher also slashed its forecast for laptop shipments in the first quarter by 20.3 percent to 27.9 million units, as Chinese production in February was hampered by the coronavirus.

As the situation stabilizes in China next month, laptop production and the supply of upstream materials are expected to return to normal, but there is likely to be falling demand for laptops as the pandemic sweeps the globe, it said.

With lockdowns affecting most of Europe and the US, which account for more than 50 percent of global laptop sales, TrendForce has trimmed its shipments forecast for this year by 3.5 percent to 156.7 million units.

Despite an increase in demand for education-use Chromebooks and commercial laptops as more people work from home, the pandemic has dealt a blow to consumer confidence and the industry as a whole, it added.

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content_text:
Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday said its sales rose 19.1 percent annually last year despite US sanctions that hampered its smartphone and network equipment businesses.

Huawei is embroiled in a series of disputes with Washington, which accuses the company of being a security risk and is lobbying US allies to reject its equipment.

The company denies the accusation, and Chinese officials say that US President Donald Trump’s administration is abusing national security claims to restrain a growing rival to US technology companies.

Huawei Technologies Co’s logo is pictured at China’s Shenzhen International Airport on July 22 last year.
 Photo: Reuters

Annual sales rose to 858.8 billion yuan (US$121 billion), and profit rose 5.6 percent to 62.7 billion yuan, the company reported.

Sales growth was in line with the previous year’s 19.5 percent gain, but profit growth was down sharply from 2018’s 25 percent jump.

Sanctions approved by Trump next month would, if fully enforced, cut off access to most US components and technology.

Washington has granted extensions for some products, but Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei (任正非) has said he expects the barriers to be enforced.

The company, the world’s No. 2 smartphone brand behind Samsung, said handset sales rose 15 percent to 240 million last year.

Huawei phones can keep using Google’s Android operating system but face sales challenges because the US company is blocked from supplying music and other popular services for future models.

Huawei is creating its own services to replace Google and says its system had 400 million active users in 170 countries by the end of last year.

Establishing its own ecosystem requires Huawei to persuade developers to write applications for its new system, a challenge in an industry dominated by Android and Apple’s iOS-based applications.

The Trump administration is lobbying European governments and other US allies to avoid Huawei equipment as they prepare to upgrade to next-generation telecom networks.

Australia, Taiwan and some other governments have imposed their own curbs on use of Huawei technology, but Germany and some other nations say it would be allowed to bid on contracts.

Huawei, which says it is owned by the 104,572 members of its 194,000-member workforce who are Chinese citizens, denies it is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party or facilitates Chinese spying.

The company responded to Trump’s export controls by removing US components from its major products.

The company has unveiled its own processor chips and smartphone operating system, which helps to reduce its vulnerability to US export controls. The company issued its first smartphone phone last year based on Huawei chips instead of US technology.

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companies: Google Apple

title: Huawei says sales up 19 percent despite US sanctions


title: US Treasury lays out rules for airline grants

content_text:
Airlines must suggest possible compensation in return for government cash assistance and agree to conditions that include not cutting pay or laying off employees through Sept. 30, the US Department of the Treasury said in guidelines issued on Monday as it prepares to quickly hand out US$25 billion.

The US Congress approved legislation last week authorizing the US$25 billion for passenger airlines, as well as US$4 billion for cargo carriers and US$3 billion in cash for airport contractors such as caterers and airplane cleaners.

Under the law, the department is supposed to make initial payments of the grants designed to cover payroll costs by next week.

Delta Air Lines Inc passenger planes stand parked due to flight reductions made to slow the spread of COVID-19 at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in the US state of Alabama on Wednesday last week.
 Photo: Reuters

The companies “must identify financial instruments” that would “provide appropriate compensation,” the guidelines said, adding that these could include warrants, options, preferred stock, debt securities or notes.

The department told applicants to apply by Friday at 5pm to receive funds as soon as possible. Applications received after April 27 might not be considered.

Other conditions for the cash assistance include limits on executive compensation through March 2022 and no stock buybacks or dividend payments through September 2021.

Airlines may also apply for a separate US$29 billion in government loans.

Separate department guidelines released on Monday for loans said that carriers must provide financial instruments “for the benefit of taxpayers, in equity appreciation or a reasonable interest rate premium.”

Companies critical to US national security can seek loans from a separate US$17 billion fund.

Those seeking loans must describe losses they have “incurred or will incur as a result of coronavirus” and detail the cause of the loss such as reduced demand, unavailability of credit or unbudgeted medical expenses.

The department said in reviewing applications for the cash assistance that it would consider the “adequacy of the proposed financial instruments for providing compensation to the Federal Government.”

It also said that it “may refuse to provide payroll support payments to applicants that have taken, or are currently evaluating, any action to commence a bankruptcy.”

Major US airlines on Saturday asked the department to move quickly to release funds. They have cut tens of thousands of flights as travel demand collapses amid the coronavirus pandemic and warned that without cash they would need to quickly begin massive furloughs.

The chief executives of American Airlines Group Inc, Delta Air Lines Inc, United Airlines Holdings Inc, Southwest Airlines Co and others wrote in a letter that “given the urgent and immediate need, it is essential that these funds be disbursed as soon as possible.”

US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin on Friday said that taxpayers would be “compensated” for providing emergency assistance to air carriers.

American Airlines on Monday said that it would be allocated about US$12 billion of the combined cash assistance and government loans.

It expects that the department would not seek “onerous” conditions, it has said.

American Airlines chief executive officer Doug Parker and president Robert Isom said in a memo to staff on Monday that it would seek nearly one-quarter of the relief funds on offer.

“We intend to apply for these funds and are confident that ... they will allow us to fly through even the worst of potential future scenarios,” the pair wrote, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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title: Fees, interest give SCSB best profit

content_text:
Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank Ltd (SCSB, 上海商業儲蓄銀行) on Monday reported record-high profit for last year on the back of higher income from fees and interest.

Net profit increased 6.9 percent year-on-year to NT$14.66 billion (US$484.6 billion), or earnings per share of NT$3.5, with net fee income rising 19 percent to NT$6.52 billion and net interest income increasing 10 percent to NT$29.94 billion, the bank said.

The bank’s board of directors has approved a proposal to pay a cash dividend of NT$2.05 per share, up from NT$2 a year earlier, which would translate into a payout ratio of 58.6 percent and a dividend yield of 5.18 percent based on Monday’s closing price of NT$39.55.

“Lending rose at a high double-digit percentage rate at the Vietnamese unit, as more Taiwanese companies last year expanded their operations amid reshuffled supply chains due to the US-China trade dispute,” SCSB executive vice president Alex Lin (林志宏) told the Taipei Times by telephone.

The bank plans to set up more branches in Southeast Asia, despite increased competition in the region, Lin said, adding that the bank has representative offices in Bangkok, Phnom Penh and Jakarta.

The bank’s Hong Kong operations reported increased lending despite pro-democracy protests, Lin said.

“Some clients considered moving their money from Hong Kong to Singapore, but few actually did,” he added.

SCSB this year expects growth of 10 percent on its loan book, given it has few borrowers in the aviation, hotel and tourism sectors, Lin said.

However, low interest rates remain a major concern for profit growth this year, as net interest margin would continue to contract following interest rate cuts by central banks worldwide, he said.

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content_text:
NOT ALL GOOD:
 Analysts warned that other data for last month might be less rosy due to the virus and analysts expect the PMI to contract again next month

Chinese factory activity saw surprise growth last month as businesses went back to work following a lengthy shutdown, but analysts said that the economy faces a challenging recovery as external demand has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, while the World Bank said that growth could screech to a halt.

China is slowly returning to life after months of tough restrictions aimed at containing the virus, which put millions of people into virtual house arrest and brought economic activity to a near standstill.

The strict measures saw a closely watched gauge of manufacturing plunge to its lowest level on record in February, while industrial production contracted for the first time in 30 years as the country essentially shut up shop.

An employee works on a battery production line at a factory in Huaibei in China’s Anhui Province on Monday. Factory activity in China last month rebounded from a record low.
 Photo: AFP

However, the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) yesterday came in well above expectations, hitting 52 for last month, the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics said.

That is well above the 35.7 from a month earlier and beat forecasts of 44.8 in a Bloomberg survey. Anything above 50 is considered expansion.

The bureau said that the number “reflects that over half of surveyed companies had improvements in their resumption of work and production from the month before.”

However, it added that “it does not represent that our country’s economic operations have returned to normal levels.”

Non-manufacturing PMI came in at 52.3, also well above analyst predictions.

Bureau senior statistician Zhao Qinghe (趙清河) said that despite the rebound in the manufacturing PMI “there remains relatively large pressure on enterprises’ production and operations.”

A larger proportion of firms face tight funding and insufficient market demand this month, with “new severe challenges” ahead as the virus sweeps the planet, dragging down trade growth, Zhao said.

Analysts expect the PMI to fall back into contraction territory next month.

“We shouldn’t read too much into this sharp rebound,” said Tommy Xie (謝東明), head of greater China research at OCBC Bank Ltd (華僑銀行).

“February was really a bad month for China... [Manufacturers] had a huge supply disruption because of shutdowns of factories and movement controls,” Xie said. “Any recovery from February ... was kind of a done deal.”

China is likely to see the effect of a “demand shock” in April, which could be a more significant indicator, he added, as global demand dwindles and factories abroad suspend operations.

New export orders remained below the 50 mark last month, alongside imports, reflecting that domestic demand recovered faster than external demand, said Iris Pang (彭藹嬈), chief economist for greater China at ING Bank NV.

“I think people have already forgotten ... that even if the coronavirus subsides in the US, there could be a high chance the technology war and trade war return,” said Pang, referring to lingering trade tensions between China and the US.

Analysts have also cautioned that other economic data for last month might be less rosy.

Nomura Holdings Inc analysts Lu Ting (陸挺), Wang Lisheng (王立升) and Wang Jing (王競) said in a note ahead of the PMI data release that they expect “deeply negative growth for almost all activity data in March,” given the relatively slow business resumption rate and slump in external demand.

Meanwhile, the World Bank yesterday cautioned that the global economic fallout could see China’s economic growth slump to 2.3 percent this year, from 6.1 percent last year.

The East Asia and Pacific region, excluding China, could see growth slow to 1.3 percent in the baseline or contract 2.8 percent in the more pessimistic scenario, as compared with 5.8 percent last year, the World Bank said in a report.

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title: China’s factory activity rebounds


title: URE losses worsen due to asset impairment, prices

content_text:
Solar module maker United Renewable Energy Co (URE, 聯合再生) yesterday said that losses last year widened to NT$5.77 billion (US$190.72 million), due to a significant asset impairment loss and constant price declines in solar products.

Last year’s losses deepened from losses of NT$605.17 million in 2018. Losses per share also worsened to NT$2.26, from NT$0.42.

URE attributed last year’s poor results to an asset impairment loss of NT$1.62 billion as it retired a batch of outdated manufacturing equipment.

That came as the company sought to move away from manufacturing polysilicon solar cells to stem losses, it said in a statement.

As part of its turnaround efforts, URE said that it is concentrating on better-margin, own-brand solar module assembly and solar power system installation businesses.

The efforts have shown progress, as gross margin improved to minus-5 percent last year, from minus-7 percent the previous year, while revenue from solar module and solar system installation has increased significantly, the statement said.

URE gave an upbeat outlook for this year, saying it has received a major order to install solar systems in Taiwan.

Orders have reached the limit of its capacity, the company added.

Local demand would fuel its revenue growth this year, as the government aims to add 2.2 gigawatts (GW) of new solar systems to bring total installed capacity to 6.5GW this year, URE said.

Demand from local enterprises would also climb this year as heavy power users, mostly manufacturers, must abide by a new rule that requires them to source 10 percent of their overall power consumption from green energy sources within five years, it said.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the company’s turnaround progress.

URE expects its production to return to full capacity this month after the pandemic disrupted the solar supply chain in the first quarter, the statement said.

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title: World Business Quick Take

content_text:
SWEDEN

GDP could retreat by 4%

GDP is seen shrinking 4 percent this year as the economy slumps due to the COVID-19 outbreak, a plunge rivaling that experienced during the global financial crisis more than a decade ago, Minister of Finance Magdalena Andersson said yesterday. “We have a very serious economic situation, both in Sweden and globally,” she told reporters. “This is both a demand and supply shock that is spreading between countries.” The economy shrank 4.2 percent in 2009 from the previous year, the biggest decline in more than 50 years.

PUBLISHING

Gannett plans furloughs

Gannett Co, the largest US newspaper publisher, on Monday said that it was making unspecified furloughs and pay cuts for its staff in the latest sign of media turmoil from the coronavirus pandemic. A memo from Gannett chief executive officer Paul Bascobert said that he would forgo his salary and the executive team would take a 25 percent pay cut as part of the belt-tightening at the group, which includes the daily USA Today. The company declined to offer specifics on the cuts.

MARKETING

US firms halt salaries

On Monday, three days after US President Donald Trump signed a US$2 trillion stimulus into law, Kohl’s Corp, Macy’s Inc and Gap Inc joined a growing number of retailers in halting pay for much of their workforce, while preserving some benefits. With these furloughs, that brings the total number of employees who are out of a paycheck at major US chains to more than 500,000, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. The coronavirus outbreak caused initial jobless benefit claims to hit 3.3 million last week.

MARKETING

WPP pulls dividend, buyback

WPP PLC, the world’s biggest advertising company, said that it was pulling its dividend and share buyback, and withdrawing its guidance for this year after it saw an increasing number of cancellations from clients due to the coronavirus crisis. The group, which has sold multiple assets as part of a program to simplify the business, said that it had cash of ￡3 billion (US$3.7 billion) and total liquidity, including undrawn credit facilities, of ￡4.8 billion. It has also launched a review of its costs to protect profitability from a fall in revenue.

ENERGY

BP not retrenching staff

Oil major BP PLC would not cut jobs over the next three months, chief executive officer Bernard Looney said, even as the company seeks to reduce spending following an oil price crash. Looney on Friday wrote in a LinkedIn post that while there has been reduced demand for the industry’s products, the company’s response to the crisis “will not include making any BP staff redundant over the next three months.” London-based BP employs 73,000 people across several countries.

AUTOMAKERS

Hyundai plans trial center

Hyundai Motor Co is setting up an innovation center in Singapore to develop and test technology across the automotive supply chain, including trialing the manufacturing process for electric vehicles. Construction of the facility in Jurong Innovation District would be completed in the second half of 2022, the Seoul-based automaker said in a statement yesterday. The center would focus on future concepts that could be used globally, said Hyundai Motor, which is spending 20 trillion won (US$16 billion) by 2025 on new technology.

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title: Fostering learning skills key to success

content_text:
Among the three core competencies in the 12-Year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines, “independent action” is perhaps the most important.

However, if a teacher’s approach to teaching follows the Nine-Year Educational Program model, independent action and independent learning seem to be a long-term goal and not a top priority.

Fortunately, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the start of school was postponed by two weeks, and the government has been pushing for online teaching.

Teachers and students are beginning to focus on independent learning, making this a topic of discussion in educational circles.

During the two-week delay, teachers and students at a few schools shared their experiences with online self-study.

Some were already in the habit of using the online teaching platform daily, so to them it had almost become second nature.

Others rarely used it, but had heard of it and were able to handle it after a bit of trial and error, while others had never tried it, were not familiar with the interface, had no urgent need of it and were complete strangers to the platform.

Educational authorities should work on finding ways to help address the digital gap caused by different experiences with self-learning.

If they do not, some teachers and students will not be able to use the platform, despite the authorities’ unilateral enthusiasm.

The spirit of independent learning is to give students the means to study on their own, not to just demand an answer.

During the self-learning process, children must be able to use different strategies, media and channels to find an answer.

The teacher provides students with ways of finding a solution. They are supposed to impart on students the approach to, and methods for, learning, because once students have the approach and method they need, they can apply that over and over again, using the same methods to solve other issues and learn new things about the world.

Teachers should give their students ability and sophistication, because traditional knowledge is something they can easily Google and find online: Even the children of the Generation Z “digital natives” are better than their teachers at finding information.

As long as teachers teach their students self-learning methods, they will be capable of studying easily and comfortably if classes are suspended again and they need to study at home.

When children are able to study on their own, the possibilities are endless.

A host of new words, phrases and concepts have been created over the past decade, such as blockchain, big data, mobile payments, cloud computing, QR code, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality.

None of these were innovated by their creators in a traditional classroom setting; they were all created as a result of the ability to engage in self-learning.

Students must be allowed to generate more ideas and inspiration for self-learning, regardless of whether the ideas are realistic or castles in the air.

If children have the ability to build a new world, deal with it in their own way and interpret it based on their own world view, what is so wrong with that?

The deteriorating pandemic situation is a good time to test children’s self-learning abilities.

If online learning is widely well-received, the core competencies promoted in the 12-Year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines would receive a further boost.

Lin Yen-yu is an elementary-school teacher.

Translated by Perry Svensson

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content_text:
After the University of Michigan lost to Ohio State University in the semi-finals of the women’s NCAA Big Ten Tournament, Michigan Wolverines coach Kim Barnes Arico and her staff hit the road, where they intended to take advantage of a full week off before the NCAA Tournament by visiting as many potential recruits as possible.

“That was our window. You get to go to someone’s home. That helps you build relationships. Helps build so many things,” Barnes Arico said. “We had all these things scheduled until we went to see high-school championships.”

Of course, the championships were canceled, as was the NCAA Tournament.

This included the crucial recruiting period for college coaches who were putting the finishing touches on this season’s team and laying the groundwork for next year.

The NCAA has barred in-person recruiting until at least April 15.

The Collegiate Commissioner’s Association, which administers the letters of intent used by Division I and II athletes, followed with a suspension on all letters through the same date.

As a result, no college coaches have been packed into suffocating high school gyms; no coaches have milled about airport terminals, waiting for the next flight to some out-of-the-way place; there have been no chances to shake hands with mom and dad, and make a pitch where the coach places the fate of their career in the parents’ hands.

“March was watching high-school games and going into homes. April and May had recruiting weekends. Home visits are all gone,” Barnes Arico said. “When the calendar comes back, June isn’t a home-visit month. What will happen?”

It is a similar story for college football, baseball and a myriad of other sports.

There is a pervasive sense of uncertainty that has coaches on edge as they try to navigate recruiting amid a pandemic.

“I think recruiting is more of an inexact science right now than it ever has been,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “Just knowing your own numbers and how to attack that — how can you commit to something now that you don’t know what will exist, and the rules behind that existence? I think there are a lot of programs up in the air.”

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title: Virus upends US basketball recruiting


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title: EDITORIAL CARTOON


title: Virus Outbreak: US nears China’s COVID-19 death toll

content_text:
APPEALS AND WARNINGS:
 New York’s governor said that his state is a preview of what the rest of the US could face, while a WHO official said Asia is not clear yet

The mounting death toll from the virus outbreak in the US had it poised yesterday to overtake China’s grim toll of 3,300 deaths, with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo saying up to 1 million more healthcare workers were needed.

“Please come help us,” he said.

Hard-hit Italy and Spain have already overtaken China and now account for more than half of the nearly 38,000 COVID-19 deaths worldwide, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

The USNS Comfort is escorted by tugs as it enters New York Harbor on Monday. The US Navy’s 1,000-bed hospital ship is to be used to treat non-coronavirus patients to help free up New York City hospitals to focus on treating people with COVID-19.
 Photo: Reuters

However, the WHO yesterday said that while attention has shifted to epicenters in Western Europe and North America, the coronavirus pandemic was far from over in Asia.

“This is going to be a long-term battle and we cannot let down our guard,” WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific Takeshi Kasai said. “We need every country to keep responding according to their local situation.”

In New York City, Cuomo and health officials on Monday warned that the crisis unfolding there is just a preview of what other US communities could soon face.

New York State’s death toll climbed by more than 250 people in a day on Monday to more than 1,200, most of them in the city.

“We’ve lost over 1,000 New Yorkers,” Cuomo said. “To me, we’re beyond staggering already.”

Even before the governor’s appeal, close to 80,000 former nurses, doctors and other professionals were stepping up to volunteer, and a US Navy hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, had arrived with 1,000 beds to relieve pressure on overwhelmed hospitals.

The Comfort, which was also sent to New York after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, has 12 operating rooms that could be up and running within 24 hours, officials said.

The ship is docked just north of a temporary hospital constructed inside the Jacob K Javits Convention Center.

State and city officials are trying to increase hospital capacity by up to 87,000 beds to handle the outbreak. There are 9,500 people in New York City hospitalized for COVID-19, with more than 2,300 in intensive care, while more than 66,000 New Yorkers have tested positive for the virus.

More than 235 million people — about two of every three Americans — live in the 33 states where governors have declared orders or recommendations to stay home.

In California, officials put out a similar call for medical volunteers as coronavirus hospitalizations doubled over the last four days and the number of patients in intensive care tripled.

“Challenging times are ahead for the next 30 days, and this is a very vital 30 days,” US President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday. “The more we dedicate ourselves today, the more quickly we will emerge on the other side of the crisis.”

In contrast, the crisis continues to ease in China, where officials yesterday reported just 48 new COVID-19 cases, all of them brought from overseas.

More than three-quarters of a million people worldwide have become infected and at least 37,892 have died, according to the Coronavirus COVID-19 tracking map created by Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

More than 166,200 people have recovered, the map showed.

Italy and Spain saw their death tolls climb by more than 800 each on Monday, but WHO Health Emergencies Program executive director Michael Ryan said cases there were “potentially stabilizing.”

At the same time, he warned against letting up on tough containment measures.

“We have to now push the virus down, and that will not happen by itself,” Ryan said.

Italy’s death toll climbed to nearly 11,600, but in a bit of positive news, the numbers showed a continued slowdown in the rate of new confirmed cases and a record number of people recovered.

At least six of Spain’s 17 regions were at their limit of intensive care unit beds, and three more were close to it, authorities said. Crews of workers were frantically building more field hospitals.

Nearly 15 percent of all those infected in Spain, almost 13,000 people, are health care workers, hurting hospitals’ efforts to help the tsunami of people gasping for breath.


title: Concerns over pandemic hit housing transactions

content_text:
NO SURPRISE:
 This year’s showing has dashed hopes of any pickup in the spring sales season from March 29 to April 30, Evertrust spokesman Jay Hsieh said

Taiwan’s major property brokers saw transactions last month shrink more than 10 percent year-on-year as the COVID-19 pandemic dampened buying interest.

Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋), the nation’s largest broker by number of offices, saw a 15 percent decline in housing deals, with the retreat the most evident in Kaohsiung at 29 percent.

Buying interest — as measured by the number of prospective buyers — dropped 5 percent from February, as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan increased by double digits each day from the middle of last month, Evertrust spokesman Jay Hsieh (謝志傑) said yesterday.

The data came as no surprise after consumer confidence last month tumbled to a 36-month low, while the number of people on unemployment subsidies rose to a 10-year high, Hsieh said.

Housing transactions fell 13 percent in Taipei, 21 percent in New Taipei City, and 18 percent in Taichung and Tainan, Hsieh said, adding that Taoyuan bucked the trend with a 9 percent increase, while Hsinchu County held steady.

Buying interest usually starts to gain momentum in March, he added.

This year’s showing has dashed hopes of any pickup in the spring sales season from March 29 to April 30, he said.

“Expectations of a recovery in the second quarter look unrealistic, if not utterly impossible,” Hsieh said.

Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋), the nation’s only listed broker, reported a 15 percent decline in housing transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities.

Wild market volatility worldwide helped weaken confidence in the property market, Sinyi research manager Tseng Chin-der (曾進德) said.

The central bank cut interest rates by 25 basis points on March 19, easing mortgage burdens on home owners, which is probably the reason that houses priced between NT$7 million and NT$15 million (US$231,374 and US$495,802) remained resilient, Tseng said.

While low borrowing costs are positive for housing transactions, the coronavirus would play a decisive role in the market’s future, he said.

Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) fared better as it saw transactions decline in Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, but grow in New Taipei City, Taoyuan and Hsinchu County.

Taipei is prone to pessimistic sentiment due to its heavier exposure to external factors, while real demand propped up markets in areas where housing remained relatively affordable, the broker said.

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